...Birmingham movement was a culmination of King’s ideas, theology, experiences and civil rights tactics’. How far do you agree with this statement? Martin Luther King undoubtedly played a key role in helping black people win civil rights through the Birmingham movement in 1963. However it can be argued that his leadership though effective was only partly responsible for the gains made by the campaign; as the opposition changed their tactics, Martin Luther King’s ideas and theologies were tested and therefore he was made to harness alternative strategies that had been initiated by other civil rights activists. Essentially the Birmingham movement was crafted to allow the best possible outcome. King preached a distinctive philosophy based on the teachings of Jesus and the example of Mohandas Gandhi. He believed that all Christians should love their enemies and never retaliate. Nonetheless, he also taught that Christians should stand up to injustice. Consequently, he advocated civil disobedience and direct action, insisting that protest should always be peaceful. The perseverance shown through peaceful protest won mass support from both the public and media making it difficult for Federal government to ignore demands. King involved in provoking the authorities but it can be said that the brutality stimulated from such protests was what gave King the upper hand; it provided him with the driving force to challenge the system. Peaceful protest was applied to the Birmingham movement, since...
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...man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Civil disobedience can be valuable and promote social progress when used for valid reasons. However, when using disobedience for invalid reasons, it promotes wrongdoings instead of social progress. Humans must differentiate between progress and ignorance to positively impact a free society. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, he argued that peaceful debates and arguments would put an end to segregation. King was a devout Christian member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and a...
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...The Drum Major Instinct. Martin Luther King, Jr. remains arguably the most recognizable African American figure in world history. First thrust into the international spotlight courtesy of his leadership of a boycott of the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was pastor of a local church, King became the lightning rod for the civil rights movement that emerged in the wake of the successful boycott. During the 1960s he gave innumerable speeches characterized by oratorical genius, led a succession of mass marches in the heart of segregated America and helped to reconstruct American race relations before his assassination in 1968. Ever since Montgomery he has attracted the attention of biographers and historians keen to understand what made him such a magnetic and inspirational leader and what made the story of the civil rights movement so compelling. Martin Luther King is most remembered for a speech given during one of the finest hours of the civil rights movement -- a sermon that set the moral tone for the movement. But while the Aug. 28, 1963, sermon "I Have A Dream," delivered during the March on Washington, framed much of Martin Luther King Jr’s notions of a free America, it was not the speech that defined his legacy. One of the world's best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies, Martin Luther King Jr., synthesized ideals drawn from many different cultural traditions. Recent studies of him emphasize the extent to which his ideals were rooted...
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...gave more rights to the people making it spread also to other races. Chapter 1 Rosa parks Rosa parks was a lady born from Louise McCauley. She is famous for her bravery on not refusing her seat after a long day at work. As the driver asked her to get up and she denied because she said she didn?t had to give a white passenger her seat for them to be Comfortable. After that she was arrested but recognize...
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...Is it possible to solve every problem through peaceful means and without any violence? Throughout history, there were many events that changed and shaped how society is today. Out of all the events in history, the Civil Rights movement is arguably one of the most important event. The main goal of the Civil Rights movement was to end discrimination and achieve equal rights, such as equal voting rights. Although people shared the same goal, they had different views on how the goal should be reached. Many believed non-violent methods were the right way to go while others insisted that violence had to be used. Protestors and leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., thought non-violence was crucial to the accomplishment of their goal. On the other side, many other activists like Malcom X, supported the idea of violence mainly because non-violence was not going to work. Violence is necessary...
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...about black suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement. However, Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” puts it into perspective just a little bit better. No one truly knows the severity of a situation until they hear it from a primary source. If I had to pick one quote to sum up what I learned, I would have to choose, “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” Learning about segregation in my high school was very different from reading about it in this speech. I went to a mostly white high school with very few minorities. Of course we touched on the subject and discussed how it was awful but there was no one to put emotion into it. There was no one to make us see just how unfairly African Americans were treated. Being from a small, slightly Southern town, I think I was stripped of the opportunity to become more familiar with black culture. That being said, I do think King’s speech was effective, however, the effects still haven’t reached some people. King had amazing intentions with this speech. He wanted nothing more than freedom and equal rights for African Americans. I do believe this speech was straight from the heart and sincere in every way. Personally, I think he was right in every way making this speech and saying things that no one had dared to say in public. No African American had been able to muster up the courage or had the connections to make a speech like this one. Being so bold cost Martin Luther his life but it was not for...
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...The Integration of Baseball & its Effect on Social Movements The integration of baseball during 1947-1959 was a time period where barriers were broken resulting in positive social changes that would alleviate class conflicts. Social changes through integration of baseball helped the Civil Rights movements although its major impacts weren’t made until the late 1960s. Baseball players were praised within the sport of baseball; however, their social status still remained the same. What was the impact of the integration of baseball on the Civil Rights movement and the social status of African Americans? These players did great things to help change the game of baseball, but were not respected by majority of their peers. The challenges that did players had to face were ridiculous. Recognized as superstars on the field, baseball players like Jackie Robinson were looked down upon by society because of their skin color. Therefore, the effects of baseball integration on society was crucial for the Civils Rights movement, but its impact was limited at best for individual baseball players and for the collective African American society since their social status as a whole remained the same. This would lead to residual class conflicts. Even the process of baseball integration was not smooth as some teams embraced integration for various reasons such as competitive advantage or box office potential, but others such as the American League’s old guard faced public pressure to limit the integration...
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...By 1965, the Civil Rights Movement had achieved many convincing victories: Brown v. Board, integration of public transportation and restaurants, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite their gains, the movement still struggled with the continual racism of the South. No matter how many Supreme Court decisions, the South refused to give in, especially in voter registration. This is not surprising, in that, the real fear for the white community was the control of the ballot box by the black community. Eventually, this would lead to the election of black officials, which appalled most social circles of the South. Therefore, there was considerable resistance to blacks registering to vote throughout Mississippi and Alabama. Ultimately, Martin Luther King would lead the charge for additional voter registration campaigns, and he picked the city of Selma as the battleground. Over the course of several months, the black community, inspired by the SNCC, SCLC, and CORE, registered to vote under extreme intimidation and violence. After the death of a black participant in Selma, the idea of a march from Selma to Montgomery was agreed upon. Ultimately, this march would shock the public to the racist violence that continued to persist in Alabama, but, almost as important, the march created divisions between the black activist groups. This division would be highlighted with the rise of the Black Panther Party in Lowndes County, and the Meredith March in 1966. Although...
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...Protesting has made a big impact over many generations. Protests have led to positive change, like the creation of human rights, which people deserve. People, who have the power of running countries, need a different way to know what their people want. In three separate articles, it is discussed how protesting got the attention of government. “Letter from a Birmingham jail”, “Pre-OCCUPIED”, and “Welcome to the Occupation” discuss three scenarios of protests that happened in the past. Some of these protests were bloody and long. For humanity to progress, they must find a better way to be heard and stop the bloodshed. In the article “Letter from a Birmingham jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he writes about how from a solitary confinement...
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...Secondly, the main elements of control are self-inflicted; the fear that holds them down is internal. Thirdly, McMurphy is a messianic figure, and his doom is inevitable. He brings liberation to others, and this is the true meaning to his own life. First, Nurse Ratched’s manipulation and subtle cruelty mirrors discrimination of the era. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the chief Bromden and the patients who are there are essentially being "segregated" from the rest of society because they are different. This segregation from the normal life can compare to the struggle with racism, discrimination, and segregation between whites and African Americans in post-World War II era. In the book, the patients are not treated as normal people, and they do not have freedom. For...
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...backing up negative stereotypes. I researched all of these aspects while pondering the question “is affirmative action still needed in today’s society?” In this paper I will be explaining what affirmative action is.The history behind affirmative action like how it all unfolded, who made it, and the history as to why it is in effect now. I will also list some pros and cons of affirmative action, how the United States could better affirmative action for the future and finally a conclusion, which is my opinion on the topic. But what exactly is affirmative action? Born of the civil rights movement three decades ago, affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment and education acceptance decisions. Universities with affirmative action policies generally set goals to increase diversity. Affirmative action decisions are generally not supposed to be based on quotas, nor are they supposed to give any preference to unqualified candidates. And by no means is affirmative action supposed to harm anyone through "reverse discrimination." The purpose was to create equal opportunity for the people who had been unjustly treated in the past. It was set out to correct this wrong, and make it right. But at the same time too often is Affirmative action is looked upon...
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...English III 10 April 2014 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Research Paper Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is considered to be one of his most powerful and effective speeches, considering that it gave not only the black community of Memphis, TN, but all supporters of the nation, the courage to continue a long journey for freedom. His figure as a speaker and a leader had a positive impacting effect on the nation as a whole. On February 1, 1968, during a heavy rainstorm in Memphis, two black sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a faulty garbage truck compactor to stay out of the rain (“Martin Luther King Jr”). The City of Memphis, under Mayor Henry Loeb, in order to preserve money in the economy, had continued to use this old and outdated machinery in the Public Works Department when it should have been discarded (Honey). “The city paid most of its 1,300 sanitation workers a minimum wage of one dollar and sixty cents per hour; they worked until their routes were done, often putting in sixty hours a week at forty hours of pay” (Honey). The wages of these workers were so low that they were forced to live on welfare as well as food stamps to simply live day to day and feed their families (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). The city provided unskilled black workers with no job benefits, no access to supervisory jobs, no rights or respect and minimal health coverage. The families of both Cole and Walker received...
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...activist for Civil Rights, Bayard Rustin is mostly remembered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which has been one of the most famous of the non-violent marches in United States history. He had used Gandhi’s tactics of non-violence by introducing it to the American civil rights movement, while at the same time, bringing Martin Luther King, Jr. to the forefront as the focal point for nonviolence and peace. Despite the achievements that Rustin had accomplished during his career as an activist, he was beaten, silenced, imprisoned, and fired from different organizations mainly because of the fact that he was a gay man living at a time that homosexuality was not only frowned upon, but also it was outlawed. In this paper, I will explain all the contributions that Bayard Rustin had made to the Civil Rights movement during the mid to late 20th century and why he is not given credit for the other activities that he was responsible for. Writers and historians such as Lawrence Freedman have stated that Bayard Rustin was content with his status as an “intellectual engineer behind the scenes” 1. In their view, Rustin was a powerful man with such a powerful political philosophy that the leadership at the time had begun to constrict him. Other historians have argued that the main reason why Rustin was written out of the history books is because he stayed true to a social agenda that had benefited all groups who were oppressed at the time that the civil rights movement had grown...
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...the different type of culture and races that it carries. In the process of building this land, the Americans had help from people that they brought over from Africa in which they turn into slaves. These people were called African Americans, people of color, and Negros. African Americans lived under the rule of the White American people. They served them, and did everything that they were told to do. Many did not know how to read nor did they know how to write. Living as an African American in those times was like not living at all. Many were killed, raped, and treated like animals. With the United States progressing there was another process in the making. With the help from their own people, legislatures, and many other types of movements, African Americans were able to accomplish ultimate freedom. As they came into slavery, they stayed slaves for many years. African Americans worked day and night, not as people but as property. The nation was very much divided in the 1860s because the south highly supported slavery while the north did not, and that division helped bring on the civil war. The war ended but that did not mean the winner got what they wanted. In 1865, The Thirteenth Amendment that outlawed slavery was submitted to the states, “AMENDMENT XIII Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime...
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...church. b. the sale of indulgences. c. his time spent in England during the English Reformation. d. the turmoil caused by having two popes during the Great Schism. e. the influence of John Calvin. 2. The author of the Ninety-Five Theses was a. John Calvin. b. Erasmus. c. Voltaire. d. Martin Luther. e. Henry VIII. 3. The Catholic church dramatically pushed the sale of indulgences in the sixteenth century because of the a. need to match the resurgence of the Byzantine empire. b. threat posed by Islam. c. need for Henry VIII to pay off the national debt. d. expense associated with translating original Greek classics. e. need to raise funds for the construction of St. Peter’s basilica. 4. Which one of the following was not one of Luther’s problems with the Roman Catholic church? a. the selling of indulgences b. pluralism c. absenteeism d. the immense wealth of the Catholic church e. the church’s decision to translate the Bible into vernacular languages 5. Who said, “I cannot and will not recant anything, for it is neither safe nor right to act against one’s conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other.”? a. Martin Luther b. Jesus c. John Calvin d. Sima Qian e. Henry VIII 6. In the centuries following the fall of Rome, the only unifying force for all of Europe was a. the Byzantine empire. b. the Holy Roman empire. c. the Catholic church. d. the Auld Alliance. e. the Umayyad dynasty. 7. Henry...
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