...As a person think, would I die for what I believe in? Martin Luther King was a vital leader of the black community during the civil rights movement. Through his upbringing, his role in the civil rights movement, and his assassination. Martin Luther King shaped the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King’s father and mother influenced him throughout his upbringing. Martin was taught peace by his parents. Martin’s parents told him that he should not hate white people and that his duty as a Christian was to love everyone (Bader 8). Non-Violence was something instilled in Martin at an early age. His father as a preacher knew violence was not the answer (Bader 2 and 6). Community was another value Martin Luther King Jr. Learned from his father....
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...influence the African American community. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X two men having experienced different things in their lives held different beliefs and morals and influenced people based upon those things. Martin Luther King Jr., came from a Baptist home with a fairly easy childhood, he was educated when he was younger and attended Morehouse College, an all black college, where he had several role models that shaped his beliefs. Malcolm X, on the other hand, experienced a hard childhood and used drugs and committed other crimes in his early adult years. While in prison he found a father figure in Elijah Muhammad and joined the Nation of Islam. There are many differences between Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X in the way they acted and influenced the African American community. This paper will look to describe their differing views and analyze their actions and their lives. In most cases a person’s childhood has a lasting affect on the rest of a person’s life. In comparing Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X this seems to be the case. Martin Luther King Jr., was born January 19, 1929 and was raised by a strong supportive family. He had a somewhat privileged life and “never experienced the feeling of not having the basic necessities of life.”[1] His father “was a community leader in Atlanta and pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church” and his mother “was a school teacher and an accomplished pianist.”[2] Although King was well off economically he was also...
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...Two Influential and Morally Different African Americans Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. are both household names of men who fought diligently for African American rights in the postmodernism 1960’s. The 1954 Supreme Court ruling favored that segregated educational structure left blacks at a disadvantage. This was the spark that triggered uprising in the following years. Malcolm X and King Jr’s emphasis on their beliefs is evident in the works and actions that they have done through their lives. Their philosophies do differ from one another, as we will see in “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and with “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. Both men had different approaches and desires for the black community as well as different upbringings that influenced them. We will see how such differences are reflected throughout their work to get a better understanding on how they compare and contrast. Known as Malcolm Little, the Omaha-born future activist suffered an impoverished start in life due to his father’s early demise. Prior to his death, Malcolm’s father was a “follower of Marcus Garvey, who instilled racial pride among the masses of African Americans” (Lauter 3088). To make end’s meet, Malcolm became a drug dealer and thief while living in Harlem, which landed him time in jail. His experience in jail and childhood shaped him and encouraged him in to becoming the activists that he was known for. Malcolm “replaced his own last name with “X” which stands for the African name...
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...Dr. Martin Luther King was an African American civil rights leader who was responsible for pushing for equal rights and equal justice. King wrote and presented many great speeches on the plight of the poor and disenfranchised black Americans. His speeches influenced many young and old black and white citizens across the United States to band together to change the segregation laws across the South. His oratory style of speaking blended southern black preaching with the truth and the writings of our founding fathers that led to the changing of millions of Americans minds. To this day Dr. King is considered to be one of history’s greatest and most influential speakers. Dr. King was invited to speak at events unaffiliated with his passion for the Civil Rights Movement, my essay compares and contrast what many consider his greatest speech entitled “I Have A Dream” with “On the Importance of Jazz”. August of 1963, Dr. King gave a speech called “I Have A Dream”, which was very powerful and influential. King claims, “now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." (King). However, King hopes to keep equality through this nonviolent movement. He orders his fellow Negros to not have...
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...basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. Many African-American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement to fight against injustice. The eight resources below provide information about several historical leaders that made an impact on the Civil Rights Movement. These resources may be used to create assignments to help students develop a deeper understanding of the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, students will benefit from meaningful classroom discussions about these heroic leaders. Important People There are numerous well-known historical figures that influenced the Civil Rights Movement leading up to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is probably one of the most powerful leaders involved in the fight for civil rights. Coretta Scott King worked and marched alongside her husband, Dr. King and continued his fight for justice after his death. In addition, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American judge on the Supreme Court appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play Major League Baseball which contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement. African-American, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955. Collectively, these heroic leaders merged the separate worlds of whites and African-Americans together as one. Informational Books There are numerous...
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...How far were the actions of the African Americans the main reason for the advancement of the Civil Rights in the period 1865-1980? “Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will”[1]. Said by Fredrick Douglass in 1857, an escaped slave who had bearded the brunt of the slave years. He had come to the realisation that African Americans had a fountain of “power”; however that power that they possessed would never establish anything without a “demand”. Fredrick Douglass awoke the conscious of African Americans to make them realise that wanting to be free and wanting to achieve full civil rights was not enough, neither was enduring a life under white supremacy waiting for life after death to see a new dawn .Believing and hoping was not enough. “Power concedes nothing without demand” the solution is to be willing to work hard to establish it yourself by demanding what belongs to them. However using power in order to concede civil rights was a struggle which was acknowledged by Fredrick Douglass “Without struggle there is no success”. To achieve advancement in African American Civil Rights, African Americans had to undergo a process of struggle. A rainbow is not made without rain; you can not want rain without thunder and lightening being accompanied by it. To achieve full civil rights African Americans had to pay the price along the way which was persecution, de-humanisation and scrutiny. Martin Luther King being inspired by Fredrick Douglass said “Freedom...
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...University of La Verne Point Mugu, California Martin Luther King Jr. A paper prepared for Leadership in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Bachelors of Arts in Organizational Management February 11, 2011 Instructor: Mr. Stadler Chapter One Introduction The leader I have chosen to analyze is Martin Luther King Jr. He is someone I find as a fascinating leader and changed the lives of million worldwide. He was known as the moral leader of the United States and was born January 15 1929 at Atlanta, Georgia. Jacqueline L. Harris coauthor of marching to freedom provides a detailed concise biography and introduction to our moral leader Martin Luther King Jr. His father was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. As a member of a black middle-income family, young Martin never felt the pinch of poverty. But his family could not protect him from the cruelties of racism. As Martin grew up, he kept his mother's words in mind: "You are as good as anyone." King earned degrees from Morehouse College in Atlanta and Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He then went to Boston University, where he earned a doctorate. In Boston he met Coretta Scott. They married in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King had been appointed pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Not long after King arrived in Montgomery, he was asked to lead a black boycott of the city buses. The black people of Montgomery had decided that they would not...
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...actions throughout their lives have helped set an example to the generations to come. Each person has different backgrounds, dreams, and ambitions, yet they still have a way of bringing about change in the world. Take for instance Mother Teresa, whose compassion towards others inspired many of those who had the chance to meet her. Or Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., who stood up for what they believed in, no matter the consequences they faced afterwards. Many of these model figures came from different parts of the globe, and their messages have inspired those all over to bring about positive changes, in...
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...Jordan Beard Mrs. Laney English III 10 April 2014 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Research Paper Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is considered to be one of his most powerful and effective speeches, considering that it gave not only the black community of Memphis, TN, but all supporters of the nation, the courage to continue a long journey for freedom. His figure as a speaker and a leader had a positive impacting effect on the nation as a whole. On February 1, 1968, during a heavy rainstorm in Memphis, two black sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a faulty garbage truck compactor to stay out of the rain (“Martin Luther King Jr”). The City of Memphis, under Mayor Henry Loeb, in order to preserve money in the economy, had continued to use this old and outdated machinery in the Public Works Department when it should have been discarded (Honey). “The city paid most of its 1,300 sanitation workers a minimum wage of one dollar and sixty cents per hour; they worked until their routes were done, often putting in sixty hours a week at forty hours of pay” (Honey). The wages of these workers were so low that they were forced to live on welfare as well as food stamps to simply live day to day and feed their families (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). The city provided unskilled black workers with no job benefits, no access to supervisory jobs, no rights or respect and minimal health coverage. The families of both...
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...Letter From Birmingham In April of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama for his efforts in the civil rights movement. One day after King's arrest, a full-page advertisement taken out by a group of local, white, moderate, clergymen appeared in The Birmingham News. They attacked the demonstrations as "unwise and untimely" and concluded, "We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham. From his prison cell, King replied not only to the ministers' letter but also to an educated, white, middle-class audience, by writing his response in the margins of the newspaper and on toilet paper . "I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well timed in the view of those who have not suffered from the disease of segregation," King, wrote in what was later published as the essay, Letter from Birmingham Jail. The 6500 word letter went on to explain and make clear to the clergy and to the world why the struggle against racism must not be deferred. King's main claim in this letter is that no matter what the circumstances are it is far beyond time for the black community to stand up and fight for what is rightfully theirs, the same rights and freedoms accorded to the white community. King effectively accomplishes this task through the structure of the essay and in his use of pathos, ethos, and logos to defend his arguments. King's structure of the essay is purposeful in its attempt to sway...
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...A Little Jail-Bird Told Me The pen is mightier than the sword. This saying emphasizes that words are stronger than violent actions. Martin Luther King Jr. believed strongly in this saying. Being a leader of the civil rights movement, King believed in peaceful protests over violent protests. He was a kind hearted man peacefully fighting for equal rights of black and white people. At one point, his focus was Birmingham. Birmingham was thoroughly segregated and treated blacks worse than most areas. While in Birmingham, King was arrested. While in jail, King wrote a letter in response to criticism he received from white clergymen. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses a friendly, non-hostile tone mixed with a list of undisputable facts to calmly, yet assertively point out his issues with racial dilemmas. Right in the intro of the letter, King starts with a friendly and hospitable tone. He respectfully states, “…since I feel you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.” (King 1). Here, he keeps a calm tone, but his use of the word “hope” can be inferred to show that his letter may at some points become stern and serious, showing that he isn’t going to easily budge on his stance on the civil rights movement. Right away he makes it clear he is not hostile at all. He speaks respectably in order to be respected, which is not exactly common for a black...
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...Civil Rights African Americans, like numerous ethnic groups in the U.S., had a long struggle in gaining their civil rights. When most people think of the Civil Rights Movement in America, they think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, secured his fame as the voice of non-violent, mass protest in the 1960s. But "the Movement" achieved its greatest results, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, due to the competing strategies and agendas of diverse individuals. Even black Americans, the primary beneficiaries of this landmark legislation, did not agree on the tactics that should be used to secure the equal protection of their rights. Several important black leaders shaped the debate over how to achieve freedom and equality in a nation that had long denied them their civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. first came to national prominence through his leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-56. This mass protest helped desegregate public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama. A gifted preacher and committed pacifist, King thought that non-violent, direct action against racial segregation provided the best means of securing the full integration of blacks into the mainstream of American life. As he wrote in his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," "I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means...
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...Martin Luther King Jr.’s good friend, Oprah’s hero, Alicia Keys’s singing instructor, America’s everywoman, phenomenal poet, inspiring speaker: there is an unlimited list of how to describe Maya Angelou. Those who knew Angelou knew her for her most popular memoir, or her poetry, or her talent for public speaking. Few knew her for her dancing career and less popular autobiographies, and even fewer knew how much she influenced people around the world. Knocked down by rape, racism, and sexism, Maya was able to not only stand right back up, but she also helped others who were struggling stand up with her. Her words of strength were not only popular and enjoyable, but the messages they held truly affected people and changed the way they saw the world. Through writing and voice, Angelou was able to have an everlasting effect on people, worldwide....
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...How many of you have heard the term “social gospel’? Essentially the social gospel is a liberal modification of the the Biblical Gospel, focused on liberating those who are oppressed. This doctrine was originally outlined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in the twentieth century. The ideas rooted in the social gospel had a tremendous impact on John Lewis’ life in the graphic novel “March”. Those major points being; the idea of social evolution, individual advancement, and cultural reform. Throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, a new form of preaching surfaced, known simply as the “social gospel”. From its inception until today, the social gospel has used a biblical platform to preach social welfare. The most prominent twentieth-century...
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...writing from their time period. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was this revolutionary piece of writing in the 1960s. King had written this letter while confined in Birmingham Jail and he had written it to the clergymen whom had written “A Call for Unity.” Throughout King’s letter he writes about the civil rights movement and makes an argument against what the clergymen had written about him. The Letter from Birmingham...
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