...The Drum Major Instinct. Martin Luther King, Jr. remains arguably the most recognizable African American figure in world history. First thrust into the international spotlight courtesy of his leadership of a boycott of the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was pastor of a local church, King became the lightning rod for the civil rights movement that emerged in the wake of the successful boycott. During the 1960s he gave innumerable speeches characterized by oratorical genius, led a succession of mass marches in the heart of segregated America and helped to reconstruct American race relations before his assassination in 1968. Ever since Montgomery he has attracted the attention of biographers and historians keen to understand what made him such a magnetic and inspirational leader and what made the story of the civil rights movement so compelling. Martin Luther King is most remembered for a speech given during one of the finest hours of the civil rights movement -- a sermon that set the moral tone for the movement. But while the Aug. 28, 1963, sermon "I Have A Dream," delivered during the March on Washington, framed much of Martin Luther King Jr’s notions of a free America, it was not the speech that defined his legacy. One of the world's best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies, Martin Luther King Jr., synthesized ideals drawn from many different cultural traditions. Recent studies of him emphasize the extent to which his ideals were rooted...
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...or enslave the other. Although slavery is as old as the existence of man, its longevity is not a permissible cause to be perpetrated against humanity. The untold hardship executed against humanity, precisely Africans during the era of this heinous and barbaric so called “trade”, as if human beings were commodities, needs a meticulous attention by all level-headed people. In an article, “Lawsuits seek reparation from Britain, France, and Netherlands for their roles in Atlantic slave trade”, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves in his speech on the 68th United Nations General Assembly said “the European nations must pay for their deeds”. He bemoans, “ “The awful legacy of these crimes against humanity – a legacy which exists today in our Caribbean – ought to be repaired for the developmental benefit of our Caribbean societies and all our peoples,” Gonsalves said. “The European nations must partner in a focused, especial way with us to execute this repairing.” Although the petitioners have not specified a monetary figure for the lawsuits, but Gonsalves and Verene Shepherd, chairwoman of the national reparations commission in Jamaica, both mentioned the fact that Britain at the time of emancipation in 1834 paid 20 million pound which equivalent to 200 billion pounds today. Shepherd laments, “Our ancestors got nothing. They got their freedom and they were told “Go develop yourselves”’. The challenges...
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...Overcoming Violence To thousands, he earned the Nobel Peace Prize. To millions, he led the movement that should have never needed to exist. Martin Luther King Jr. had more than a leader title for a non-discriminatory south; he was a resistor and an intelligent, whose peaceful arguments have lasted until the present. And despite that, his peaceful remarks and movements have been looked down upon by Malcolm X’s argument that bloodshed is necessary for a true revolution. Martin Luther King Jr’s argument is more effective than Malcolm X’s because of his use of pathos, logos, and speech organization, making it stronger and more persuasive among other argumentative speeches. MLKJ uses pathos to build an emotional trust and relation to his audience....
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...Martin Luther King Jr and Gene Sharp Martin Luther King Jr. once said "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." From where King stood during the Civil Rights Movement show that he was a great man who preached nonviolence and made the ultimate sacrifice for it. By being persistent in his nonviolence discipline, he was able to show the world the violence of their opponents' repression for what it really was. Gene Sharp's book, Power and Struggle Part One examines the nature and control of political power. Sharp believes that social sources of political power include socially recognized authority, human cooperation and obedience, and the skills and knowledge of the population. All these sources rely on the support, cooperation, and obedience of the population. Therefore by withdrawing support, the population holds an effective means of resistance to political power. Nonviolent action works to control political power by affecting the sources of that political power. Sharp mentions that the three major categories of nonviolent action are: protest, noncooperation, and nonviolent intervention. These actions work to change the opponents' behavior either by conversion, accommodation, or coercion. Conversion involves a change of heart in the opponent to the point where the goals of the protestors are now their own. With accommodation, the opponent...
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...Time Capsule Latanya Gonzalez Kaplan University SS310-14 Time Capsule The year is 2325 and being the prominent archeologist I have become, I have been summoned to a dig site where a time capsule from the 1960’s has been discovered. After carefully unearthing this delicate finding, my colleagues and I discover five significant things from the 1960’s. First brought out is an antiwar sign, obviously hand made. Second from the capsule is a portrait of our 35th President, President John F. Kennedy. Third is the Woman’s Movement of the 1960’s. Fourth is a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. The final, fifth item to be brought from the time capsule, is the Civil Rights Movement. Each item is a significant and defining factor of the 1960’s era; a part of history that remains embedded in the American people’s minds and hearts. The antiwar handheld sign was the first to come out of the time capsule. This sign is still legible. The sign is a wood stick with a thin flat 4X4 piece of wood stapled to it. The flat wood sign has “Stop the War” spray-painted in red on one side. On the other side of the flat wood board is a peace sign spray-painted in yellow. The wood stick had a thin scarf tied to it still. This piece of history has significant meaning to the antiwar era of the 1960’s. This sign most likely was held and waved through the air at many of the antiwar protest often held by the so-called hippies of the 60’s. Many individuals who were against the war in Vietnam...
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...------------------------------------------------- I Have a Dream From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Martin Luther King Jr. speech. For other uses, see I Have a Dream (disambiguation). Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering "I Have a Dream" at the 1963 Washington D.C. Civil Rights March. | "I Have a Dream"30-second sample from "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. | Problems listening to this file? See media help. | "I Have a Dream" is a public speech by American activist Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was delivered by King on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.[1] Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863,[2] King examines that: "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free".[3] At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"[4] In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become the most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred.[5] The speech was ranked the top American speech...
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