Martin King And Jesse Jackson Vs. Martin Luther King

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It is early months of 1963 in the southern city of Birmingham Alabama. A city that lies in civil unrest and bitterly divided. A city to which African Americans march, hold protests and sit-ins in an effort to gain equal rights. They are met with brutal opposition in the form of police officers, attack dogs and water hoses. During this time of utter chaos two separate civil rights leaders speak out on their beliefs. Reverend Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King both speak on the issues of violence, the media and the will of the Negro people as a whole in a effort to win support for the African American Community. “I saw the system naked. I saw it without pose. I saw it face to face for all of its brutality and its ugliness, and the depth of its venom… I made a commitment to fight for the rest of my life. (Jackson 344)” Jesse Jackson saw fighting as “the only way they would listen (Jackson 2)”. Violence was something that Jackson felt came with the territory. For the people that were there to stop the marchers as Jackson felt “could not have cared less” for the lives of the African A...

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