How important was Martin Luther King to the passing of the civil rights and voting acts 1964-65 The role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the passing of the Civil Rights/Voting Acts has been greatly disputed within the historical community. Some historians such as Anthony Badger argue that there was 'no person more important' than King, whilst others, such as Clayborne Carson believe the opposite: that even without King the civil rights movement would have 'followed a course of development similar to the one it did'. Differing from both these beliefs, there were factors more important than King in the passing of these acts, however, King was far from an inefficacious factor as Carson suggests. Rather he was an important political giant who was (along with his Southern Christian Leadership Conference) an instrumental aid to a number of vital incidents that massively helped catalyse the passage of the acts. Incidents such as the Selma march and the subsequent "Bloody Sunday" a well as his role in the Birmingham and Washington marches. His role as a prominent activist and talented orator added to King's importance as it allowed him to proliferate ideas of peaceful protest and civil disobedience to the masses. However, despite King's distribution of ideas to the masses, it is the masses themselves, or rather the local leaders of them, with whom the greatest credit for the passing of these acts must be placed due to the pressure they placed on the presidency to enact legislation. What's more the role of Presidents Johnson and to a lesser extent Kennedy play a highly important role in the passing of the bills. Notwithstanding, King's role as a medium for the precipitation of the important ideals of peaceful protest was undoubtedly an important contributing factor to the passing of the Acts. For instance, his widely publicised rhetoric regarding the effectiveness of