Comparing Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela

In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.

Protests, such as Soweto, and boycotts are examples of internal unrest that ultimately led to the end of apartheid. On June 16th, 1976, over 360 blacks were killed by South African police

Martin Luther king Jr, and his followers stood for non-violent protests, despite being victims of threats. Although King was highly recognized, and praised amongst the black community not all African American’s agreed with his ideology of obtaining their civil rights through peaceful non-violence protest. Therefore other movements were created such as the Black Power Movement which was a group that emphasized that blacks should claim their civil rights through violence. Overall Martin Luther King Jr had an major impact on the civil rights movement, and will always be remembered for his famous impactful “I have a dream speech” which was his vision of black & white people coinciding with one another, and ultimately living in peace together where blacks do not have to worry about being judged by their skin color, but instead their actions. “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.”

To be reliable means to be dependable. For a website to be reliable, it needs to present facts or issues in an unbiased manner; we need to be able to depend on the information found on the site. Some websites are better at that than others. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A True Historical Examination looks like a reliable resource for students researching Martin Luther King, Jr., but the site lacks the objectivity of a similar site, the Seattle Times’ website, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, making it unreliable.

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were two greatest leaders in the fighting of the Civil Rights Movement. Contrary to most American belief, King and Malcolm X were not perfect opposite to each other. However, they do have distinct method to achieve social and economic equality. Malcolm X and King were both civil rights leader during 60s. They had the same goal, which was to achieve social equality for African Americans and Black people. Malcolm X was born in a extremely poor family, which led Malcolm X end up in jail because he sold drug and armed robbed others. In the jail, Malcolm X encountered the teaching of Elijah Muhammad.From then on he was a changed man. Unfortunately, Malcolm was assassinated when he was thirty nine years old.

    One of the most important civil rights leaders in American history was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King fought for freedom, equality and peace, which helped our nation in the best way. During his time he fought for liberation using nonviolence and passive resistance while he preached equality to the people. However, on August 28th, 1963, Dr. King preached a message of nonviolence in hopes to achieve social change. This speech expressed his feelings and perspectives of the unjust events during the 1900's. Dr. King proposed that African Americans had

Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi were civil rights activists who practiced a form of movement to gain equal rights amongst their nation. King and Gandhi were most important for their allegiance to nonviolence. King demonstrated his notion of nonviolence in his letter titled, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", and Gandhi in his writing, "from Non- Violent Resistance". The two are closely related and share common and distinct themes; both held considerably comparable belief toward nonviolence, laws, and religion.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Believed in achieving equality through peaceful demonstrations: “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred” (King, pg.3 ¶.1). He felt that equality had to be gained through honorable, civil ways otherwise those fighting for equality were no better than the slave owners. We can see this best when he says, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence” (King, pg.3 ¶.2). MLK felt that it was in the best interests of all parties for black to integrate into society. A couple of his quotes that show this best are, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (King, pg.4 ¶.6). and “I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (King, pg.5 ¶.2).

During the 1960's, there was a great deal of civil rights injustices addressed by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Although Malcolm X was a prominent civil rights activist who used several examples of distinctive tones and a harsh point of view, along with a self-educational background, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) used a more refined method including justice and integration towards African American rights. Both men addressed religious, education, justice/injustice, and both were supporting integration towards the end of their life in “The Ballot Vs. the Bullet, Learning to Read, and Letter from Birmingham” will display the indistinguishability and variance of the 2 activists.

These huge happenings both removed the global communist threat and freed people from injustices, which created an illusion that the entire world was listening in on South Africa, expecting a revolutionary change. From the very beginning protesters, especially Nelson Mandela himself, were influenced by Gandhi and his Satyagraha campaign in India as it was in several ways a similar fight. They both took place in countries that had been colonised by Great Britain, they both fought against the discrimination and oppression of the population and were both led by world-renowned leaders that shared fundamental ideas of unity and compassion. However, Gandhi’s philosophy wasn’t something Mandela followed meticulously. One of the major differences between their methods of ruling is that Mandela used violence at times, as it came to a point where he saw it as a necessity. It is important to note that without Gandhi’s fight in India, the protesters in South Africa may never have had motivation enough to see the potential they held, and what a difference they could make by

The speeches that I have read are “I have a dream” made by Martin Luther King Junior, and Gettysburg Address made by Abraham Lincoln, these books have many similarities. Lincoln and Dr.King convey the same theme which is freedom and equality. This paper will analyze how the idea of freedom is articulated in each speech by giving examples to compare with their quotes.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were leaders with many followers during the 1960’s Civil Rights movement. They were both ministers that had many people already following them and their number of followers only grew with their ideas and beliefs. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had many great ideas on how America should be.While they both led their followers down the path to civil rights they both met their end by the hands of the people who did not want them to continue to make a difference the way they were for African Americans in America. Although Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X both made real changes regarding civil rights, they did not always agree on how to go about seeking out a

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December, 1955 till to April 4, 1968, African Americans accomplished more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced. Dr. King is broadly regarded as America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history. Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. King led a "nonviolent movement" in the late 1950’s and ‘60s to accomplish legal equality for African-Americans in the United States. While others were supporting for liberty by “any means necessary,” including violence, but Martin used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible goals. He went to lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict, always preserving loyalty to his principles that men and women everywhere, regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the human family

Freedom is the key to liberty. Without it there is no peace or justice, which follows towards African American going through their life with fear in their hearts. Dr. King and Mr. Mandela were the brave men to fight for their people to be free at last and their freedom. They both address freedom in similar ways. They do the list of repetition, give a way to earn freedom, and last but not least come together as an army with pride and do whats best for their kind to receive their liberty rights and dignity.

KIELBURGER, C. (2013, July 17). Honouring Nelson Mandela—a father of peace and reconciliation - See more at: Http://www.weday.com/global-voices/honouring-nelson-mandela-a-father-of-peace-and-reconciliation/#sthash.Xm7Y1c2r.dpuf. Retrieved October 14, 2015.