The Three Evils: Poverty, Racism, And War

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture focused on how poverty, racism, and war affect the world. The three evils impact how a race may seem superior over another. For example, Caucasians have a sense of dominance over African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Mexicans, and other races. He asserted that although it is called the United States of America, with one race proclaiming to be superior of other races it is not in any way united, unified nor unionized. According to his lecture, it seems as though racism is the factor that has caused the most effective African American movements in history. From the establishment of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the inspiration to defeat racism

King continued to emphasize the fact of racial equality being a major issue since the abolishment of slavery. The tragic and horrific events regarding African Americans that occurred before and after his involvement in race relations made his statements influential. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America signed the Emancipation Proclamation and in doing so he abolished the act of slavery. In 1865, a white supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded. In 1877, the Jim Crow laws were established and segregated the Mexican, African American, and Caucasian races in the south. . The Jim Crow laws made it possible and legal for whites to abuse and mistreat blacks in any way possible. In 1966 The Black Panther Party was founded in retaliation to the Ku Klux Klan’s motive to discriminate against and kill African Americans. Whites continued to carry on the tradition of lynching blacks, and supplying them with insufficient resources to survive. 1955 was the year that two of the most tragic events in African American history took place. In August of 1955, Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American, was tortured, shot, and lynched by a group of whites for flirting with a store owner’s wife. When his body was discovered he was unrecognizable. In December of 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to offer her seat to a white man: which started the legendary Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957, nine black high school students integrated

King’s motive for equality has affected many African Americans in a positive way. One of the positive ways is the announcement of the title of the 45th and first black president of the United States going to Barack Obama. In Barack Obama’s 2008 “A More Perfect Union” speech, he asserted that “Issues of race and gender in America have been a complication throughout our history, and they are still complicated in this primary campaign.” Barack Obama’s intentions were to retaliate against the officials discouraging him from winning the campaign. However, this quote is also used as a statement regarding the racial issues that occurred in the past and that are continuing to occur in the present day. Barack Obama and Dr. King seemingly shared similarities regarding equality. Although they were almost a century apart, Both Barack Obama and Dr. King realized racial equality is a major issue in America. Both of them realized that it is a sensitive issue, but it should not be ignored nor avoided. They realized that racism is an issue that may never come to an end as long as hate crimes and other forms of discrimination occur. They stressed the fact of blacks living in an existing slave mentality. In previous days, Dr. King focused on the way blacks were living in a post slavery era, meaning that blacks were being treated like they never left the plantation. In today’s time, Barack Obama insinuates that blacks are continuing to be treated as slaves, whether it is by other civilians