King was a Baptist minister and social activist, who personally led the Civil Rights Movement until the very last day he spoke and fought for equality and freedom. King stepped forward to discuss equality and visions of America. King says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are…
King’s leadership resulted in one of the the greatest non-violent mass protests in the history of the western world. King represented a sense of hope and promise to the followers of the Civil Rights Movement. The most important aspect to understand in this debate is King’s non-violence. With many other African-American leaders, such as Malcolm X, taking a more aggressive, violent approach to change, King saw the potential in Ghandi’s peaceful protests. As Fairclough writes, “Few blacks believed that the city’s businessmen would have accepted desegregation but for the double pressure of the demonstrations and the economic boycott of downtown stores” (209). The only effective events in the Civil Rights movements were those that followed King’s system of non-violence. While Carson argues that rather than King’s presence, “the success of the black movement required the mobilization of black communities…”(219), this assertion is made under the assumption that a non-violent leader would organize the masses. Without King’s leadership, there may have been an violent uprising that only led to more tensions between the…
When King delivers his speech to his audience, he uses his own beliefs supports his cause for equality. For example, in “Give Us the Vote” he expresses his concern about that majority of people living in Selma is African American and how only “2% is allowed to vote”. He states, “I do not have command of my own life…but it’s determined for me by people who would rather see me suffer than succeed”, showing that King has a strong belief towards freedom as he feels that by gaining the right to vote he is demolishing the oppression that he feels. This shows that King’s belief had taken a role when creating his speeches to show his passion and righteousness for equality. In “Who Murdered Jimmie Lee Jackson?”, Kings voices his belief that those who…
King said that before anyone takes direct action, the protester first needs to “purify” (567) their soul so that he or she will have no regrets going forward. Taking direct action is the right path but, it needs to be understood that there will be consequences for those actions. Taking a stand has never been easy and can be extremely difficult, but for the future progress of the African American, it was necessary. The protester needed to possess a firm moral conviction that their cause was a righteous and just cause. By combining nonviolent resistance, direct action, and a firm conviction of their cause, King was confident that the oppressors would come to join him in the quest for equality. All other issues would fade away and the only thing left to see would be the true issue, a "good versus evil"…
Martin Luther King uses rhetorical strategies in his speech in order to do many things. These rhetorical strategies can be seen throughout the Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. The main purpose of this letter is to fight for freedom and end segregation between the Whites and the African Americans.King utilizes pronouns to include the audience to persuade his audience that as a nation we are all in this together. King says, “We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands” (1). The purpose of this sentence is to make everyone come together. King claims that they will win because God is on their side. If they work hard enough they will also achieve what they are striving for. “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation” (1) Kings purpose of this quote is to give his readers hope that change will come eventually. He will not just reach the goal of freedom, but the nation will reach the goal of freedom. Using pronouns to include the audience brings king and the readers together. Together they take a stand and become one. King utilizes repetition, which ingrains the problem in your head while making…
Martin Luther king has a moral character has proven to the people that he is a serious man and very trustworthy. When people look at him they could see that kings beliefs were not a joke to him. The Baptist minister was an activist and was a leader in the African American civil rights movement. King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. In his speech he asks the people to take their money out of downtown banks and deposit their money in Tri-State Bank—for a “bank –in” movement. Kings says “I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves at SCLC.” “We’re just telling you to follow what we’re doing.” From this you can see that he basically was saying that you can trust him.…
The clergymen called King an extremist for standing up for what was right and wanting to march. King hoped that the march would turn negative energy into a positive one, to support his thoughts king would often use example from other leaders who decided to step up and make a change. King often relied on the example set by Socrates, Paul and Jesus so that the clergymen could see that oppression is still going on. King goes on to state that “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressors; it must be deemed by the oppressed”, and that’s exactly what was happening. They were demanding what was morally right. King brought to the light that being poor does not only relate to those who have less, financially but emotionally also. This is seen in the injustice practiced during this time. Even though the odds were against all who were fighting for change Dr. King remained very positive and hopeful he believed that even if they did not get all they wanted they would leave a mark, hoping that eventually things would get…
From a critical viewpoint, King makes a very persuasive argument using logic and emotions to influence the audience that he is in fact right in taking a non-violent action but more so justified from the basic humanity laws. He denies idea that he is supporting some laws while breaking other by making a distinction between just and unjust laws. He talks about the difference between moral and political and just and unjust laws. For example, Parade law that put him in jail is just in letter but unjust when applied to violate constitution. King also justifies breaking laws by citing historical examples of civil disobedience, such as: the Old Testament, Early Christians in Rome, Socrates, Boston Tea Party, Freedom Fighters against Hitler. He then uses emotions to convince his readers that it is the white moderate that are really at fault, conveying the message that he is a victim of circumstance and society. He uses this to lead into the criticism of his extremism. King is really a moderate between two extremes of black action between doing nothing and becoming violent. He cautions that without his movement, the extreme of hating whites will win out and cause more violence. He then shows that he is indeed a pacifistic by recognition and praise of those whites who have helped his cause. King tries to refute the clergyman’s disapproval of the actions that occurred in Birmingham, he tries to redirects praise to the civil rights protestors, and reconstructs a harmonious…
While King was giving the speech he included himself as being discriminating against. He stated some as simple as being on the bus and how he was thrown to the back because he was African American. King knew that if a person that has gone through the struggle of being treated differently, there would someone else just like him with the same struggle that would have his back. And gain supporters to stop racism, and make racism something people hate to see not join in. Martin Luther King Jr knew that non-violent protests is the way to go if you’re trying to make a…
King followed the theory that change could happen without the use of violence. King showed ideas and methods from Mahatma Gandhi. King’s idea of resisting the racial profiling were to organize lunch-counter sit-ins, peaceful marches, and bus boycotts. His main goal was to show people around the world how violent oppressors were morally incorrect in the way they were acting. Dr. King overall delivered his philosophy and how you cannot fight racial injustice with violence, because it leads to give the oppressors something to rally against. With his ideas and philosophies a civil rights bus group emerged. That famous group were the Freedom…
King was critical for the civil rights movement; he was massively proactive. This is evident from King’s first significant role, the 1955 Bus boycott - King put forward his method of non-violent protest as for correcting the inequalities of the American Society. Already from this first act we see King’s ‘pure’ intentions, his ideal of non-violent protest which he would continue to use throughout his civil rights campaign, King persuaded local people to boycott, without them it would be unsuccessful. The value of this one event is key to understanding the importance of King; this one event set the tone for the rest of…
From his letter, I agree with Kings’ argument and ideas in civil disobedience, as a method to eradicate injustice. He elaborates his point of view on the issues that matter most to the community at large. Kings philosophy entails to having a common ground for peace among the diverse races in our current society, and freedom of speech, in order to express ourselves without fear of prosecution. King’s memorable quote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, shows the significance of having the same level of authority everywhere, for the sake of equality. King actions made everyone realize the need of having fair treatment without discrimination, and abolishing racism which was, and is still challenge to the minorities. Since the goal of philosophy is autonomy, individuals have the freedom to decide on themselves on what they believe in and use their own reasoning to act and do the right thing that would benefit the society at large. This enables a society to choose what is right for the majority and no to benefit the people in…
In the reading CRITO the verdict of execution has already been given and now Socrates and colleagues must make the decision to flee the city of Athens or stay and face his fate. In this conversation you have Critos point of view and Socrates. Based on Critos reasoning he states three reasons why Socrates should stay, the first two being selfish but the third hitting home.…
Martin Luther King showed that he had the better philosophy compared to Malcolm X because of his stance on violence. One way King upheld his beliefs was through protest. King said in his Our God is Marching speech, “We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. We are on the move now. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us” (Document 4). So Protesters, including King himself were having their homes burned down for protesting for what they believe is right. In March of 1965 King and other protesters walked in order to raise awareness of the need for a Voting Right Act. This Act was passed later that year. But even though they achieved their goal for voting right does not mean that the protesters did not receive opposition for…
He positioned the movement on the side of hallowed American ideals of liberty and equality, long enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. We hear these themes echoed in his I Have a Dream speech, and also in Kennedy and Johnson’s speeches in Sources 6 and 7. King’s philosophy aligns him with the American tradition of “renew[ing] and enlarge[ing]” American freedoms. (Source 7) In that role, it is little wonder that he should be standing behind President Johnson as he signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.…