(photo by Adam Skoczylas) Omar Ali, a professor at Towson University, speaks to members of the Fort Myer Military Community as part of the Martin Luther King Day observance at the post community center Thursday.

Omar Ali, a professor at Towson University spoke to the Fort Myer Military Community yesterday about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author of the soon to be released ‘‘The Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Move-ments in the United States” said King ‘‘epitomized an American who fights for the rights of all of its citizens.”

The son of immigrants considers King’s accomplishments as part of a movement, not just to overturn unequal laws, but one to change people’s minds. He told how his father, who was a Fulbright scholar at Georgia Tech, would relate stories of the Jim Crow era to him as a youth.

The professor sees King as ‘‘essentially an independent. This country was founded on the principle of independence from England.”

Ali said while the United States was founded on the premise of equality, founding fathers such as Thomas Jeff-erson and George Washington owned many slaves, yet Jefferson’s words were used to promote democracy, he said.

He gave a brief history of the abolitionist movement, which began in the 18th century to abolish the international slave trade, merged somewhat with the movement of poor white males seeking political power, and was infused with a dose of moral righteousness by the Great Awakening in the 1820s.

The Great Awakening sparked people to question what the established churches were doing to rid the world of evils such as: slavery, war and alcohol. The Abolitionist struggle eventually helped lead to the Civil War.

The Towson lecturer described how the war cost more than 600,000 lives, ended slavery and not only gave them the right to vote, it made legislators of some. He called this the first Civil Rights Movement.

The new laws and rights were gradually eroded by Jim Crow laws. These laws disenfranchised voters and made segregation legal. Jim Crow reigned legally in the South and unofficially in the north, Ali said by 1900.

Service members who fought for freedom overseas were not content to return to racism after the war. Religious leaders led the burgeoning movement in the South. King didn’t start the Birmingham Bus Boycott, but he was asked to lead it because of his character, intelligence, looks, education and other sterling qualities.

The professor cited part of King’s famous ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail” and the famous line, ‘‘Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.” He talked about how exclusive primary laws limit the independent vote.

This is counter to King’s effort to get more different kinds of people involved in the movement. Independent black churches nurture black leaders, Ali said. Neutrality was impossible in the good reverend’s world view.

‘‘People had to fight for their rights,” he said. ‘‘They were led by independents like Dr. King.”