What is a Beloved Community? The term first originates from use in the early twentieth century, coined by Philosopher-Theologian Josiah Royce. The Term has, however, just recently received much attention due to great civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. To the King, A Beloved Community was a “ Critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence”. It is an idea meant to be “a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth”. Martin Luther King Junior aimed to end three main “Evils”. These Evils are modernly known as: Poverty, Racism, and Militarism. However as utopian as the idea may sound, the king acknowledged that there would always be inevitable conflict in …show more content…
A connection held close to heart by all that wish to see the better good in the world for themselves and others. A beloved community does not seek to end poverty, militarism, or racism. A beloved community seeks to minimize the effects the three evils have on our lives, as ending those concepts as a whole would be impossible. Though the King may have addressed the three evils over thirty years ago, they are unfortunately still alive and thriving in our community. A Beloved Community, to me, is the single mass unification of a community or subcommunity to purpose mutual consequences for the majority of entities involved. A Beloved Community, in simpler terms, is a happy productive society not plagued by concepts such as, or related to, the three evils. Now let us precede on to the main …show more content…
Instead of locking the concept of militarism to a government based subject, Martin Luther King Junior viewed all forms of violence as forms of militarism. Fortunately, this topic not only affects our community but also every other community in America. To help end Militarism in America, we can look to allocate more money into topics such as social uplift instead of building up arms and troops. The King always believed that instead of physical war, you must conduct a mental war, where love is always the winner. We can look to solve our problems through reconciliation with other countries minimizing casualties on both sides and building stronger foreign national bonds. By depending on forms of nonviolence, we move one step closer to the idea of a true Beloved Community. Now on to the final step of the
In this life, many hope for peace, but not many try to achieve it. According to Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there are many ways to achieve this, but the best possible course of action would be through nonviolent direct action, which includes but is not limited to: peaceful protest, sit-ins and civil disobedience. In King’s letter, he proclaims his reasoning behind nonviolent direct action, including: the concept that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (par. 4), extremism can be used positively (par. 22), and the fact that “oppressed people will not stay oppressed forever” (par. 24). King uses literary devices including ethos, logos, and pathos to prove and reaffirm that which he is trying to convey.
A community is a social group whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a cultural and historical heritage.. The book A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Is about a young black man named Jefferson in 1947 Louisiana who is used as a scapegoat for a local murder. He must face his upcoming execution and is helped by Grant Wiggins the local teacher and Reverend Ambrose the local clergyman. What makes a strong community is the practice of acceptance and responsibility. Gaines demonstrates this through Jefferson’s transformation , Grant’s support and Rev. Ambrose belief. Three characters in this story teach us about acceptance and responsibility. Jefferson has to keeps his head high and not beg for his life
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., embodied many of the attributes that we look for in Army leaders today. Dr. King lived a life characterized by moral courage, selfless service, respect for everybody, honor, and integrity. During his time as the de facto leader of the civil rights movement, he was motivated by the plight of blacks throughout the South, both during his own time and for generations before him. Dr. King writes in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963) of his frustration over a gamut of issues: simple but persistent issues like the constant disrespect and taunting that black people faced on a daily basis; issues that affected his own family, like having to explain to his young daughter why he couldn 't take her to a local amusement park; and darker issues like vicious beatings and unprovoked lynchings and murder. His sense of empathy ran deep, for their struggle was his own.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an astonishing activist that inspired a numerous amount of people with his speech. Dr. King was great because he displayed some traits. Some of the traits that he possessed were leadership, determination, and bravery. He was a man that preached about justice and wanted peace. Everyone can make a change and keep the dream alive by doing what Dr. King wanted. Which was to allow freedom to ring and to all come together as one.
Martin Luther King’s vision for Beloved community stands out as the most captivating desire for human harmony, transcending the lines of racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and social stratification. It aims to acknowledge and respect the imago Dei, rather than objectify the human individual. It shouts for the display of justice at, both, the local and global landscapes. The call for justice i.e., social justice, dominates conversational points throughout the media, town-hall meetings, demonstrations, and Sunday sermons. There remains, however, an affiliated point of justice rarely considered. Throughout the contents of this essay, I look at the grounding of justice as it relates to God and human relations. I submit that justice – according
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, he expresses his belief that nonviolence is the key to peace and equality. In his speech, King states that he will not “accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction” (2). This statement shows how dedicated Martin Luther King Jr. is to showing that violence is not the answer. He refuses to let his followers stand witness and partake in sending nations down a violent road. King mentions in his speech several times the tragedy of violence, guiding readers away from any more destruction by refusing to accept any more violence in this fight for peace and equality. In addition to this, King uses
In his letter to the clergy he justified the use of ‘nonviolent direct action’ as tactical means to bringing parties together to negotiate. He vehemently condemned all forms of violent action but insisted that it was strategic and constructive to employ the nonviolent tension as a powerful alternate to negotiation. Similarly, Dr. King Jr. stressed to his audience in his momentous speech in Washington DC, that the desire to attain set goal must not be tainted by any acts of retaliation and cautioned the crowd to avoid the temptation of being ‘guilty of wrong doing”. He emphasized the importance of adhering to strict discipline and conducting their struggle in the highest form of respect for human dignity.
"Nonviolence can touch men where the law cannot reach them." These words, uttered by the late civil right's leader himself, were the fundamental tenet of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life. These words, though few in number, are great in power. These words, simple, plain, and concise, provide a rubric with which to investigate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s creative genius and intelligence.
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King Jr. In 1967, King separated himself from the world and hid from the Civil Rights Movement. King writes out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America’s future. As part of this plan he mentions what would come with this dream and that’s better jobs, houses, higher incomes, and better education. Most importantly King speaks out against the war. Kings speech titled “Beyond Vietnam”. Which explains the relationship of the Civil Rights and peace movement. King asked that all bombing stop in North and South Vietnam be an agreement and remove all troops and give the people of slavery a decision on reaching agreements. King believed that the Vietnam War took money and attention from programs that helped the poor. Furthermore, King said “the war was doing far more devastating the hopes of the poor at home we were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem (Martin Luther King, Jr speaks out against the war, ‘1967)
Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.
During his lifetime, Martin Luther king dared to not only dream about a better future but also fight for it. He was not afraid from having confrontations in order to promise a change. We can see his decisiveness when his arguments for stopping discrimination against black were not enough to change the situation. He decided to make a direct action in order to make society confront the issue.
During the course of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, there were several black and white supporters who had brave roles. The most prominent and persistent activist of African American rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr. King’s ideas sparked the ideal perspective of equality. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for equality by organizing marches, giving powerful speeches, and staying positive through adversity.
“ Memory can be like a long, half lit tunnel,a tunnel where one is likely to encounter phantoms of a self , long concealed , no longer nourished with the force of consciousness, existing in a tortured state between life and death”
Despite not single handedly ending prejudice with a small revolution, even the most seemingly small results provide advancement in the road toward social and systematic innovation. One of these results includes educating others and bringing awareness to the situation and problem at hand, so that citizens would ‘not be on the side of the executioners’. An example of using peace to effectively spread a message that would not only have a huge effect on obliterating the national discrimination of its time but as well being honored and remembered for decades after would be Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic ‘I Have A Dream’ speech on August 28, 1963. A century after slavery was outlawed, and nevertheless African-Americans were still regarded as less by the white American government, who allowed discrimination, separation, and exclusion everywhere - schools, water fountains, buses - between the races to be legal. Being an African-American man himself, King would not tolerate this. Rather than succumbing to violent measures in order to get his message to end racial discrimination instead, he used words as his force and in doing so educated and inspired thousands to contribute toward attempting to make a change in the nation. People are the product of what they are taught - even the most obstinate can be influenced, especially during this time period and
Martin Luther King, Jr said that technology has turned the world into “a single neighborhood.” Technological advancements have been made since King made this remark in 1961. The idea of a single neighborhood is the same as Martin Luther King, Jr said in his speech.