Martin Luther King Fight Against Oppression

There have been many great activists in history, fighting against the oppression of African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr is famous for his “I have a dream speech” that took place on August 28, 1963. Furthermore Dr. King led to the ending of the legal segregation among black and white people. In Dr. Kings essay “Three ways of Responding to Oppression," he clearly states three ways to deal with oppression. Dr. King believed the best defense against oppression being that of nonviolent resistance. The film Iron Jawed Angels (IJA) has also been a great example of oppression with the struggle for women’s rights in the United States. Mr. King stated that there are three ways of oppression that oppressed people deal with, acquiescence, physical

This does not imply that the problem has been solved, in contrary, violence just causes the whole situation to worsen. Furthermore, leading both parties anger to increase and that can lead to greater acts of violence. He also mentioned a famous saying, “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.” Physically fighting does not get anyone anywhere, no one will understand what the other wants if all they do is fight. There has to be a mutual understanding in order to be able to understand the other party needs. In IJA, when Ms. Paul is put into jail, she throws her boot at the window, breaking it to let air in, once they did not want to open the window after asking politely. This violent act did not acquire her any positive outcome, instead she was put into solitary in a very unjust living arrangement. It has been proven that acquiescence and physical violence are no solutions to anything, however there are ways to receive positive attention without

One can not just say or speak words of hatred to another group of people and expect to be understood. In IJA, the women start a nonviolent protest in front of the White House. Many people, mostly men, did not agree with what they were doing, especially since they were at war, the women did not become discouraged and they kept protesting. They would have people throwing liquor bottles and other items, however they never acted violently against them. The extra attention they received from the people, even if it was negative, the faster the word about what they were doing would spread around. Dr. King also mentioned, “He must never come to terms with falsehood, malice, hate or destruction.” In order to draw peoples attention and have them hear what one wants one must act with honesty and peacefully. Just how Dr. King and his community would form a peaceful protest. In IJA, while the women were in jail, they did hunger strikes, which although they were mistreated in the process and some of the women even becoming very ill, at the end that was what gave them the attention they needed. This the best and most efficient way of dealing with a hard situation, where people have different options on how things should be