Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Nonviolent philosophies and tactics
Effectiveness of nonviolence
Effectiveness of nonviolence
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Throughout all the great civil rights leaders, I personally believe that Martin Luther King was the greatest of them all. What king achieved during the little over a decade that he worked in civil rights was remarkable. "There are few men of whom it can be said their lives changed the world" from wikipedia. Using Mohanda Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence King gained the power of many citizens respect which lead him in success in, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Birmingham Protest March, and breaking the barrier to allow black people vote rights.
After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, king wanted to end the humiliating treatment of blacks on city bus liners. He decided to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 382 days. Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Montgomery bus segregation laws illegal. King showed great inspiration despite receiving several threatening phone calls, being arrested and having his house being bombed, he still firmly believed in nonviolence. The boycott was the first step to end segregation, king displayed great leadership and educated the whole nation that nonviolence was the best possible was to end a problem, even if it took a while for people to notice your protest.
In 1962, after a trip to India he gained a deeper understanding of what he could achieve by using the nonviolence approach. Upon his return to the United States of America, he focused his attention to Birmingham, Alabama the most segregated city in America, there he achieved two things, one was to demonstrate nonviolent marches, and protests can work to and also by using children, he could teach them that the nonviolent was the way forward. The protest in Birmingham, Alabama shock...
... middle of paper ...
...le could use simple nonviolent protests and still have great outcomes. If you compare Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, King has more peoples respect and achieved a lot more than X did. During King Life he achieved what many world leaders can not achieve today, such as using nonviolence to overcome suffrage against social injustice. No matter how bad a situation was King always believed in nonviolence which lead him to victory in several situations, and also winning the publics respect. If u compare today?s world to yesterday?s world, you can see the similarities, in what King was fighting for and today?s struggles.? Remember him as a man who tried to be a drum major for justice, a drum major for peace, a drum major for righteousness. Remember him as a man who refused to lose faith in the ultimate redemption of mankind.? The Trumpet of Conscience, Coretta Scott King.
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
Everyone that has been through the American school system within the past 20 years knows exactly who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and exactly what he did to help shape the United States to what it is today. In the beginning of the book, Martin Luther King Jr. Apostle of Militant Nonviolence, by James A. Colaiaco, he states that “this book is not a biography of King, [but] a study of King’s contribution to the black freedom struggle through an analysis and assessment of his nonviolent protest campaigns” (2). Colaiaco discusses the successful protests, rallies, and marches that King put together. . Many students generally only learn of Dr. King’s success, and rarely ever of his failures, but Colaiaco shows of the failures of Dr. King once he started moving farther North.
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.
Overall, Martin Luther King was not the most successful civil rights leader, as the ground work was laid down by previous activists. Although he made some contribution, it was no more significant or praiseworthy than other black rights activists or organisations.
(3) Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955): After the supreme court decided to end segregation, African Americans started to speak out more about their racial opinions. In Montgomery, Alabama, a bus boycott ended with a victory for the African Americans. The Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama segregation laws were unconstitutional. During the boycott a young African American Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr. became well known. Throughout the long contest he advised African Americans to avoid violence no matter had badly provoked by whites. Rosa Parks tired of sitting in the back of the bus, and giving up her seat to white men. One weary day she refused to move from the front of the bus, and she became one of history's heroes in the Civil Rights Act movement.
Parks was immediately arrested, which sparked “…a yearlong bus boycott, [which was] the beginning of the mass phase of the civil rights movement in the South” (Foner 954). Her arrest resulted in the meeting of hundreds of blacks, all of which gathered in local churches, who called for a boycott. After “…381 days” (Foner 955) of blacks choosing to walk to their destinations rather than ride the bus, the boycott ended and in November of 1956, the Supreme Court called for the end of segregation on public transportation, deeming it as unconstitutional. During the Montgomery bus boycott, the Civil Rights Movement also witnesses the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the pastor soon became the face of the movement. King used Christian values and beliefs in his calls for action, stressing that no violence must be used. He quickly became an influential figure, for he “…presented the case for black rights in a vocabulary that merged the black experience with that of the nation” (Foner 956). He called for a Christian movement, which “…resonated deeply in both black communities and the broader culture” (Foner 956), and became an important leader of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. Overall, the 1950s led to the growing momentum of the Civil Rights Movement in the due
Martin Luther King is widely known as one of the greatest speakers to ever approach our nation. The impact he made on America was so much more than effective; it was incredible. The speech Martin Luther King gave took place 48 years ago, and even today people remember and quote the words he spoke. Being a man of Christ, he allowed the Lord to use him in furthering the kingdom of God. He is a man that has gone into history, and every child who goes through school is made known of works. Martin Luther King's passion for the civil-rights movement was so strongly effective and evident that it changed our nation.
Because she would not move to the back of the bus, she was arrested for violating the Alabama bus segregation laws. Rosa was thrown in jail and fined $140. Enraged by Mrs. Parks arrest the black community of Montgomery, united together and organized a boycott of the bus system until the city buses were integrated. The black men and women stayed off the buses until December 20, 1956, almost thirteen months after the boycott goal was reached. The Montgomery Bus Boycott can be considered a major turning point in the Civil Rights Movement because it made Martin Luther King Jr. public leader in the movement, starting point for non-violent protest as an effective tool in the fight for civil rights, and showed that African-Americans united for a cause could stand up to segregation. Being president of the Montgomery Improvement Association taught Martin Luther the skills and gave him the exposure to become a great leader of a movement as large as the civil rights movement.
(Ansbro, 231) instead of promoting love and violence among all races. King’s purpose in promoting nonviolence direct action was to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiations. He felt that practicing nonviolence would portray his followers as moral beings while making apparent the brutality of the segregationists. King’s preaching of nonviolence was monumental in succeeding in demonstrations such as the Montgomery bus boycott and the desegregation of public schools. King’s reaching of nonviolent direct action furthers the arguments that King is the most influential person of the twentieth century.
Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP, lived in Montgomery Alabama, and rode the public bus system. In the south, during this time the buses were segregated which meant that black people had to ride in the back of the bus behind a painted line. White people entered the front of the bus and were compelled to sit in front of the painted line. Most buses at the time had more room for white riders who used the service less than the black ridership. Yet, they could not cross the line even if the seats in the front were empty (Brown-Rose, 2008). Rosa Parks made a bold statement when she sat in the “white section” of a Montgomery bus. She was asked to surrender her seat to a white man, but she did not move and was soon arrested. Her brave action started the Montgomery bus Boycott, with the help of the NAACP, none other than Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership as part of the Montgomery Improvement Association. As its President, he was able spread the word quickly which brought national attention to the small town of Montgomery’s bus Boycott. The boycott was televised and brought so much attention that the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional; a success spurring a more
Over the course of his life, Dr. King would lead and participate in multiple non-violent protests against segregation. On the first of December, 1955, the arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama would trigger the first of many protests led by King. The Montgomery bus boycott would last for 385 days and was so tense that King’s house was bombed. He was later arrested and released after the United States District Courts ruled that segregation on all Montgomery public buses was illegal. This paved the way for King to lead many more protests in his life and becoming a major leader in the desegregation movement.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most powerful in the 19 centuries because he has major accomplishments and he was powerful and a strong man that fought for what he wanted. Throughout his life he had problems but that didn’t stop him from what he was doing. What he wanted was to stop all the unequal rights that were happening with male and females that are African American. King was trying to put an end to racism and make everyone come to together and make peace.
Martin Luther King inspired hundreds of thousands of people in the United States into actions against racism, to end poverty, and for peace. Early December 1955, he led the first great non-violent protests of Afro-Americans in a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott lasted 382 days and ended after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public buses was unconstitutional. In spring 1963, King and the student movement organized mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. The white police officials responded violently and King was arrested for organizing sit-in demonstrations. In his ‘Letter from the Birmingham jail’, he puts the struggle
Martin Luther King was a admirable and intellectual black man who fought for the civil rights. Dr. King thought that blacks could achieve their rights without violence, which is believed to have given a lot of power. He was a man fighting for the entitlements of the black race who were looked as inferiors in that era. This man is still looked as an icon still today because of the way he could move a nation. One can consider his “I have a Dream” speech as the reason they won the movement. Sadly, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. This man is considered hero to the black race today.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very influential African-American man, and King was active participant and leader in the civil-rights movement. King used his life to fight for the rights of blacks in America, and he did so through giving speeches and leading rallies. Through his speeches and leadership, King played a vital role in ending segregation in the United States, and his life inspired multitudes of people to fight and press on for equality. King fought for equality until his death, and he was rewarded in his life for his honorable contributions to society. King was one of the most influential African-American civil-rights activist, and segregation would not have been eliminated as quickly and successfully as it was if it were