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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an African American man who was known for being an activist for the African American population. King was not known for his acts of violence but for his peaceful protest against discrimination. Through his book Why Can’t We Wait, King discusses his battles to change Southern ways, one hundred years after the Civil War. He toured the country giving speeches about the vast amount of segregation occurring in the deep South. Segregation and discrimination were his two major issues with the South. King was also a Baptist pastor who understood that being violent will not solve any of the problems that African Americans were facing. Although segregation was a major theme King focused on, he also stressed the importance of peaceful protest. King went to great measures to prove to, what he called “the oppressors,” that Africans …show more content…
In the book “Why We Can’t Wait,” King states,”…Negro’s cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could be victories without losing wars”(page 14). This demonstrates how he has seen nonviolent protests, and knows this is the way they should act upon the “war” of discrimination. One can only imagine what African Americans were going through at the time, but for King to ask others to react peacefully alongside him required a great deal of strength. For King to rally others together, who did not agree with him, he stated, “Nonviolent resistance paralyzed and confused the power structures…”(page 30). King’s approach - acting without violence - is what he dedicated his work to, in order to prove to officials that African Americans are not the violent ones in the scenario. This approach should be an example to those involved in situations where they choose to act
MLK once said "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."(The Biography.com website). MLK knew that if we used force it would be a disaster and they would never get freedom. While MLK was at Birmingham Jail he wrote about nonviolence for all people to read. He said"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."(The Biography.com website) So many thought MLK would come and be this guy who would see violence as a tool to use, but when he didn’t people were very supprised that nonviolence was his choice of action. MLK has a family too and it was not only but his family too. They probably wondered all the time if their father would be home that night. Many suffered from these movement acts and wondered if they would be able to kiss their kids goodnight, or see their wifes. Would you be able to not see your dad for weeks or maybe even months? This is why many had patience. They knew what they were fighting for all of them had a purpose. MKL knew one day there would be freedom everywhere. He also knew it wasn’t going to come easily. He never gave up though and he always believed in
Civil Rights Activist A. Philip Randolph once said, “Freedom is never given, it is won.” Martin Luther King’s introduction to Why We Can’t Wait tells a powerful story of two black children born into a broken country where they fight an uphill battle against discrimination. African Americans have technically been free for one hundred years but children are still being born in chains; they carry the burden of slavery in a country they helped build. King’s passage, along with many others, made a real impact against inequality and prejudice during the civil right’s movements. King accomplished such an effective essay using rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, ethos, parallelism and procatalepsis, to get his message across that the attitude of 1960’s America needed a change.
Non-violent direct action and respectful disagreement are a form of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King, Jr. defines “civil disobedience” as a way to show others what to do when a law is unjust and unreasonable. King is most famous for his role in leading the African American Civil Rights Movement and using non-violent civil disobedience to promote his beliefs. King also firmly believed that civil disobedience was the way to defeat racial segregation against African Americans. While leading a protest march on the streets, King was arrested and sent to jail. In response to his imprisonment and an article he read while there, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, explaining that an injustice affects everyone and listed his own criteria for
King’s ability to organize factions into a force that was unaffected by violence greatly contributed to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. In a letter he wrote from a Birmingham jail, King describes the four steps to non-violent protest. The first step is “collection of the facts to determine whether an injustice exists.” This relates to Thoreau’s critique of an unjust government. Thoreau believed that every machine had friction, yet “when the friction comes to having a machine.let us not have such a machine any longer.
As Dr. King stated in Letter from A Birmingham Jail, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. I must confess that I am not afraid of the word, tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth. The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” Such as in the case of the 1969 student site-in against the Vietnam W...
the segregationists, resulting in the injury and deaths of many of King’s followers. With these points in mind, King came to the conclusion that the best strategy in gaining the rights of African American was the use of non-violent protest. He believed that violence only “intensifies evil,';
Martin Luther King is a famous Civil Rights activist who played a huge role in the desegregation in the United States. While confined in the Birmingham prison, he wrote a letter to his clergymen and describes and defends his plans of how to desegregate the black and white communities in harmony. A major part of his plan was to take nonviolent direct action as it was necessary. Martin Luther King wrote,
Again, Mr. King uses religion as a guide to explain why violence could never be used to get the end of the segregation. At that moment and as a strategy, he was probably right. The forces between the parts were to uneven. Besides, Mr. King knew that the federal government barely has capacity of action since they were stuck in a horrible and unpopular war in Vietnam, and riots and demonstrations were happening everyday in the universities across the country. However, if we look at his decisions from today’s point of view and attending to the fact that minorities are still suffering the injustice of economical segregation and the police force abuse, among others injustices, we can say that he didn 't go to far. Then may be we can rethink if appealing to violence to avoid those problems could be considered just as self-defense. For example: when communities are being devastated by poverty, drugs, and criminality, and the authorities don’t do anything to protect them just because they are black, Latin, or American Natives, don’t they have the right to fight back? Moreover, when they have to watch everyday in television the awful crimes that some authorities commit against minorities with no punishment in most of the cases. Don’t they have the right do defend their own life? It is a fact that violence is not desirable, but we have to remind that the end of slavery in the United States cost a civil war, that the
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the greatest civil rights leaders to ever live. Through his empowering speeches, he made a huge impact on the world for the equality of all races. Throughout King’s life, he showed everyone how he believed equality should be acquired. With his peaceful protests and amazing speeches, he influenced people both during his time and after he passed. Many believe that King’s work in the Civil Rights Movement was the final push that America needed to finally respect people no matter their skin color.
In the following quote he writes, “I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. If you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.” In this quote, King shows how the police officers would let the dogs out to bite the Negroes. It would be more understanding if the Negros were retaliating with violence. However, they were doing nonviolence protest and the police would use violent attack against the people. The police were treating the Negros as if they were not human just because they look physically different. This is unbelievable because you would not expect law enforcers to mistreat old Negro women and young Negro girls. They were not just picking on one group of people; they would bully people from young to old. Dr. King agrees to the point that they need to have law enforcement; however, he cannot join this group of law enforcers. They are not being fair to the people in the community and they are using their power in a negative
He is mainly known for his role in change of Civil Rights. Martin was a civil rights activist, during the 1950’s and 1960’s. He had protested for all the rights of people. His ambition and dream, was that America, would become a colorblind society, where having a different ethnicity, would not impact on their rights. He has inspired millions of people, till this day. In Source B, Martin Luther King had laid out a radical strategy, to change the idea of racial discrimination in America. Martin Luther King had developed Source B, based on the 10 Commandments, these were very similar, to the real 10 Commandments. Martin Luther King had lived through the Beatitudes, he was a man of God, and had faith in God and wished peace upon the world. Martin Luther King was a peacemaker. Dr. King had spoken about ending the Vietnam War in particular. This refers to Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”. He had lived out this Beatitude, because he created peace between the African American People and the White Americans. Martin Luther King wanted to see peace amongst African Americans and White Americans, He wanted all racism to end, and for all people to be equal. He will always be known for his speech “I have a Dream”. Martin Luther King had lived out the Beatitude, of Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness
Throughout his education, Martin Luther King Jr. tried to find a way to demonstrate his belief of racial equality with the most effective means possible. He quickly realized that the best strategy to end segregation was to use nonviolent forms of protest. At Crozer, Morehouse and Boston University, he studied the teaching of Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolent methods to help India claim its independence from Britain. King read several books on the ideas of Gandhi, and eventually became convinced that his methods could be employed by African Americans to obtain equality in America. King knew that any violence on the part of African Americans would lead to violent responses from segregationists, which would lead to injury or maybe even death for his followers. He had to teach his followers not to respond violently to cruel attacks from segregationists. King decided to sponsor workshops to train African Americans in nonviolent beh...
The whole idea behind nonviolence was to not react to the racism of the American South, to turn the proverbial other cheek. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the figurehead for this type of movement, relying on his passionate speeches to bring about the change that violence had failed time and time again to generate. King continuously reminded his followers of all the things they and those who had come before them had gone through. He claimed that to resort to violence would be a dishonor and a disgrace the years of suffering that their ancestors had endured. He maintained the stance that no matter the atrocities committed by whites that African Americans wouldn’t stoop to their level. While speaking at a meeting to discuss the Freedom riders, Dr. King delivered a message that would become the central theme of the civil rights movement: “In our protest there will be no cross burnings. No white person will be taken from their home by a hooded Negro mob and brutally murdered. There will be no threats and intimidation. We will be guided by the highest principle of law and order….” Not only did this set the standard of future protests but it gave the image that the African Americans were taking the high road, that they were didn’t need to resort to violence as did the whites. King realized that this was something that really struck a chord with a lot of people who were on the fence of civil rights and persuaded them to join his
According to former Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., he once describes, “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” During this time history, while growing up in the South, the idea of whites and black individuals could come together as one and being considered as equals towards one another. While growing up in the South, despite that fact down the South they felt that everyone should remain separate with one another because of the color his skill. King was known for leading the civil rights movement in the United States. As a leader, he had used the nonviolent, or peaceful, to protest to try to get equal rights for African Americans. No matter how tough things, King never lost track of his original message and he had the power to inspire in followers along the way. Although, he was assassinated years before he could see this full progress of creating a world where all African Americans were considered to equals was shorted lived but his dream of a better day never died and eventually the passion of change will change the course of America history to the years to
This was what turned violence into nonviolence. They figured if you kept on feeding the fire with fuel that the fire would get bigger and out of control. They didn't want that. They wanted to control it and face the facts. King and his people were the bigger persons to keep situations under control and handle them in a nonviolence matter, and speak about it. For this, I respect them.