Martin Luther King Junior in the pages of the History - Literature review Example

Martin Luther King Jr. in the pages of the History Paper Martin Luther King Jr. in the pages of the History Introduction Martin Luther King Jr. was a middle child of a family having three children. The older one was a girl known as Willie King and the younger one was a boy called Daniel King. The hometown of the family was in Atlanta, Georgia (Fairclough, 1). The future leader found it hard to believe in the traditional Christian belief system. King received a Noble Prize in the year of 1966 for his brave attitude that he used to raise voice against racism in America and his resultant suffering in the jail of Birmingham (Gottlieb, 177). His disbelief got stronger and he at the age of thirteen challenged the very basis of the religion by doubting the historical incident in which Jesus was murdered and the child also refused to believe the Jesus as a son of God. King argued that his doubts and confusions about the religious philosophies were reaping from the days of early childhood and now it was the time to express them openly (Gottlieb, 63). All of this took place during a Sunday’s service, leaving everyone rattled and startled to say the least. King was brought up in Atlanta and he went to Booker T Washington High School. He was considered an extraordinary child and therefore, was allowed to abandon the lower classes only to enter Morehouse College at the unexpected age of fifteen. The education went well and he ended college with earning a degree in sociology and it was the time when he truly understood the nature and value of human relations. The education had a significant impact of his later life as a leader. He then, joined Crozer Theological Seminary that was located in Chester where he earned another degree and eventually married Coretta Scott in the year of 1953. The educational journey continued and King became a part of Boston University where he studied systematic theology and he completed his qualification two years later in the year of 1955. The dissertation was found to be plagiarized but no action had been taken by the investigation committee because they considered it useless whereas, the study added to the knowledge of the field and therefore, the researcher was spared from facing severe ramifications (Fairclough, 49). However, the incident left a stain on the character of the leader but, the influencers and geniuses are known to have shady pasts and some argue that the shameful past makes a leader to rise to the heights of character and it seems to be very right in the case of Luther. The character of Jesus impressed King a great deal and his doubts vanished as he studied theological philosophy in a deeper sense (M. King, 2). The most important and strong influence came to the way of King from Jesus was the ability to love fellow humans. The most unexpected individuals can experience the grace. The King’s person can be taken as an example to the aforementioned law because he was the one who opposed to the idea of Jesus as a spiritual leader and he perhaps studied theology to find reasons to support disbeliefs but what he found was completely the opposite and it transformed him entirely. A disbeliever becomes a believer and a very refined one as well. The logical mind of King was not willing to accept the reality of Jesus without investigating and it was the sign of a man who had been searching for truth all his life. Therefore, the force of nature responded in kindness and the searcher finally found what he was looking for that is called the grace. In the personality of King, the urge to share the gift was so intense that he did not allow his campaign to become violent because he knew it for a fact that misdeeds can never allow his team to experience grace. He controlled the violence and grace was showered on his way once again in the form of a speech called “I have a dream”. The speech was almost identified as a word of God as if the speaker was conduit through which the thoughts and words of Jesus are conveyed. The dream was so noble that a simple human cannot think of that because of presence of such hate around him. Definitively, King was touched and he was touched by the God’s grace (King, 29). He spent years in the library of Boston University preparing himself for the gift which was bestowed on him over the podium of Marches on Washington. The great leader of the African American community named Martin Luther King was the first ever influencer who used his powers in order to persuade his society to pursue nonviolent approach towards protesting and raise their voice for the basic civil rights. The individual was born in the year of 1929 (Fairclough, 1) and was named as Michael King at first but his father later named him Martin Luther King after a great German leader and his changed name did justice to him because he is the most powerful head of the civil rights moment in the history of America. The featured personality’s dedication to nonviolence helped him in terms remaining out of the prison as the authorities failed to build a solid case against him. The leader no doubt led quite a few protests before getting attention of the government. In 1955, he appeared as a leader of Montgomery Bus boycott in which the African American community held each other’s hands in standing up against the normative practice of not reserving seats for the colored people in the transport service (King, 118). The boycott was an insignificant attempt in leaving a mark on the societal trends of hate that were based purely on racist thinking and philosophy but it blessed the suppressed people with the renewed sense of unity. The sense of unity was consumed for the creation of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (King, 12). The platform provided the suppressed community to raise and highlight their concerns in a more civilized and formal way ( King, 15). The dedication in the direction of upholding nonviolent nature of the moment had to be commended because the cause moved from every kind and nature of difficulty before reaching its well chrisom goal and objective. The nonviolence from the participants of the moment persuaded others as well to join the tide (King, 120). The governmental officials in the past had been telling people that African Americans were nothing more than a collection and group of thugs and criminals. The perception was challenged and soon caused to wither away because the general public was impressed by the nonviolent nature of the moment. In the capacity of SCLC’s first president, King had to lead an ineffective campaign against the segregation that was taking in the locality of Georgia. The moment carried on despite the setbacks and finally, in 1962 the moment managed to arrange a protest in the important and valuable region of Alabama and this was followed by the great occasion of March on Washington where the leader presented a dream (Buus-Frank, 1). The dream was so powerful that it brought tears to the eyes of hundreds of thousands who were listening to the speech either by television or by being in the audience who gathered at Washington. The speech was nothing more than a description of a dream which Blacks and Whites can travel in the same bus without a fight which cross cultural marriages were allowed and there was no sign segregation. The speaker presented the idea in such a way that moved the entire nation and it made everyone to think about his or her contribution to the worst situation that was only fueled by hatred. The orator continued his undying speech by saying one phrase over and over that states that “I have a dream” and it was followed a new demand for civil rights that was dressed in the form of a desire (Jackson, 140). The cruelest racist would not have dared a Black man from dreaming as it can happen to anyone and the message was conveyed to everybody including those in the government and those who were in the street. The power of words got unveiled in front of the world. Additionally, the public support to the moment grew notably because of its attachment to Christian ethical values. The attribute almost attracted each and every Christ’s follower in the country like a magnet and even the enemies of the campaign never questioned its moral validity. The Christians in the top spots of the government held a soft spot for King and his followers and it made them to aid the moment to flourish but the help came secretly and everybody desired to see the moment’s end through. The year of 1965 witnessed another important demonstration of moment’s power when it arranged Selma to Montgomery marches and that was not all because the following year, the leader decided to take the campaign to north and the target was none other than the region of Chicago that was famous as the resort of foreigners (Ralph, 298). King’s hopes were fulfilled because the people were more than ready and happy to join and support the cause. The people of Chicago were living in a mixed cultural setting for years and therefore, they came to respect and value normative differences. The ground was already tilted to take the message of the moment forward. The moment’s charter legitimized the living style of Chicagoans that was considered a communal discourse all these years. The protest against a segregated housing scheme went well and met its objectives. The speech entitled “I have a dream” became a burning issue as Edgar Hower suspected King to have relations with communists and the matter was taken to the offices of Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agency launched an investigation and reported its findings directly to the highest ranking personnel in the government of that time (Fairclough, 35). The agency wrote a letter in order blackmail King into committing suicide but to no affect and he used the document to ridicule the efforts of the government that it made to put a stop to the moment. The moment flourished after passing a threshold in Washington and then, there was no turning back. The great leader moved his campaign to include the important issues of poverty and war of Vietnam during his last years of life. He delivered a speech known as “Beyond Vietnam” which he used as a tool and means to criticize the objects behind the military confrontation and highlighted a few possible ramifications of it and rattled some powerful politicians during the process (Fairclough, 168). In 1968, the man was thinking of carrying out an occupation of Washington and he called the idea “Poor People’s Campaign” but he could not live to see it through because he was killed before that. His death of proceeded by bloody fights in the major cities of America and his followers suspected the killer named James Ray to be working with government and the allegation was found to be true by jury in 1999 but the damage was done because one of the greatest voices and minds had been painfully was put to sleep as a result of a conspiracy. The loss was surely great but what King did was substantial because he conveyed the idea which later became one of the major pillars of modern America that is free from segregation, racism and hate on the basis of bloodlines. Conclusion This paper has reviewed and analyzed the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and found that he took a long journey from being a disbeliever at the age of thirteen and then, he led a moment based on Christian ethical values in order to prove his belief on Jesus. What these men had in common was the love for fellow humans and King’s compassion came out in the form of a speech called “I have a dream”. Works Cited Buus-Frank, Medge. "I Have A Dream." Advances in Neonatal Care 5,1 (2004): 1-2 Print. Fairclough, Adam. Martin Luther King, Jr. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1995 Print. Gottlieb, Roger. Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 Print. Jackson, Thomson. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice (Politics and Culture in Modern America). Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009 Print. King, Coretta. The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2001 Print. King, Martin. "A Christmas Sermon on Peace." Report. 1967 Online. King, Martin. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1957 Print. King, Martin The Trumpet of Conscience. New York: Beacon Press, 2011. King, Martin. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? New York: Beacon Press, 1968 Print. Ralph, James. Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993 Print. Read More