Martin Luther King: Redefining Social Action

Martin Luther King Jr:

Redefining Social Action in the 20th century Civil Right Movement of Nonviolence

Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

Martin Luther King Jr:

Redefining Social Action in the 20th century Civil Right Movement of Nonviolence

A Paper

Submitted to Dr. Kenneth Cleaver

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Course

American Christianity

CHHI 660-B01

By

James E. Whitaker

July 3, 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION 2

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURYOF SOCIAL ACTION IN AMERICA 3

18th and 19th century revivalism and social change that changed America

3. SOUTHERN ROOTS: A BREFT OVERVIEW OF KING’S LIFE AND PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS 4

Martin Luther Kings ' Social Action: “Faith without works is dead.”

I have a dream… the words that shook the World

4. RELIGIOUS THEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING… 7

Longevity has its place…

I’ve been to the mountaintop…

5.

CONCLUSION 8

Free at last, free at last… thank God almighty... I am free at last!

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 9

INTRODUCTION
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Civil Rights Activist (1929–1968) and social reformer in the mid 20th century have become the embodiment of individual “social action” on the conscious of the American psyche and Christian consciousness as well. It is Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. that stands as a symbol of our nation and the world… as a man of faith, peace and nonviolence (as witness by Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964) . Forever fused to the wonderful accomplishment of this remarkable man is an undeniable link to Mahatma Gandhi (1869 -1948: a prominent Indian political leader who campaigned for Indian independence) , that in my opinion has been over emphasized as Dr. Kings mentor of inspiration for King’s nonviolence stance in sprite of the historical, cultural (King’s Jim Crow existence in Southern Georgia) and King’s own religious heritage would suggests in favor of political correctness, rather than actual fact.
In this paper I will attempt to show that a greater link exist between King’s own sense of American history, his contemporary southern roots and his dynamic religious heritage that helped shaped who Dr. King was and his legacy of nonviolence than his limited encounters with the life and teaching of Mahatma Gandhi ever could.
In doing so I must remind the reader that Dr. King was first and foremost a theologian, not a sociologist! Dr. King’s faith was not a normative ideological concept but a clearly defined and crafted set of conviction that determined his outlook on history, culture and the image of God and God’s children statement in which Dr. King often referred (i.e. “all of God’s Children”) in his plethora of speeches and writings. I will go into more detail concerning King’s theology of God as we dive into King’s southern roots and his religious heritage later in this paper.
Furthermore, please note that being said, I do understand my many limitations within the size and scope of this essay and I have little hope to convincing every readers of the certainty of my aforementioned assertions. My intention however, is to shed some light on a matter that has long troubled many evangelical Christian about the man (Martin Luther King) and his mission as it relate to his Christian faith. I’m not trying to rewrite history and I clearly acknowledge the influences of the works of Gandhi that profoundly affected the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and the American Civil Rights Movement.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURYOF SOCIAL ACTION IN AMERICA
After the long and bitter Revolutionary War with Britain (1700 -1776) was over and relative peace sweep the new nation the political and religious leader gradually begin to realize how fractured that new nation was. Freedom we had won would become more and more clear a choice between “Liberty or Death” and the “Right to Worship as I see fit… and not all” although great rallying cries in the 19th century at least… they had not live up to the promise. Women had not earned the right to vote, slavery and it’s brutality had not been abolished, the morals, values and spiritual underpinning of the nation had waned and grow weaker at the start of America’s new century of freedom emerged. So was the sentiment of Evangelist Dwight L. Moody and many others as he reflected back upon a nation that had promised so much to so may.
The enlightenment movement lead by men such as Thomas Paine (1735-1809), Ethan Allen (1738-1789) and Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), sought to undermine the very foundation of the Christian religion, by attacking Biblical revelation as a kind of “empire of superstition” (to quote Palmer). This new democratic enlightenment leads to schism, biblical debate and the questioning of all kinds of religious authority
To counter the growing debate new agencies sprang up out of individual who had valid concerns that the scripture and biblical integrity be maintained. It was the power and well of individual citizen that lead to the founding of “The American Bible Society) in 1816 out of individual and voluntary concern for scripture (Gaustad, 2004, 1400. In 1824, The American Sunday School Union was formed by individual concern with biblical education of the children, and just one year later the American Tract Society was from (1825) to assist in the spread of the gospel with emphasis on good morals and individual action needed in tract distribution (Gaustad, 142). Agencies such as these operated under the influences of denominational constraint however, they raise about the denominational differences and sectarian jalousies to present what Gaustad (2004) referred to as “a united evangelical front” to the 19th century enlighten movement with a growing nation .
The 19th century, individualism in America become with being an American and many individuals who shape their world with social change. Need to be considered as one of the driving forces behind all that Dr. King was able to accomplish. Dr. King was a man of words and individual of actions. Weather being arrested for his beliefs in nonviolence protest or using his bully pulpit at Dexter Avenue Baptist church, he was famous for reminding America of its pledge and its promises made by influential individuals and artifacts from centuries. The US Constitutional, the Bill of Rights, Permeable of the United States, and the National Anthem infused many of Dr. King’s speeches. So too the words of America’s greatest social reformers were often quoted from past president who held the highest office in time of great social change such as Washington (1789-1791), John Adams (1797-1801), Thomas Jefferson (1801-1909) John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) and of course Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) word were often credited for King’s inspiration to demand social change and civil rights for all mankind.
No one… so elegantly mastered the confidence, the character and the rhetorical intensity of a movement for social changed that had been promised - to all American - a century before his birth, yet as the life of Dr. King reminded the world… the promises had not been had realized.
It is King’s legacy, King’s dream, King’s relentless call (demand) for social justice that resounded so powerfully in his time… that we can still hear him calling out for justice five decades after his death.

One promising note however of the 18th century America had with a burst of freedom, America would have only two recourses it could pursue. One, it would abide by the United States Constitution (as the rule of law) to inforce political stability and equality of all. And two it would purposely organizing a broad based platform for all kinds of Social Action Communities to flourish. This would include religious organizations to inforce social and religious tolerance that was not easy to do in the infancy of the 18th century, however this two-prong approach would unify a fractured nation into the19th centuries that even its distractors would come to admire, “America, the greatest nation on earth”, by the end of the century .
This would be the hope of the oppressed masses longing to be free and this was the history in which Martin Luther King would embrace to underpin his African Americanism.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURYOF SOCIAL ACTION IN AMERICA
Martin Luther King’s education and spiritual foundations were built upon real life experiences in the Jim Crow South and quality relationships. In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. During his last year in seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays were an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change.
18th and 19th century revivalism and social change that changed America
This most pressing crusade on the 1950 and 1960 was that of Black Americans and the concept of true Civil Rights. For Martin Luther King this would not be a movement just for Black Americans but one for all American. Kings vision of social change would be one of inclusiveness. King was a student of history and great intellect; he had studied the work and life of men like Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman who were a former slave. To king, Douglass stood as a living example against the 1950s and 60s Jim Crow laws as a man that used his intellectual capacity to challenge all American citizens by his great orator skills. For king his civil right movement would be built on brotherly love, not hate. King envisioned Protestant, Catholic, and Jews all coming to getter. Black, Whites and Browns all joining hands in a common solidarity of nonviolence fro the betterment of all men. “Solidarity in thru face of dog, beaten water hoses, and even if need be death… King believed that this was the only way to defeat the enemy of injustice and social shame that was a part of the mid 20th century.

SOUTHERN ROOTS: A BREFT OVERVIEW OF KING’S LIFE AND PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
“Martin Luther Kings ' Social Action: “Faith without works is dead.”

Dr. King was fund of quoting scriptures and as a progressive Christian and champion of civil rights (a term first used to describe the struggle of Blacks for equality in society in 1948 ) and in a more liberal inclusive social gospel. You may also know that he spoke out against the War, harshly criticized U.S. foreign in Vietnam and protested greatly against poverty. However what many do not know is how Dr. King developed his theology of civil rights.
Many Biographies describe Dr. King as a liberal Protestant and pastor of a prominent Baptist church. Yet, what was King’s understanding of Christian doctrines and why are they important to us? Where did it all start?
Although King’s father and Grandfather were Baptist ministers, the young Martin L. King was afforded a liberal education at Morehouse Collage in Atlanta that same school in which his father and grandfather had attended.
King wrote a number of academic papers during his seminary years (1948-1951) providing an intimate look at the young Dr. King’s struggle to reconcile his religion with a changing, dynamic, unequal, modern world full of injustices. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and was award his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old. It was then that Martin L. King; Jr. King’s nonviolence stand was firmly develop as an outgrowth of his faith in Christ. It was the biblical mandate from scripture that was always a part of his fiery messages. “The bible demands that we turn the other cheek; to love thy neighbors, do good to them that despitefully abuse you…” as often a subject of Kings sermons.
I have a dream… the words that shook the World
King had learned from his father, Martin Luther King, Sr. (1897-1984) and maternal grandfather, Adam Daniel Williams (1863-1931), how to employ vivid tales and lively language from the Bible and a variety of other sources in his ministry style. It was the language of the southern preachers of his day (his preaching style is still widely used today). King employed imagery drawn from the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, the journey to the Promised Land, and the admonition to love one's enemies in the Sermon on the Mount not only in his pulpit but in his academic writing as well. Never a dull speaker, King used his Ph.D. degree in Theology (from Boston University in 1955) to incorporated many references for the classical, medieval, and modern authors, such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Spinoza, Hegel, and others in his addresses .
RELIGIOUS HERITAGE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING
Kings religious journey begin in 1944 as a freshmen in 1944 King read an essay by Harry David Thoreau (1817-1862), on “Civil Disobedience”… it was the very first time that the young King was introduces to the power of civil disobedience and nonviolence as a tool of social change. King was convinced that this method was consistent with his developing concepts of God. Also while King was at Morehouse he was also introduced to the President, Benjamin Mays and a liberal profession named George Kelsey a professor of philosophy, both these men were ordained ministers who urged King to stay true to his calling as a minister (pastor) for as they saw it “the minister was the most influence voice of the black community.
King headed of to Crozer Theological Seminary in 1948 at the young age of 19.

It was there King meet Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (1891 – 1976) an American educator and pastor. He served as the first black president of Howard University, from 1926 until 1960. Johnson has been considered one of the leading African-American preachers of the early 20th-century. Johnson would traveled 25,000 miles a year throughout the country speaking principally on topics such as racism, segregation, and discrimination and his word become a source of great influence for the young Martin L. King. Year later both men spoke alongside each other on the subject of social justice. King was an gifted reader and was introduce to the works of great social reformers that include the work of Mohandas K. Gandhi. King identified with the philosophy of nonviolence resistance, which Gandhi had used effectively to make positive change in India. King was impressed with his research and saw how these ideas were not inconstant with his Christian

faith.
In 1951 King won a scholarship to study for his PHD at Boston University. While attending Boston University he meet and married Coretta Scott King (1927 – 2006) and life moved forward. It would be nearly four years later in 1955 five years when then Rev. Martin L. King, Jr. would be introduced to Bayard Rustin a well-known African-American civil rights activist who had studied Gandhi's teachings on nonviolence. Rustin became one of King's key associates and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence in the same way that Gandhi had done. In the same year, King decided to seek more information on Gandhi's success by personally visiting Gandhi's birthplace in India. This trip proved that nonviolence could force social change and served to increase a commitment to a nonviolence in the America's civil rights struggle. King was so impressed that he allowed Rustin served as one of his mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
“Longevity has its place… but I’ve been to the mountain top…”
One other factor to consider as King formulated his theology and civil disobedience, in 1957 King meet Harris Wofford a great believer in nonviolence protest. Among his array of sources, Wofford often references Socrates as a model of civil disobedience and of a particular interest Socrates stand of social justice. King makes one of his earliest such reference in "Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience," a reference to Socrates at an address to the “Fellowship of the Concerned”, an interracial group affiliated with the Southern Regional Council, delivered at its annual meeting in Atlanta in November, 1961. In that speech one can see that parallels in the argument that suggest the influences of Harris Wofford's speech on civil disobedience at Howard University in October, 1957, "Non-Violence and the Law," a speech on “nonviolence and the Law” which King may have drawn upon in creating his speech. . The same parallels remarkably reappear in "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" (April, 1963).
Another factor to consider is that King da develop a very unique view of God and God’s children under the influences of his academic mentors. To King we were all considered “children of God”. Some see the concept of universalism in King’s often repeated comments (i.e. Robert James Scofield, 2009), however it could have been more of an inclusive statement for the times than it was one of theological position.
For Dr. King the image of God and the children of God gain solid support from the framers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. King was a master of using the imagery of the Bible with the imagery of the Founding Fathers words that resulted in a dynamic interplay of religious ideals set in contrast with the American ideals. We are all entitled to certain “inalienable right given by God (the creator)” of which the Founding Fathers of America had envisioned according to Dr. Kings theology of civil right guarantee in the U. S. Constitution. For Dr. King, this interplay of wording from both sources the Bible and the words of the Founding Fathers give the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence a kind of sacredness and validated his movement from the spiritual, intellectual and philosophical perspectives.

CONCLUSION
Free at last, free at last; Thank God almighty… I’m free at last.”
In conclusion, the preceding discussion has sought to show that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not as influenced by the life and works of the great Indian leaders Mahatma Gundy as often referenced in biographies of Dr. King, as he was influenced by a variety of sources most prominently being his American Christian History of social reforms, his Southern cultural roots, and his religious theological heritage of Faith, Family and academic friends and mentors.
Kings life and legacy is most prominently a witness to a man of bold Biblical faith with words both in written form and spoken quotations, illustrations and allusions of his Christian faith. King’s often recounting of non-biblical sources is mostly those of the ancient philosopher (i.e. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) and Christian apologist (i.e. Iguanas, Augustine, Spinoza and Hegel) and his family members and his contemporary friend and mentors shed new light on the enormous amount of Christian influence that have gone into the life of this extraordinary man, we call simply Dr. King. And as mention prior in the essay, yet it seems an imaginary of a spiritual and historical link connecting Dr. King and Gandhi with civil disobedience will always exist justified or not in the minds of the masses on civil disobedience, I would hope that the readers of this essay would give a bit more reflection to Dr. Kings inner cycle of friends, family and most profoundly his personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is something to be said about silence. Some people have made a convincing theory based on the argument of silence. That is what has not been said or written can speak volumes about a subject. The vest amount of time that Martin L. King, jr., spent conducting lectures, writing books and composing his great oratorical lexicon (a rather large deposit of materials), yet there is scarily a quote taken directly from Mahatma Gandhi himself.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister first, and a social activist, who led the Civil Rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968… yet, there was little written nor said by King himself about Gandhi. I suggest that much more time and research should be devoted to this subject as Dr. King is an American icon and a out spoken example of an American ideal… best quoted by Thomas Jefferson; “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; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Bibliography
Carson, Clayborne. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Warner Book Inc. 1998.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. NY: Dove Publication. 1995.
Gaustad, Edwin S., & Leigh E. Schmidt. Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today. 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.
Johnson, Leonidas. The African American Church: Waking up God’s missionary call. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library. 2006.
Pastan, Amy. Martin Luther King Jr.: A photographic story of a life. New York, NY: D K Publishing, Inc. 2004.
Quercus. Speeches That Changed the World: The Stories and Transcripts of the Moments That Made History. London: Smith-Davies Publishing Ltd. 2005
William, West. “Socrates as a Model of Civil Disobedience in the writing of Martin Luther King, Jr., The Classical Bulletin. 2000. 76, 2, available from Dialog: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/docview/1296283166/fulltext/A236391A6D5A43FEPQ/1?accountid=12085
Wills, Richard W. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Image of God. Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2009. DOI: 10.1093/acproof; 9780195308990.001.00001
Scofield, Robert James. King's God: The Unknown Faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tikkun. 24.6 (Nov/Dec 2009): 51-53,75-76. (Retrieved on June 1, 2015) available from dialog http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/religion/docview/212219566/fulltext/69F6A7E5F62046D2PQ/2?accountid=12085
UN. Mahatma Gandhi Biography. (Retrieved on June 1, 2015) available from dialog http://www.biographyonline.net/politicians/indian/gandhi.html