...Johnson Dec. 9, 2013 Nonviolent Movements, Effective Results Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is a response to criticism from American clergymen about demonstrations in Birmingham. It is among the world’s canon of the most influential writings. He successfully informs his fellow clergymen of the importance of African Americans gaining rights through nonviolent methods. He also speaks eloquently of the difference between just and unjust laws, which lies in the equality of rights. The 1960s were trying times for African Americans due to intense segregation. Despite these difficulties, Dr. King was able to respond with nonviolent methods. These methods are considered very praiseworthy as such a nonviolent response, particularly with such profound effects, is very rare in human society. Dr. King’s nonviolent approach for achieving equal rights, not only helps society make considerable progress on achieving equality, but also enlightens future societies to go for equality in a peaceful manner. According to Dr. King, the difference between just and unjust laws is whether or not everybody has equal rights; similarly, whether or not the law in question uplifts the human spirit. As Dr. King claims: “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (King 3). African Americans were forced to face intense segregation and had to witness their friends and family members be subjected to abuse and humiliation...
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...tense Dr. Ryan Feigenbaum PHI 1000: Knowledge, Reality, and Self May 2, 2013 Nonviolent Protest Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most successful advocates of nonviolent protest not only in the 20th century, but in the history of mankind. He understood that nonviolent protest could solve the problems of the human race in addition to allowing mankind to understand that regardless of race, humans are more similar in every aspect of life than which they are aware. He recognized that his work had been criticized and that his work was “unwise and untimely,” but if he did not begin his efforts in striving for equal opportunity at the time, then when would it be considered a wise and timely point in history to do so? African Americans experienced over 340 years of oppression, segregation, and utmost hatred toward their race in America. In Birmingham, Alabama, the most segregated community in the country, Dr. King viewed more hatred toward his people than anywhere else. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” he did not seek to solve all issues through writing, but to give the “white man” a general consensus of the situation and seek their understanding, not only as a civil rights advocate, but as a “Clergyman and Christian Brother.” The African-American community sought to negotiate peacefully with the city fathers, but they refused. The question then arose: Why they did not turn to violent action after the constant failure of nonviolent negotiation? Dr. King understood...
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...years Did the Civil rights movement end racism and police brutality? This paper will explore how police brutality is still current in today’s society. Not only that but what it means to be a leader of a protest movement, and a leader in today's world. The media is very involved in today's society however, there seems to be no real leader of many of the protest that have occurred. Could this be the problem for why nothing is being solved today? There were many issues before with how police have abused there powers and it seems as though today the same issues maybe occurring. However, the problem we face today is we have no strong leads. In the past we have had Dr. King played a huge role in protest movements. Also, there were many powerful people who have such strong opinions on how our government works. This paper will explore Dr. King, Machiavelli, and Thoreau and what they believed what made a strong government and, strong leader for the people. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote letter from Birmingham jail on April 16,1963. This letter that Dr. King wrote was...
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...To obtain justice does one need power, and to obtain power does one need weapons? In the Civil Rights Movement there have been many views on how to change one issue, racial inequality. From groups like the Black Panthers who advocated for the rights to bare arms for self protection, to the Freedom Riders who did not believe violent retaliation in any form. Comparing figureheads such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X show the distinct differences between the two, what may seem like a radical idea to one may not seems so to the other. The contrasting ideas of both nonviolent activists and activists who believe violence is inevitable if not necessary in the Civil Rights Movement, emphasizes the idea that nonviolence is key to one understanding...
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...Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” Martin Luther King was a civil rights activist who wanted better treatment and opportunities for black people. Throughout his fight, the civil rights activist displayed characteristics and actions that made him the perfect person to guide the African American people towards equality. The leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was able to unite a divided nation at a time in which racial tension was at its peak. Through his words and actions, Martin Luther King was able to influence movements that derived long after his departure. One movement that was inspired by the actions of Martin Luther King is the anti-government...
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...Civil Freedom On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and put in a Birmingham jail for demonstrating/protesting without a permit. During this time, he wrote a letter to eight dissatisfied white clergymen on behalf of a public statement of concern. In this lengthy, strong-handed letter, Dr. King did not argue; he did not get angry, but rather, he provided views of brotherhood and peace within his rebuttal. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King uses a variety of rhetorical strategies in order to persuade and inform his audience of the benefits of equality. Dr. King was thrown in jail due to illegal protesting. During his time of being locked up, “[he] came across a recent statement calling their present activities ‘unwise and untimely”. (King 1) During the time that King was locked up, he had plenty of time to think and release his anger, but it wasn’t until later when he began to write a rebuttal of the recent criticisms made by the eight white clergymen. In the letter, King does not release any anger, nor does he argue with the clergymen’s response. In fact, he writes in a calm manner that sends a message of peace, as well as comfort. On the other hand though, he doesn’t simply ignore the fact of the utter ignorance of what was said. A main strategy that King uses is one that...
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...Martin Luther King, Jr Michael Luther King, Jr., later changed his name to Martin, was born on January 15th 1929. His parents were Alberta King, a schoolteacher, and Michael Luther King, who was a Bapist minister in Atlanta, Georgia. His father adopted his name after the German Protestant leader Martin Luther. The young Martin had two siblings, Willie Christine and Alfred Daniel Williams King. Despite their father’s best efforts, their children encountered racial prejudice. Martin Luther King Sr. was a staunch supporter of racial tolerance because their black ancestors not only came across racism but also segregation. As a teenager, Martin attempted suicide by jumping from a second story window at their home after his grandmother died of a heart attack while he was outside watching a parade. He attended...
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...King Jr., Martin Luther. "The Quest for Peace and Justice." University of Oslo, Norway. 11 Dec. 1964. Lecture. Dr. King begins by thanking the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament for bestowing such an honorable prize to him. He continues to talk about how the modern man has created an incredible world with many, many great endeavors. But then he points out a flaw, he then speaks about how the human spirit has increasingly suffered the more and more our technological achievements grow. That the human soul is in a state of poverty. He claims that man lives in two different realms of existence. He calls these two realms internal and external. He believes that one of the biggest problems in todays society is that we have allowed for the internal to be lost in the external. The internal realm is more about the spirit and the soul, and the external is more about material things and possessions. There are three major problems in our world that grow out of main problem, which is ethical infantilism. The first of the problems is racial injustice, this problem has plagued many nations and communities across the word for many, many years. The normal structure of modern society is being redone, it is being reviewed and is going through dramatic changes. There are many laws and rules that are being changed to help remove racial injustice from america, for instance, in 1954 the separation of whites and colored folk in the school system become a thing of the far past. The...
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...Between the years of 1950 and 1960, there was a discrimination upon race amidst White and African American people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided to begin a protest against it in which he believed the treatment was unfair and "injustice" however, he went to jail for doing so and the Alabama Clergymen wrote him a letter to call it off, Dr. King responded. In the response letter by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the iconic civil rights leader seeks to utilize emotional, logical, as well as ethical appeals to defends the nonviolent resistance effort. Emotional appeal, a method used to persuade an individual or group by trying to generate an emotional response. Dr. King uses this appeal in order to convince the eight Alabama Clergymen of how the protest he held against racism is not something he is going to stop as well as that they should agree with the movement. In trying to persuade the Alabama Clergymen Dr. King mentions how an abundance of African American mothers and fathers have to answer questions that their children ask regarding the difference in treatment between Caucasians and African Americans. For example, in the letter one of the questions that were used to attempt to make the clergymen feel...
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...Dears, John. “What Martin Luther King Jr. can teach us about nonviolence” National Catholic Reporter.( 2012): Ncronline. Web. Nov 2015. In John Dears “What Martin Luther King Jr. can teach us about nonviolence” article he claims “[…] nonviolent resistance [is…] a strategy of hope, which can help us today in the thousands of [social change] movements around the world, including the […] ongoing Arab Spring movements.” Dears gives six points of nonviolence that Doctor King wrote about in, Stride Toward Freedom (published by Harper and Row) Opening Dear states, “Nonviolence is not for the cowardly, the weak, the passive, the apathetic or the fearful.” Dear is insisting that participating in nonviolent acts is not for the spineless but for the brave and courageous. Furthermore, the point of the practice is to change the ideas of another peacefully not aggressively or forcefully. Additionally, Dr. King states, "Nonviolence does not seek to […] humiliate [your] opponent but to win friendship and understanding." What Dr. King really means is that nonviolence is a way to show a different perspective without demeaning another human. In addition to the other principles, boycotts and peaceful protest are not the end solution but the launch of the solution. Another goal of nonviolence is to destroy evil, not people. King wanted to change the systems that were put in place because you cannot go after the people that made those systems violently and expect a hopeful outcome. Nonviolence includes...
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...Martin Luther King Jr. made history throughout his lifetime and will never be forgotten. He was influenced by many things such as his formative experiences in his hometown of Atlanta and his deep family roots in the African-American Baptist church. Dr. King was known for always showing great religious and political leadership and being involved in the social justice and peace movements of his time. Dr. King’s life was so influential to history by his influence on intellectual, cultural, and political developments. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta and spent most of his life in the home that his parents shared with his grandparents. After Dr. King’s grandfathers death his father became Ebenezer Baptist Church’s new pastor. Over time he established himself as a major figure in state and national Baptist groups. Dr. King’s experiences in the Ebenezer church introduced him to the African-American gospel tradition set forth by his father and grandfather. Both his...
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...Martin Luther King Jr, has been referenced by many political leaders to remind people of what the United States can be with peace between citizens. Another widely known project by Martin Luther King Jr. is the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Martin Luther King Jr. created this letter to respond to a public statement of concern by eight clergymen of the South. Dr King’s intentions were to defend the strategy of the nonviolent resistance to racism. Although some of his arguments fail, overall Dr. King provides valid arguments to these criticisms that use logic and credibility. In his letter, Dr. King. begins by stating that he does not usually address criticisms but he will answer to them because of their seemingly genuine intentions. Dr. King immediately makes it his duty to attack the notion that he and his associates should be considered “outsiders.” The clergyman state, “However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders” (Public Statement by eight Alabama clergyman 1). Dr. King establishes credibility to this opposition that he is indeed not an “outsider” by mentioning that he serves as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and he also includes that, “We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations all across the South” (Letter from Birmingham 1). He states that his purpose in Birmingham is because of his...
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...Martin Luther King Jr. an American Leader Jessica McElrath Santa Clara University School of Law, University of California, Berkeley ABSTRACT: There are a select few individuals who are able to still be recognized as "great" or "brilliant" because they and their accomplishments have forever changed society and the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of those individuals. Martin was raised in Atlanta Georgia, growing up in a world of segregation gave him the ambition to live by a heroic credo of nonviolence. People in his community looked up to his ability to be an outstanding leader, he was asked to be in charge of an organization named MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association). The success from MIA and King’s intelligence later lead him to arrange protest for jobs and freedom. Being the great leader that he was, he became very successful in achieving all of his major goals for his nation. Martin Luther King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia. While studying at Morehouse he did some reading on a well-known leader named Gandhi, who king admired for being the first person to use the love ethic as a tool to effect social change. He spent years in South Africa working to end discrimination against Indians. Gandhi believed that passive resistance could challenge violence and win (Mc,Elrath, 2008). Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, or other methods,...
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...Luther King and Malcolm X are regarded as two of the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Both leaders believed in the need to better the lives for African Americans during a time of racial strife in the United States. However, their approaches and goals differed entirely with Dr. King being an advocate for an interracial and integrated community that would be reached without violence. Malcolm on the other hand preferred races to be separated but with African Americans to be superior in a movement that would not be opposed to a violent revolution. King's ideas for integration challenged many of the current beliefs held on race during his time but allowed all of society to be part of his multiracial community, creating a more exceptional argument than Malcolm X. Early beginnings influenced their ideas on race and violence. As time progressed, King's ideas continued to develop prosperously without the inconsistencies of Malcolm's development. The optimism of Martin Luther King Jr. may have derived from his middle-class life as a child with close relationships to his family. His own positive thinking hit a wall from personal negative experiences with his early understanding of a race problem....
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...Civil Rights Movement Parminder Singh History 145 September 20th, 2011 Christopher Jackson Civil Rights Movement In the early 1960s the American nation was struggling with anxiety in many different ways. The position of America in the world was sinking with the Soviet Union bringing competition to the table with their space programs that intimidated the American government. The public, itself, was concerned about the ‘visibility of Poverty, the rising frustrations of women,’ and most important, besides “other long-suppressed discontents” was the “growing pressures of African American and other minorities” (Brinkley (2007) p.821). The media had a large role on the way the society thought along with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s influences that changed the movement of civil rights later in the 1960s. The media in the 1960s was great at getting raw and non-bias stories, unlike in today’s era where most of the news Americans get is mainly leaning toward one side or the other. The media expressed how the African Americans deserved equal rights in the south and other areas; “when urban black parents attempt to intervene, they are characterized as “obstructionist” for requesting those participatory privileges in the educational process taken for granted by white suburbanite parents”[New York, N.Y] 13 Nov 1966: 276). The public’s opinion of civil rights grew with the media displaying raw footage of segregation. The white Americans that once were friends with or even...
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