Blacks and the US Constitution - Essay Example

Martin Luther King Juniors strategy for gaining civil rights was peaceful civil disobedience. This strategy was influenced by three factors. The first being Kings religion. Secondly, Gandhis struggle in India inspired King to peaceful protest. Lastly, the effectiveness of the press coverage of the peaceful civil disobedience. Kings tactics were not only more peaceful than Malcolm X or Stokely Carmichaels approach, but more successful. Martin Luther King Junior was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia (Garrow, 33). His father was a Baptist minister. Being raised Christian gave King a moral and forgiving outlook on life, that later showed in his approach to civil rights. Garrow explains King stated: We must keep God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our action. The protesters must not hate their white opponents, but be guided by Christian love while seeking justice with their demands. Love is one of the pinnacle parts of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. (24) King used the compassion, that he believed Jesus gave him, to all of his opponents. Baptist believed that Jesus did for every mans sin. All that man has to do is ask for forgiveness, inviting Jesus into to his heart. Once Jesus blood covered a sinner, the sinner became perfect in Christ. If someone is perfect, no matter the color, they are equal. King felt that every sinner could be forgiven, even Ku Klux Klan members or white supremacists. This led him to be forgiving of the white oppressors. Forgiveness in the Christian religion did not mean acceptance for the Jim Crow laws in place at the time of Kings birth. Jim Crow laws did not abide by national laws. King felt “civil disobedience to local laws is civil obedience to national laws” (Garrow, 92). Although the North won the American Civil War, the South won the battle of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws created to keep white and black separated (Cook, 10). An example would be separate bathrooms, water facets, eating facilities, and even separate places on public transportation. King felt that Jim Crow laws were illegal. Technically he was right. The North won the war, which made federal laws superior to state laws. However, the Southerners did not acknowledge this fact. The reality was the North did not want to deal with civil rights after the American Civil War until activists like King started pressing the issue. King realized that, “that our refusal to accept jim crow in specific areas challenges the entire social, political and economic order that has kept us second class citizens” (Garrow, 85). Christians believe that one must obey the laws of the land, if they do not go against Gods law. King and other civil rights activists believed that Jim Crow laws went against Gods laws. Kings nonviolent method was boycotting peacefully against racist Jim Crow laws. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is a good example. Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in an all-white section” (Marable, 1991, 40). King used the incident to call for a boycott of the public transportation in Montgomery. The result was public transportation was integrated after the Supreme Court order outlawed segregation on Montgomery buses on 13 November 1956 (Marable, 1991, 40). During this boycott King organized, around ninety-five percent of Montgomery blacks refused to ride Montgomery buses during the boycott (Marable, 1991, 40). Moreover, the nonviolent approach worked. The buses in Montgomery became segregated. This was one of the first victories in the Civil Rights Movement. The nonviolence approach also goes along with the Christian beliefs. Garrow explains that King stated that he would “continue to protest in the same spirit of nonviolence and passive resistance, using the weapon of love” (74). King used nonviolence civil disobedience to protest Jim Crow laws. This tactic worked well. The white Northerners were horrified to see passive black protesters beaten, sprayed with high pressured water hoses, and bitten by police dogs. Activists began “getting those scenes of violence out of the national and international media” (Garrow, 250). This led for Northern voters to travel South to join the nonviolent protests, not just black Americans, but white as well. Voting was another issue that King advocated. Most blacks were scared of any political involvement. Crawford et al states: The federal government, its rhetoric notwithstanding, was vacillating in its support for civil rights workers, the repressive powers of white supremacists was extensive; most blacks in the Mississippi Delta were afraid of any form of political involvement. (6) Although the blacks were afraid to vote, King realized the importance of voting. This was the ultimate form of nonviolent way to cause a permanent change in the government. King began encouraging voting drives, along with white helpers from the North. This was another step in achieving civil rights. In contrast Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichaels approach was militant. Malcolm X was also the son of a Baptist minister. However, Malcolm did not believe in the same values or approach as Martin Luther King Junior. Maybe because Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska (X,1992 1). Another factor could have been three of Malcolm Xs uncles were killed by white men and a great-uncle was lynched (X,1992, 2). All of these could have led to the militant views of Malcolm X. Malcolm X found Islam in prison. This had a profound impact on his views. He became a Sunni Muslim. Unlike the message of peace, love, and a forgiving Jesus, Islam believes in one God, Allah. All the do not profess Allah as the only God will go to hell. This portrait of a fire and brimstone God could have made Malcolm X feel the need to fight for justice, instead of forgive. Malcolm X did not believe nonviolent methods would work. His message was more of an eye for an eye. Malcolm X believed: The time for you and me to allow ourselves to be brutalized nonviolently has passed. Be nonviolent only with those who are nonviolent to you. And when you can bring me a nonviolent racist, bring me a nonviolent segregationist, then Ill get nonviolent. But dont teach me to be nonviolent until you teach some of those crackers to be nonviolent. (X, n.d.) He thought that defending oneself from violence was not wrong. Malcolm Xs views came from generations of abuse at the hands of the United States. It is estimated 10 million or more slaves were brought to North and South America (Birnbaum and Taylor, 16). These slaves were oppressed for centuries. White values were forced upon them, then the American Civil War set them free in a hostile environment. The Jim Crow laws, white hatred, and violence after the American Civil War caused resentment to fester, that can be seen in the United States today. Malcolm Xs views are understandable, even if they did not work. Malcolm Xs tactic tended to scare white people, even ones sympathetic toward the civil rights cause. Not only did Malcolm X repulse whites, but black Americans as well. The NAACP leaders thought that the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X were hurting the civil rights cause. For example: In August 1959, Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP declared that the Muslims had a hate- white doctrine which was as dangerous as [any] group of white racists. The Nation was furnishing ammunition for the use of white supremacists. NAACP chief counsel Thurgood Marshall, speaking at Princeton University, stated that the Nation of Islam was run by a bunch of thugs organized from prisons and jails, and financed, I am sure, by Nasser or some Arab group. (Marable, 1991, 55). Civil rights leaders like King, Wilkins, and Marshall believed the aggressive tactics used by the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X proved the white supremacist theory that blacks were no better than violent animals. Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad. At first, he tried Martin Luther King Juniors way of nonviolent protest, but soon became disillusioned by this approach. He then joined the Black Panther movement. The Black Panthers, like Malcolm X believed in self defense and coined the phrase Black Power. Like Malcolm X, Carmichael turned off whites and the majority of blacks. Still Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, Carmichael, and the Black Panthers did have a considerable number of followers, just not as many as the NAACP and King. The second reason that impacted Martin Luther King Juniors approach to civil rights was Gandhi. King was skeptical at first. King felt, “Gandhi had brought about revolutionary changes in Indian society. However, King had serious doubts about pacifism and nonviolence” (Garrow, 43). Later, once King saw the progress that Gandhi had made through nonviolence, he visited Gandhi in India. Even the news media made the comparison between Gandhi and King: network television began covering events there, with one ABC commentator comparing the protesters to Gandhi and the bankruptcy of white Montgomerys position to that of the British in India. (Garrow, 66) Gandhi was a definite influence on King. However, Gandhi influenced King, but the influence was intertwined with his religious beliefs. King gave an interview that related: King stressed that the Montgomery method was not principally a derivative from India. I have been a keen student of Gandhi for many years. However, this business of passive resistance and nonviolence is the gospel of Jesus. I went to Gandhi through Jesus. (Garrow, 75) The nonviolence of Gandhi went along with Kings Christian beliefs. Although Gandhi was not a Christian, King could identify his message with the message of Jesus. Gandhis influence on King also had other implications. After his return from meeting Gandhi in India, King had a selflessness about his attitude towards life. It was like King knew that his impact on the Civil Rights Movement was important, but that time was short. An example is what his wife felt. “Coretta felt that that was just part of a larger change, a pronounced selflessness that had emerged after the India trip and that had grown stronger since then” (Garrow, 164). King began his peaceful protests with greater vigor, giving speeches, and organizing voters. The third impact on Martin Luther King Juniors effectiveness on civil rights is the media. The television and radio was just becoming widespread in 1950s America. One of the first media used by King was in Birmingham. Demonstrations against segregated conditions led by King made nation news, through the newspaper and television. For example: Fridays clash made Saturday headlines across the country. Striking photographs of the snarling dogs and the high-pressured hoses appeared everywhere. One popular picture depicted a Birmingham officer holding a black citizen with one hand and a police dogs leash in the other while the dog attempted to sink its teeth into the mans stomach. News reports stated that three people had been treated at hospitals for dog bites, that five black children had been injured by fire hoses or police clubs, and that one black woman bystander had accused police of knocking her down and kicking her in the stomach intentionally. (Garrow, 250) These images outraged white Americans. The images of humans, not matter their colour, being treated so poorly made white Americans want to get involved in promoting civil rights for everyone. Another way King used the media was in John F Kennedys campaign. Some issues were not picked up by the white media, but black writers gave their readers some things to think about. For instance: Kennedy staffers made full use of Kings comments and Daddy Kings change of heart. They prepared a small flyer, "No Comment Nixon versus a Candidate with a Heart, Senator: The Case of Martin Luther King. (Garrow, 149) This led many black voters to vote for Kennedy, who became the United States President due in part to black votes. Another media success was the March on Washington. King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 (Garrow, 282). The other leaders and organizations comprising the Big Six were: Roy Wilkins, NAACP; Whitney Young, Jr., Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis, SNCC; and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) (Garrow, 282). It was during this march that King gave his “I have a dream” speech. Part of his speech is: I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression , will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Garrow, 284) This speech is still shown in the United States. It inspired many civil rights activist. Many people, the ones who read or saw on television, felt the emotions of the people in attendance to this historic event. The media allowed not just the people present, but millions of people to see Kings impassioned plea. Kings approach allowed white Americans to identify with blacks as human. Before King and the media, reports from the South were about what inhuman animals blacks consisted of. Rumors of blacks raping, murdering, and pillaging were spread in newspapers, before modern media put those ideas to rest. King showed how Bull McGovern and the rest of the white supremacist were the real animals. Without Kings leadership, the media might not have had peaceful protests to film. These nonviolent protests changed the tide of opinion. Malcolm Xs views on civil rights repulsed the white man. He did not care, in fact Malcolm X wanted to scare the white man. His attack on Christianity proved to white supremacists of the black mans inferiority. Malcolm X stated: Christianity is the white mans religion. The Holy Bible in the white mans hands and his interpretations of it have been the greatest single ideological weapon for enslaving millions of non-white human beings. Every country the white man has conquered with guns, he has always paved the way, and salved his conscience, by carrying the Bible and interpreting it to call people heathens and pagans; then he sends in his guns; then his missionaries behind the guns to mop-up. (246) Malcolm Xs views on history were correct, but white America did not want to hear this message. A majority of blacks, like Martin Luther King Junior, were Christians. These blacks did not want to hear how wrong Christianity was for them. Kings religion was as important to him as Islam was to Malcolm X. Malcolm X also used the media. He was a good orator, like King. However, the white public did not want hear some of the things he had to say. The media portrayed Malcolm X as: I had another radio or television microphone at my mouth, when I was asked about stirring up Negroes or inciting violence, Id get hot. It takes no one to stir up the sociological dynamite that stems from the unemployment, bad housing, and inferior education already in the ghettoes. (X, 373) These factors were already explosive, then Malcolm X would make speeches about how bad the white people were. Malcolm X used the media to get his message of violence and self defense across. He made it sound like self defense would be killing all whites. Americans did not want to hear this message. The main reason that Martin Luther King Juniors tactics worked, while Malcolm X and Carmichaels did not was more people identified with King, both black and white. The key to breaking down race relations were to get the American public to see blacks as human, with similarities to whites. King showed the similarities through Christianity, nonviolent protests, and the media. Whites began seeing blacks as people. Malcolm X drove white people away. This only made race relations tenser. Malcolm X treated white people as the enemy. That might have worked if the two races did not have to share the same country. The bitterness of Malcolm X and Carmichael is understandable, but it was not the answer to the problem. Civil rights were not achieved through violence. In fact, violent tactics by the white supremacists made civil rights a reality, but not black violence. King, Malcolm X, and Carmichael all wanted to achieve the same goal, civil rights for all Americans. Malcolm X and Carmichaels militant message was not received by the majority of black and white Americans. The violence and message of Islam did not sway Americans, but frightened them away. Malcolm X and Carmichael did have many followers, but not as many as followed Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Luther King Junior used approaches that worked. He was a knowledgeable Christian. When speaking of the Bible, many white Christians could relate to his position. His nonviolent protests helped whites see blacks as humans. Finally, the media helped show Americans how brutal white supremacists were toward King and his followers. All of these factors made Kings approach to gaining civil rights successful, whereas others failed. References Birnbaum, J. and C. Taylor (2000) Civil Rights since 1787. New York: New York University Press. Cook, R. (1998) Sweet land of liberty? The African-American struggle for civil rights in the twentieth century. New York: Longman. Crawford V.L., J.A. Rouse, and B. Woods. (1993) Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers 1941-1965. USA: Indiana University Press. Foner, E. (1990) Blacks and the US Constitution. New Left Review. 183, pp. 63-74 Garrow, D.J. (1988) Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian and the Southern Christian Leadership. New York: Random. Johnson, P., G. Miller, and John Aldrich. (1994) American Government: People, Institutions, and Policies. USA: Houghton Mifflin. Marable, M. (1991) Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1982, 2nd ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 1996 Marable M. and L. Mullings (1994) The Divided Mind of Black America: Race, Ideology and Politics in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Race and Class 36(1) pp. 61- 72. Morley, J. (1992) Bush and the Blacks: An Unknown Story. New York Review of Books. 16th January X, Malcolm. (n.d.) OAAU Founding Rally. ---. (1992) THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X. New York: Doubleday. Read More