William J. Clinton was a democratic president who administered the United States for two terms. During his terms the U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time throughout it's history. In 2000 he called for a great national initiative to end racial discrimination. Martin Luther King was an American clergyman, activist, and a leader in the African American Civil Rights movement. He believed in nonviolent civil disobedience because he was a Baptist minister. In 1955 he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott and he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. In 1962 King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, also organizing a nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama that attracted national attention because of the brutal response from the police. King also in 1963 helped to organize the March on Washington where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.…
Martin Luther King Jr. was the acknowledged leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. King earned several degrees and was a bright man. His “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in April 1963, while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, for acts of civil disobedience (499). His letter is a response to a letter signed by clergyman criticizing his actions towards civil rights. The clergymen believed that his actions were “untimely.” King states ,”if I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk…I would have no time for constructive work” (500). He usually does not respond to letter that criticize his work and actions, but he believed the clergymen were men of genuine good and they meant no harm. King was president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and they had affiliates all throughout the South. King believed he was supposed to spread freedom. He agreed that if Birmingham ever needed him that he would be there. “Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (500). King used an approach to resolve issues in nonviolent manners. It consisted of sit-ins, marches, and etc. Nonviolent direct action would create a tension that an otherwise ignored subject would have to be faced. With nonviolent direct action and ignored issue would come to light and can no longer be ignored(502). After the direct-action program, King hoped that the doors to negotiation would open.…
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, activist and more importantly, a leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement hailing from Albany, Georgia. The audience consisted of mostly African American activists and supporters but also white elected officials and government officials as well as average white citizens. The purpose of King’s speech was to convey the difficult life African Americans have been faced with ever since Americans forcibly brought African natives to become slaves and work for the white men. King is speech, he effectively succeeded in motivating and aspiring the nation to ponder giving equal rights to their fellow African American citizens.…
tried to correct in the corrupt society in the early 1960’s. He wanted to make the United States one community with all of its many faces. Jr. had become very tired of these laws called the Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were segregation laws that took rights away from black people and gave more rights to white people. Martin Luther King Jr. was a powerful speaker and a great motivator. Jr. learned a lot from his experiences growing up. These rough times gave him the guts and the will to stand up for what he believes in. No matter what Martin Luther was always motivated to help the cause for the right thing. In martin Luther King Jr. speech “I Have A Dream” King declared that he and the colored men and women deserve to not be crippled with their civil rights and it has been one hundred years that they have been living under these…
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Black people were suffering in almost silence until around 1955, when Dr Martin Luther King Jr, a Baptist Minister, began non-violent protests Martin Luther King Jr came from a line of Baptist ministers and was his father who thought that segregation was against GOD, some influence came from Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Benjamin Mays, the president of Morehouse college King met his wife, Coretta Scott, at Boston university, after college, he started his civil rights protests with the Montgomery bus boycott, becomes chairman of the SCLC, meets with president Eisenhower, takes a month long trip to Gandhi’s birthplace in India, writes his “letter from a Birmingham jail”, and after the March on Washington delivers his “I have a dream” On April 4TH, 1968 Dr Martin Luther King is assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. Used nonviolent methods influenced in part by Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr’s nonviolent acts consisted of sit-ins, boycotts, marches and speeches…
Martin Luther King played a major role in leading the civil rights movement and desegregation. In April 1963, King organized a march in Birmingham, Alabama a city that was still separated by race even though 6 years have passed from the Montgomery decision on desegregation. This march was purposely chosen to be located in Birmingham to catch attention of people all over US on how unfair the innocent blacks were treated. Not surprisingly, Bull Corner- the police chief in Alabama obliged. Over 1000 protesters were arrested by the police and put into jail including Martin Luther King. While he was in jail, he wrote “Letter from Birmingham”, which later became one of the most important documents recorded in the civil right movement period.…
On January 15, 1929 a very important person was born, even though they didn't know it at the time. It was Martin Luther King Jr., he had done a lot of great things over his life. Martin is a very important person in our history of civil rights movement.…
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a solution to bring the people together and spread the word of equal civil rights through speech, and motivation. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at several different venues through the United States prior to the "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. At the "I Have a Dream" speech, over 250,000 people attended and marched, showing non-violent civil disobedience. (The Nobel Foundation, 1964).…
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who wanted to do away with racial discrimination. He wanted to do whatever he could, he started groups of men; black and white, he started to preach out in public and started to inspire many people all over the nation, from newspaper writers to the high priest of North Carolina.. One of his most famous speeches was “I have a Dream” speech. Before his speech he delivered about 250,000 men and women and they marched to the Lincoln Memorial. During his speech he said many things but a few of which caught men, women, and even children’s undivided attention. He alluded, “Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still am told to sit in the back of the bus because whites were sought to be better than blacks. On December 1 ,1955 a woman named Rosa Parks was on a part of a bus where…
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. utter these words in front of 250,000 individuals on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial just decades ago. He and many other activists of the era paved a way for equality for African Americans for futurity. King and his acolytes used methods of civil disobedience to propel the movement and to promote change. Dr. King often broke many segregation laws at the time, however, he used nonviolent methods, intelligent motivational speaking, and an influx of supporters to end segregation in America.…
Disobedience causes the right things to happen, it is like the key to good things, well sometimes. In past historical events, there was many issues involving disobedience; rebellions were a major impact of the happenings too. For example, Rosa Parks, she refused to give up her seat on the bus, so people started boycotting buses and due to that, blacks were able to get rights. Even though Rosa Parks had to serve jail time, she was the main cause of those rights today. Rosa Parks was not the only person who did something like this and served jail time as well, Martin Luther King Jr. He fought for equality, rebelled in order to accomplish what he started and believed in. For the blacks and the whites to be one nation, to be mixed all together…
Martin Luther King, led the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. from the mid-1950s having an enormous impact on race relations until his assassination. Because of his many speeches and activism, he brought about an end to legal segregation of African-Americans in the United States, as well as creating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On August 28th of 1963, following the historic march that led more than 200,000 people, King gave his famous, “I Have A Dream” speech calling an end for racism. This…
Martin Luther King Jr was an activist for African American civil rights. On the day of the speech 200,000 fellow activists were participating in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; King delivered his speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial – a symbol for freedom in the eyes of all Americans. This speech was given at a time when racial tensions were at a peak and African Americans were discriminated and ostracized.…
Martin Luther King, Jr. a civil rights activist that fought for the rights of African Americans in 1963. King organized various non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in his arrest. While in jail, King received a letter from eight Alabama clergyman explaining their concern and opposition to King and his non-violent actions. This letter occasioned his reply and caused King to write a persuasive letter "Letter from Birmingham Jail," justifying his actions and presence in Birmingham. Although King’s reply was addressed to the Alabama clergyman, its target audience was the white people. King understood that if he gained support from the white American, the civil rights movement would reach its goals much faster. In his letter King effectively manipulates language and tone to strengthen his argument against the complaints of the clergyman and successfully address the white people. Throughout the essay, King uses several powerful tones to complement his strong opinion…
This paper will discuss what Martin Luther King Jr., Fredrick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, and Benazir Bhutto have to say about civil disobedience; though coming from different backgrounds they still have the same views or beliefs. This will be done by looking at Martin Luther King Jr.’s work The Letter from Birmingham Jail, Fredrick Douglass’s from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and comparing what these authors have in common. Most of these authors, if not all, have these themes in common: understanding human rights, the relationship between just and unjust laws, and the difference between human law and a “higher law”. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights…