Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr And James Baldwin's Contribution To The Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King jr. was one of the most influential persons of the 20th Century. He is the father of the modern civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is recognized around the world as a symbol of freedom as well as peace. King practiced everything that he preached, he did not preach or speak values that he himself did not follow. He established himself as a pastor that was not afraid of hard work, guiding the middle-class congregation to public service. For example, Peake, Thomas R. author of "Martin Luther King, Jr.” states, “He encouraged his parishioners to help the needy and to be active in organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)”. I think that kings motivation

There are some things to what Baldwin said that aren't very accurate. By this I mean that some of the thought he expressed aren't relevant to our society today. This essay was written in the fifty's, a lot of chaos and anarchy was prevalent. This being said, it makes sense that Baldwin wrote: "American white men still nourish the illusion that there is some means of recovering the European innocence, of returning to the state in which black men do not exist…people who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction." (pg 101). The point I'm trying to make is that Baldwin was in a more violent mind state toward American life at this time. The Civil Right Movement slowly started in 1955 then gained speed with Rosa parks and what really sparked the movement came from one speech. Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech in

When explaining to his nephew how to resist the toxicity and oppression of white Americans, Baldwin states, "You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it" (Baldwin 8). Therefore, the only way to break white Americans free from their prison of ignorance is to love; then they will truly see they were imprisoned the whole time. Concluding the letter, Baldwin says to his nephew, as well as all black Americans, "We cannot be free until they are free" (Baldwin 10). This statement further drives home the point that love is the key to untangle Americans from the quagmire of institutionalized racism.

The hatred many African Americans possessed during the 1950s caused multiple riots. Baldwin touches on this in his essay, by mentioning the Harlem riots that broke out during the same time of his father’s death. Baldwin states that “it would have been better to have left the plate glass as it had been and the goods lying in the stores, [but] it would have also been intolerable, for Harlem had needed something to smash” (82). The African American community, infuriated by improper police action, exploded into a fury. While Baldwin does not argue against the riots, he points out their uselessness throughout the essay. The riots, as Baldwin points out, did not cross the “ghetto lines.” Instead of wreaking havoc in white neighborhoods, the black mob simply destroyed its own area. The mob had surrendered to its

Baldwin determines that violence and racial separatism are not acceptable solutions for achieving “power”. Baldwin believes that black people will only be able to achieve lasting influence in America if they love and accept white people. In contrast, writing 52 years after Baldwin, Coats tells his own son to “struggle” but not

MLK is trying to persuade blacks to be more nonviolent. If they try to fight back, they will be outnumbered and defeated. Additionally, they will face even more difficulties. Instead of tackling the whites, they should tackle the issues they are facing. MLK’s philosophy makes more sense for America because he’s once again trying to show how nonviolence could be more effective than violence by stating that the bitterness would be even more

In a ten year period that also coincides with the most significant changes in the Civil Rights movement Baldwin published three collections of essays that fueled the fire that propelled the movement. These three essay collections: "Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)" (1955), "Nobody Knows My Name (Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name)" (1961) and "The Fire Next Time (Baldwin, The Fire Next Time)" (1963) each provided a perspective on the plight of Black Americans that was personal and insightful. Baldwin's viewpoints were often too vivid and seemingly one-sided but for a movement that sometimes seemed on the verge of stalling out Baldwin's

possibility, that thousands of oppressed black men and women in this country now carry away with them after the Muslim minister has spoken, through the dark, noisome ghetto streets, into the hovels where so many have perished” (James Baldwin – “Letter from a Region of My Mind” The New Yorker, November 17, 1962) this is what James Baldwin has a big impact on African American people on finding out what black identity is. Baldwin puts that opinion of his in his Letter From A Region of My Mind essay. “When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. (King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 16 Apr. 1963. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.) King puts that in his letter and I think that is the clearest he gets on black identity because he explains what it is like to be a negro and what we deal with and how we feel each and everyday or that is how I took it and felt about it after

African Americans have to strive extremely hard to be successful and obtain a place in America. When reading Baldwin’s statement it seems much like Martin Luther King Jr. statement: “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land”(3). African Americans are trying to obtain their place in American society but are restricted to the area that the white Americans set aside for them. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin are striving to make a difference to better America by publicly sharing their emotions.

Throughout most of the 1950’s and 60’s there was a strong push by Black Americans to end their unfair treatment in America. Two main groups during this time were working on this problem. The NAACP and the Nation of Islam were two main groups working on and poised to solve this very dilemma. Despite trying to solve the same crisis their ideas on a solution were very different. Since their views were varied, people in turn had different views on which group they would become associated with. This inspired many writers to publicly display their beliefs on the issue. In “Down at the Cross,” Baldwin displays favor toward the methodology of the NAACP in the Civil Rights Movement because of their beliefs in the American system. Even though

Baldwin continues on and says that blacks were being oppressed everywhere. “…Negro girls who set upon a white girl in the subway because…she was stepping on their toes. Indeed she was, all over the nation” (73). Not only does this portray the ever growing tension felt among African Americans in a certain area, it expresses the tension felt across the nation. African Americans everywhere were still continuously looked down upon, causing agitation, which was the current social condition blacks and whites faced.

Baldwin says, “The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new black man, it has created a new white man, too. (Baldwin 449) Baldwin believed that the time has come for Americans to open their eyes to the world around them and learn to embrace the new cultures constantly growing to be apart of what makes up America. As an African-American in the 50s Baldwin especially felt how important it was for there to be and end to the separation of cultures and race in America.

These two sides of James Baldwin seem contradictory, yet he passionately believed both of them. Baldwin had "a will toward love, peace, and reconciliation in spite of the rage and bitterness that racism inspired" (Foner and Garraty 75). Baldwin was an intelligent man who realized that unless we accept love we are all lost: blacks, whites, everyone. He understood the need for love because he understood what hate had accomplished. Baldwin knew that whites (and blacks) had to examine the fear and hatred that they had inside of them. The key to solving the problem, Baldwin argued, was finding out why the white society had to oppress the blacks throughout history. White society had to examine its own history of oppression and it had to come to grips with it. When the program

The following are my reflections on The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin’s (1963) two autobiographical essays, a compelling precursor to many of the components of the Civil Rights movement, with resounding motifs of power/politics, religion/morality, racial injustice, and freedom. Baldwin lived in Europe for a number of years and felt compelled to return to America to get involved in the Civil Rights movement ("James Baldwin Biography - life, children, name, school, son, old, information, born, movie, time," n.d.). The Fire Next Time was his plea for blacks and whites who profoundly need each other here if to really to develop a nation.

James Baldwin is an exceptionally writer who tested the water with writing. He was a writer who was not afraid to talk about new things that most writers of his time would not do. Most people did not know that Baldwin was actually a part of the civil rights movement. He was a writer who tried to write out and explain to the black experience to the white people. Even though he was not talking about as much as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, he was a big part of the civil rights movement. As you read this essay you will see how Baldwin became the writer that he is known to be today and also why he wrote, also learn about how he opened the door to thing that most writers of his time would not talk about.