...Jordan Beard Mrs. Laney 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City of Memphis, under Mayor Henry Loeb, in order to preserve money in the economy, had continued to use this old and outdated machinery in the Public Works Department when it should have been discarded (Honey).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...
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...Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King was a Baptist minister and a social activist who played a major role as being a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He had a huge impact on race relations in the United States during the mid-1950s and fought for equal freedoms for blacks and whites. Dr. King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, created many inspirational speeches, and played a great role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the United States. He also helped create the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and many other awards and honors for his leadership actions. On April 4, 1968, just after 6 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot and killed. The civil rights leader was in Memphis, Tennessee to support a sanitation workers’ strike. At the time, Dr. King was standing on the balcony just outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel. He was just about to leave for dinner when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the jaw and hit his spinal cord. Martin Luther King Jr. was pronounced dead at 39 years old after his arrival at the Memphis hospital....
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...Martin Luther King Jr. Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, and was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The King and Williams families were from rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had one child, Alberta. Michael King Sr. came from a sharecropper family in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D. Williams home in Atlanta. In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951, and elected student body president. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study. But Martin also rebelled against his father’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the affair. In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families attended. City police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. Martin Luther King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters...
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... Political Science 1510 Teacher name April 20, 2015 Sykes 2 Martin Luther King Jr. lost his life trying to better the lives of African-American people. He was one of the greatest American Civil Rights leaders of the 1960s. Second child of Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984), a pastor, and Alberta Williams King (1904-1974), a former schoolteacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. Along with his older sister, the future Christine King Farris (born 1927), and younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King (1930-1969), he grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country. (History.com) A gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law. Although he had not intended to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the ministry, he changed his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class. (History.com) Sykes 3 King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing...
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...Martin Luther King Jr played a vital role in the history of America. He was born on January 15,1929.Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen. He later received the B.A. degree in 1948 from MoreHouse college. In 1954, King had become a pastor and was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Early December of 1955, a boycott broke out and lasted 382 days which led to both black and white people ride buses equally. During the boycott King was arrested, had a bomb go off in his home, and was put through lots of verbal abuse. A few years later in 1957 King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1957...
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...King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and the Civil Rights Movement in America are alternative beats of the same heart. In his overall fight against racism, the important landmarks were the Montgomery bus boycott, the March on Washington; anti-Vietnam War Activism and Assassination in the year 1968, Dr. King emerged as a sterling crusader. He was the living legend and glorious in death. He was intensely loved and fiercely hated. In his book, “Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop,” Harvard Sitkoff writes, “I have to craft a brief yet stirring narrative for a twenty-first-century readership that illustrates the historical forces that shaped King, and how he, in turn, changed American society.”(xiv) Black freedom movement was a tough socio-political responsibility for Dr. King, and his adversaries belonged to the powerful ruling class, reluctant to give any concessions to the blacks. He led the movement at great personal sacrifice and suffering. Sitkoff writes, “ However overwrought or sometimes paralyzed by fear he became, King’s biblical faith enabled him to keep his eyes on the prize, to put righteousness before expediency, despite the beatings, jailing, inner turmoil, and constant threats if assassination.”(xiv) Unprecedented changes began to happen in United States and King’s mission paved way for a broader crusade against imperialism and of economic inequality by the time of his death and subsequently thereon. The forces that were bitterly...
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...Many know Coretta Scott King to be the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.- one of the most influential civil rights activists ever. However, what most do not know is the story of his wife, Coretta Scott King, and her fight for all people, peace, and one whose bravery should be recognized for many more years to come. When speaking she said, “I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner,....the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always much more than a label.”- and to that she truly was. Early Life: Coretta Scott King was born on April 27, 1927, in Marion, Alabama. She was an exceptional student and graduated valedictorian from Lincoln High School. This was one of the greatest accomplishments of Coretta’s young life- considering the fact that her entire childhood she experienced and fought against racial prejudice/ violence- at 15 years old, Coretta Scott King’s name as well as her father's sawmill were burned down by white supremacists. This act of violence left a long-lasting impact on Coretta and she was determined to do something about it....
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...To what extent did the aims and methods of Martin Luther King differ from those of black power activists? There is no question that the aims and methods of Martin Luther King differed from those of Black Power activists. King was peaceful and wanted integration with whites while Black Power activists confronted violence and believed in black supremacism and separatism. But they were also similar in some ways, such as speaking out on the Vietnam War. The aims of king differed significantly from those of Black Power activists. The aims and methods of MLK did differ from those of Black Power activists. For example, King’s campaigns such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and Birmingham 1963 were very peaceful, despite facing violence. King was brought up by a rich black family, with a good education, and a good chance at life. He was a black aristocrat, and a wealthy man. King’s peaceful message was due to him being a devout Christian and believing in love for all mankind. As a result, they were successful because they drew on the support from white people. King also wanted integration with whites, which can be contributed to his ‘love your fellow man’ philosophy. This was clear in King’s March on Washington 1963, where both whites and blacks marched on Washington to hear speeches from civil rights leaders. King didn’t just want integration with whites, as shown in his Poor Peoples Campaign 1968. In this, King called for a coalition of blacks, native Americans, Hispanics...
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...February 1, 1960, four black students attending a college in Greensboro, NC, were refused lunch at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter and began a sit-in. This event triggered several other nonviolent protests throughout the south. Six months later, the same four students were served at the same Woolworth’s lunch counter. Student sit-ins throughout the South were very effective in integrating many public places. These sit-ins ignited a decade of civil rights protests that proved that the American people could have a real impact on segregation. During other sit-ins in other cities, media coverage was scarce, many of the stories being buried in the back pages of the newspaper if covered at all. The Greensboro sit-in was ran as front page news in the local paper. Associated press began arriving and two days later, The New York times ran the first of many articles covering the sit-ins. Coverage by the media was one of the many reasons the movement took off so quickly. In January of 1961, James Meredith applied to attend the University of Mississippi. His application expressed his desire to be accepted despite the color of his skin. His application was immediately denied. With the help of the NAACP, he challenged the University’s decision in state and federal court. The Supreme Court ordered Ole Miss to admit Meredith in September of 1962. Governor of Mississippi, Segregationist Ross Barnett had other plans. Using the media to appeal to the fears of whites in Mississippi...
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...aims and methods of Martin Luther King differed from those of Black Power activists. King was peaceful and wanted integration with whites while Black Power activists confronted violence and believed in black supremacism and separatism. But they were also similar in some ways, such as speaking out on the Vietnam War. The aims of MLK differed significantly from those of Black Power activists. The aims and methods of MLK did differ from those of Black Power activists. For example, King’s campaigns such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and Birmingham 1963 were very peaceful, despite facing violence. King’s peaceful message was due to him being a devout Christian and believing in love for all mankind. As a result, they were successful because they drew on the support from white people. In contrast, was Black Power Activists who some like Malcolm X, believed that blacks should defend themselves because it made them look weak and allowed whites to take advantage. Malcolm X wasn’t a Christian and so he didn’t believe in King’s Christian philosophy. This is a clear difference in both methods and ideology. King also wanted integration with whites, which can be contributed to his ‘love your fellow man’ philosophy. This was clear in King’s March on Washington 1963, where both whites and blacks marched on Washington to hear speeches from civil rights leaders. King didn’t just want integration with whites, as shown in his Poor Peoples Campaign 1968. In this, King called for a coalition...
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...African-Americans have protested against the unfair justice of the law, while the majority has fought back using violence and inhumanity. A numerous amount of protesters such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X have made a drastic difference in people's perspective on both the majorities and minorities. Although both protesters were beneficial to the Civil Rights Movement, each presented different ideas and to different groups of people. To start off with, Martin Luther King Jr, born on January 15 1929, was a minister and a famous activist who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968. Before we discuss King’s significance to the movement, one must know his personal background. Martin Luther King was an educated young man who skipped the ninth and eleventh grade and at the age of fifteen attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He successfully thrived in all...
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...Mollie Bailey. Homework due: 08/09/2014. Martin Luther King. Born in Georgia, Atlanta on January the 15th 1929, Michael king Jr was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Michael king Jr’s Grandfather, Williams was originally rooted in rural Georgia, who then moved to Atlanta in 1893. Williams took over Ebenezer Baptist church which was struggling with only 13 members, and made it into a successful congregation. Williams, who was married to Jennie Celeste parks, had one surviving child, Alberta who marred Michael king Sr in 1926 after an 8 year courtship. Michael king Sr came from a poor sharecropper family in a poor community, not having much money to his name. In 1931, following the death of Williams, Michael king Sr became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church carrying on the tradition of his father in law. After reaching the success, he adopted the name “Martin Luther king Sr”. In time it would be expected that Michael king Jr to do the same and adopt the name “Martin Luther King Jr”. At the age of 5, Martin Luther King Jr started public school, following the event of him being baptized in 1936. At the age of 12, Michael attempted suicide by allegedly jumping out a second story window after witnessing the traumatic death of his grandmother, Jennie. After skipping ninth and eleventh grade at Booker t Washington high school, he started Morehouse College...
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...I had a dream… it was a terrific dream! I dreamed of a world of equality in an unfair society. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to realize this dream completely. With one simple pull of a trigger my dreams dissipated right before me. I am Martin Luther King Jr. and I had a dream. I was born on January 15, 1929, and I am the son and second child of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. My mother was a school teacher and my father a pastor. I have two siblings, one older sister Christine King Farris and one younger brother Daniel Williams King. I attended a segregated public school and didn’t really understand the point of segregation but I had to accept it at that age. At the age of fifteen I was admitted to Morehouse...
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...Martin Luther King, Jr. | | |3 April 1968 | |I’ve Been to the Mountaintop | |Memphis, Tenn. | | | | | | | | | | ...
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...Time Capsule Unearthed - The 1960’s Revisited Kim A Murphy SS31-10RP1 March 11, 2014 Evelina Panayotova Time Capsule Unearthed - The 1960’s Revisited In the 2325 there has been a monumental discovery at the historic site of the Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel New York in 1969. Our archeologists have unearthed a time capsule filled with a treasure trove of items that seem to remarkably symbolize the 1960’s as a whole. The items found were: a contraceptive known as “The Pill”, A Peace sign, a picture of Martin Luther King Jr., Beatles memorabilia, and a newspaper article from 1963 on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Development of oral contraceptives In 1948 with the help of a small grant awarded from the Planned Parenthood organization (Parethood, 2014) and with the assistance of Dr. Min Chueh Chang American Biologist Dr. Gregory Pincus, began working in the early 1950’s on a hormonal contraceptive (Bio.com, 1996-2013). The experiment was using progesterone to inhibit ovulation. They were later joined by a fertility specialist Dr. John Rock and began human trials in the late 1950’s. Margaret Sanger, the Founder of Planned Parenthood, Medical Director, and Vice-President of the organization was a champion of the work being completed by Dr. Pincus and his colleagues. Frustrated with the meager amount of the Planned Parenthood grant Sanger joined forces with Katharine McCormick, biologist, millionaire philanthropist, and activist who was highly involved...
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