More handpicked essays just for you.
Martin Luther King's contribution to the civil rights movement
Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement
The civil rights movement in the usa and its social impact
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Martin Luther King, Jr. stated. African Americans had endured persecution for decades- houses and churches burned down, sit-in participants got attacked, separate schools and lack of quality education systems. These all contributed to the fact that it was time to take action. They could not endure the torture, pain, and segregation anymore.
In the First Amendment of the Constitution, it is stated that people have the right to peaceably assemble. All of the rallies that King participated in were in support of ending segregation. He also promoted the use of nonviolent action. King explained that in nonviolent campaigns there are four basic steps: determination of the presence of injustice, negotiation, self purification, and then direct action. It was evident that injustice existed through the laws; however, the debates that arose due to those laws were not always peaceful. There are laws which are just and there are laws which are unjust. Debates arose due to these laws, both by peaceful means, and by violence.
King’s argument for breaking the law is that of morals. He wholeheartedly
…show more content…
supports obeying the laws, including the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. It is both a legal and a moral responsibility to obey laws according to Martin Luther King Jr. On the other side, it is also a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. If they did not act out, there would be nothing done. “[Unjust laws] should be repealed as soon as possible, while they still continue in force,” Abraham Lincoln stated.
Lincoln still wanted order, while the people wanted change. While Lincoln was in a different period of African American discrimination than King was, he believed that laws should always be obeyed, just or unjust. Lincoln understood and promoted that the government could not last with all the hate that was going on. He knew of all the death and mourning that had taken place, just so people would have the freedoms they had. Lincoln said, “let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his own, and his children’s liberty.” There is a thought process that each law goes through to even be considered, and Lincoln believed that laws were created to protect people and better the
country. Martin Luther King Jr. has influenced groups today to stand up for what they believe and fight for their rights. In this way, King was just when he disobeyed the law. The only way to advance a movement is to make noise. Luther quoted St. Augustine when he said, “an unjust law is no law at all.” King knew that segregation may never be negotiated if they did not bring people to the acknowledgement of the problem. Lincoln had a good point of obeying the law always, even if it was unjust. However, as Luther stated, “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” There may never be a time to stand for right. Not everyone’s morals are the same. What one sees as morally wrong, one may see it as morally right. It was a smart move for King and his protestors to confront the law with nonviolent campaigns. It is when protestors become violent that it is not okay for citizens to disobey laws. The government is more open to negotiate when peaceful means are used. It is a right for citizens to debate laws and policies of the government when they think the government is gaining too much power. It is up to the people to decipher unjust from just laws. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a prime example of when it is okay to disobey laws, as well as how to do so.
History has encountered many different individuals whom have each impacted the 21 in one way or another; two important men whom have revolted against the government in order to achieve justice are Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. Both men impacted numerous individuals with their powerful words, their words carried the ability to inspire both men and women to do right by their morality and not follow unjust laws. “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” by David Henry Thoreau along with King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, allow the audience to understand what it means to protest for what is moral.
One may be very impressed with Martin Luther King’s braviary, patience, and respect towards his readers. From here on out after analyzing his piece of writing many may want to reflect back on history and the realization of this event that had taken place. This letter gives you a glimpse as to what African Americans and people of other nationalities had went through during segregational times. This letter is inspirational and one should feel so lucky to be able to have read and understand this glance of our nation’s
During this era, LBJ and the Civil Rights Bill was the main aattraction. July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed a civil rights bill that prohibited discrimination in voting, education, employment, and other areas of the American life. At this point, the American life will be changed forever. LBJ had helped to weaken bills because he felt as if it was the states job and not the goverment, but why did he change his mind? Was polictics the reason LBJ signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964?
The author, Dr. Martian Luther King Jr., makes a statement “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” He uses this concept to convey the point of the Negros hard work to negotiate the issue has failed, but now they must confront it. The March on Good Friday, 1963, 53 blacks, led by Reverend Martian Luther King, Jr., was his first physical protest to segregation laws that had taken place after several efforts to simply negotiate. The author uses several phrases that describe his nonviolent efforts and his devotion to the issue of segregation that makes the reader believe his how seriously King takes this issue. “Conversely, one has the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Dr. Martian Luther King, Jr. explains with this that an “unjust law is no law at all.” King does not feel like he has broken any laws in his protest against segregation. In his eyes, laws are made to protect the people, not degrade and punish. “The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him March.” As far as King is concerned, the Negros will continue to do whatever is necessary, preferably non-violently, to obtain the moral and legal right that is theirs. If they are not allowe...
Non-violent direct action and respectful disagreement are a form of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King, Jr. defines “civil disobedience” as a way to show others what to do when a law is unjust and unreasonable. King is most famous for his role in leading the African American Civil Rights Movement and using non-violent civil disobedience to promote his beliefs. King also firmly believed that civil disobedience was the way to defeat racial segregation against African Americans. While leading a protest march on the streets, King was arrested and sent to jail. In response to his imprisonment and an article he read while there, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, explaining that an injustice affects everyone and listed his own criteria for
Slave owners in the South were some of the most cruel and inhumane human beings out there. They used many tactics to maintain a prosperous system of slavery amongst them. Like many, Frederick Douglass was born a slave. Deprived of as much as possible, Douglass knew not much more than his place of birth. Masters were encouraged to dispossess slaves of any knowledge and several of them did not know their birthdays or other personal details of themselves. The purpose of this was to keep slaves as misinformed of anything other than labor as possible. Slave owners knew the dangers that would upraise if slaves became literate and brave enough to fight for freedom.
In addressing and confronting the problem of injustices among the black Americans in the American society, particularly the violence that had happened in Birmingham, and generally, the inequality and racial prejudice happening in his American society, King argues his position by using both moral, social, and political references and logic for his arguments to be considered valid and agreeable.
During the course of King's writing, one of his strong points is his ability to take the words of his oppressors, discredit them or explain why their ideas aren't plausible, convey his ideas, and detail exactly why and how they will work. In the sixth paragraph, King rebukes those who "deplore the demonstrations that are currently taking place in Birmingham," as they are only dealing with the effect and not recognizing the cause for the demonstrations, then clarifies that the white power left the Negro community no other choice. In the next paragraph, King spells out the four basic steps of any non-violent demonstration. Breaking it down even more, he gives an example of each step in the Birmingham situation. King gave the reader an easy to follow step by step account of a non-violent protest that let the reader understand the careful planning of each step.
the segregationists, resulting in the injury and deaths of many of King’s followers. With these points in mind, King came to the conclusion that the best strategy in gaining the rights of African American was the use of non-violent protest. He believed that violence only “intensifies evil,';
This letter addressed the criticism he received while peacefully protesting. It was also a response to the injustices he witnessed and experienced while visiting the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Birmingham branch. He explains how he and the SCLC organized their plans of nonviolent action for change in not only the segregated schools in Alabama, but for the discriminated people of America. Dr. King declares, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied” (344). He states that African American people have waited more than 340 years for constitutional and God-given rights (King 344). His pleas for recognition of the mass injustices and his assemblies of nonviolent actions caused a wave of changes to occur across the country. His teachings and actions paved the way for African Americans and other minorities to be given the opportunity to exceed expectations and not to be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. One such person became our 44th President.
A quote from Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most renowned public speakers and advocate for equal rights of African Americans. Despite the story Black Boy, by Richard Wright, taking place several years before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, there is a prevalent discrimination in both time periods. In the beginning of the novel Black Boy, Richard maintained a facade, or superficial appearance, that blacks were equal to whites. But later, Richard would soon begin understanding the brutalities people of his skin color would face primarily through Jim Crow laws, which extinguished his false sense of equality for blacks and whites. As a young boy, Richard was deprived of a loving and supporting family, despite his effort and “hunger” for such a family. But as Richard grew up he had more freedom and began to come in touch with the real world. Now Richard had acquired a “hunger” for new understanding and knowledge of the real world, and tried to apply this knowledge to the past, present, and future.
The civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s was a struggle for social justice for African Americans to gain equal rights. One activist who became the most recognizable spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, a christian man dedicated to the ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Although the Civil war had officially abolished slavery, blacks were still treated as less than human for many years after. Martin Luther King Jr has positively impacted the world with his peaceful protest approach to gaining social justice; but with the increase of hate crimes being committed, I believe individuals today need to pick up where King left
According to Martin Luther King Jr., “There are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws” (King 293). During his time as civil rights leader, he advocated civil disobedience to fight the unjust laws against African-Americans in America. For instance, there was no punishment for the beatings imposed upon African-Americans or for the burning of their houses despite their blatant violent, criminal, and immoral demeanor. Yet, an African-American could be sentenced to jail for a passive disagreement with a white person such as not wanting to give up their seat to a white passenger on a public bus. Although these unjust laws have been righted, Americans still face other unjust laws in the twenty-first century.
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...