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Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr's Declaration Of Freedom

Decent Essays

Essay #4
Wayne Ford

Between the post-Civil War period and the 21st century, freedom has always had its challenges. Since the idea of freedom was not passed down from the creator and is a vision of mankind, you can see the pitfalls and loopholes in the way that the United States has come to define its freedoms. Many people fighting for freedom had the right ideas in their minds and were justified but the measure sometimes fell short. The six people or groups I have chosen to focus on are Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., The Ku Klux Klan, The Black Panther Party and Malcolm X.

I would like to start with Abraham Lincoln because I feel he is the beginning of the change for racial equality even though his proclamation of freedom for the slaves did little to actually free the slaves. But just as any good book, you have to start on page one. Lincoln did not see the black as an intrinsic part of American society. He even opted to take all freed slaves and ship them to Liberia. Even the Emancipation Proclamation that he materialized for the country only went so far. Through the ill doings of mankind, most of those freedoms were never realized.

Frederick Douglass chose to protest for freedom through peace. He was an …show more content…

He was a Baptist minister and an activist who led the Civil Rights Movement. He chose to peacefully protest for freedom. In December, 1955, he led the first black, non-violent demonstration in the United States and led a 382 day boycott on the bus systems where black people would not board bus transportation but would walk everywhere they went. In 1957, he became the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and that is when he delivered the speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in front of 250,000 people – “I Have a Dream”. He was the youngest man to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize and he used the prize money to further civil right

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