Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And The Civil Rights

Freedom is a fundamental human right that all Americans enjoy today. Foner defines freedom as the ability of an individual to do as he/she wishes as long as long as the actions are within the law and respect the right of others (2). Accordingly, freedom is among the rights that are anchored in American constitution to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Today, America is regarded as a democratic country that operates within the rule of law partly because of its respect for human rights (Romano 3). However, history shows that the freedom that African Americans enjoy today did not come easily; rather came after a long and enduring struggle by Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). It is noted that, unlike white Americans who enjoyed freedom to do as they wished in the early 19th century, African Americans were denied the freedom to operate freely like their white counterparts (Foner 6). Therefore, because curtailing the freedom of African Americans were denying them the opportunity to advance socially, economically and politically, the Civil Rights Movement was formed by Martin Luther King Junior and colleagues to fight against racial segregation and to ensure that African Africans gain equal rights as the whites. This essay seeks to explore the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) struggle for freedom and

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did

The Southern Declaration on Integration mainly has the same argument as George C. Wallace, except in response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, stating that it is “the reserved rights of the states and the people” (Southern Declaration on Integration, p.

In 1865, nearly ninety years after the founding of the United States, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, thereby abolishing the “peculiar institution” which had once threatened to end the Great Experiment of American Democracy. Two subsequent amendments, ratified in 1868 and 1870, guaranteed equal protection of the law to all citizens and prohibited the denial of voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Yet, close to one hundred years after these three Reconstruction Amendments became the law of the land, racial equality was still something confined to the dreams of visionaries and activists. Writing a letter from Birmingham Jail in Alabama, civil rights leader Martin Luther King

Throughout history, there have been many significant documents and speeches that enlighten and inform us on what is and was happening during those times. Abraham Lincoln’s speech, The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail are two important pieces of history. In Lincoln’s speech he speaks about the dangers of slavery in the United States and warned everybody that people who disrespected American laws could destroy the United States. On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. defended the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, and argued that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. Based on these facts, Martin Luther King Jr does not agree with Lincoln’s counsel.

The Civil Rights Movement had several pros however there are cons to every situation. The suffering of people were cured by the medicine of the great personality that still stand as the role model of the world, Martin Luther King Jr. He cured the people with the speeches they delivered and the letters they wrote. The letters and speeches delivered during this movement had been very inspirational in which it made more people want to become a part of this immense movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was very inspirational but had different ways to handle things than other civil rights movement leaders. MLK Jr. was a very big contributor to the Civil Rights Movement but he said everything through “The Letter from Birmingham”. The Civil rights Movement

By 1965, the United States of America was almost in chaos due to the Civil Rights Movement, and it’s often violence responses. However, on March 15 of that year, President Lyndon Baines Johnson spoke to the members of Congress about the importance of Civil Rights not only to him, but to the principles of the Constitution and everything this country stands for. Johnson also briefly spoke of and explained the bill he planned to present in order to ensure that African Americans can exercise their Constitutional right to vote. The speech, called “We Shall Overcome,” was not only very effective with its use of ethos, logos, and pathos, but was also very effective in its overall purpose, an argument that no American citizen should be denied their rights due to the color of their skin.

Segregation movements throughout America’s history have led up to the adverse reaction that is seen in society today. “The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) extended ‘equal protection of the laws’ to all citizens; and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied ‘on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’,” (Smithsonian National Museum of American History). These amendments established equality for people of color on things such as no more slavery, protection of the laws, and voting rights. They partially eliminated segregation, but discrimination continued. Henry L. Chambers Jr., who teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law and

George C. Wallace was the governor of Alabama in 1963, the time period when the fight for Civil Rights was at its height. On inauguration day, January 14, 1963, in Montgomery, Alabama, Wallace gave a speech that proves to everyone exactly what kind of man he was and strived to be. Wallace was against the common and moral rights of humanity and he contradicted the philosophies of the Enlightenment thinkers. The Enlightenment was a time period that lasted from the mid seventeenth century through the eighteenth and changed the way people viewed the world. Some of the most famous philosophers from the time period include John Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu (www.csudh.edu). George Wallace does not follow either the beliefs or the actions one would expect from an enlightened thinker. He disregards the ideas of freedom, individuality, and natural rights.

In the early twentieth century Jim Crow laws were a leading cause of the problems African Americans faced in their society; one of the most prevalent was segregation. Segregation was at first justified constitutionally through the logic that both sides can remain separate as long as they were equal. The most famous instance of this taking place was the “Plessy v. Ferguson”

One of the biggest problems Africans Americans faced in America is Segregation, discrimination, racism, prejudice, rebellion, religion, resistance, and protest. These problems have helped shape the Black struggle for justice. Their fight for justice marks a long sequence of events towards their freedom. Provisions of the Constitution affect the operation of government agencies and/or the latitude chief executives and legislatures in the creation and implementation of policies today. The rights and passage of Amendments granted to African Americans in the Constitution serve as a source of “first principles” governing the actions and policies of elected and appointed public servants across the United States. The 15th Amendment Equal Rights: Rights

The cynical cycle of enslavement has ravaged on throughout the history 's great civilizations; the victor holding reign over the defeated, the enslaved succumbing to the forces of bondage. There has always been, and always will be, a discord between peoples of different groups. Until the advent of modern democracy, the distraughted had no voice which to be heard by the masses. Democracy has paved a way for all citizens to have equality. In 1863, the United States of America joined other nations by emancipating those in bondage. Slavery had begun it’s way out in the modern world. However, due to years of indoctrination and social appropriation, there was a discord between those who were white and those who were colored. One hundred years after the emancipation proclamation was given, there was still social and systemic oppression and discrimination against colored people in American Society. Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate during the Civil Rights Era who fought for the equal treatment of all people. In 1963 MLK gave his timeless “I have a Dream Speech” that sought to both help bring the end of systematic discrimination in America and to unify the country through love and peace.

From 1954 to 1968 there was a Civil Rights movement changing African Americans rights in America. The civil right goals were to change the way blacks in America where treaded in schools, buses, bathrooms and other facility’s and to get equal rights from legislation. On January 14, 1963, Democratic Governor George Wallace was sworn in, giving his “Segregation” speech. In that same year on August 28 a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lead the march on Washington D.C giving the “I Have a Dream speech”. The two speeches given in 1963 coincided to the civil rights but the speeches differed in both opinion and message. To explain this in a more thorough explanation, the terms Kairos, Ethos, Logos and Pathos will be used to define each compare and contrast.

Two men of faith who had tremendous power in what they said and believed could move and motivate the masses with their words. Martin Luther King Jr’s, “I Have a Dream” Speech which will be remembered history as one of the most memorable speeches in American that called for the urgency in the lack of equality and broken promises of African Americans by the American government. Malcolm X’s, God’s Judgment of White America (The Chickens Come Home to Roost) released later the same year of 1963, continued to respond on the inequality of African Americans, but also explained the end of White America was coming. “How the enslavement of millions of black people in this country is now bringing White America to her hour of Judgment.” (X) Both trying to raise awareness of the struggles of African American population and that things needed to change since nothing had really changed since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. “One hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” (King) My goal in this essay is to explain the similarities and differences of these two speeches and the two perspectives of these men during the Civil rights movement in the 1960’s.

The fight for the abolition of slavery was a big battle but the one for racial segregation was a bitter one. “Race should not be a source of power or advantage or disadvantage for anyone in a free society” (Steele, page509). It is quite difficult to understand that America a nation of freedom, liberty and opportunities could have allowed some people to be oppressed. Even in the court of law the injustice persisted. “Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).