Category: Civil Rights Movement

Since the Declaration of Independence was issued July 4th, 1776, the United States of America has had multiple issues with Civil Rights and its recognition and protection of minorities across the country. Even in the 21st century, the world’s 11th most developed nation (as per the HDI) , with the world’s largest economy , has faced multiple claims against its treatment of minorities, showing the glaring issue of its centuries old struggle between races in America. This has including many eras with extremely high tensions, such as the pre-civil war ante-bellum era and the 1950s and 1960s. This struggle is still seen today across the United States of America, in multiple protests and riots across the USA, many of which are frequented by members of the Black Lives Matter organization. They say they are a ‘member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes’ according to their website , which shows the current state on tension between different ethnicities across America.

This current racial tension can be seen to go back to the very start of the nation. Despite the USA being created from under the oppression of their own colonial overlords, and being a nation stating ‘all men are created equal’ and granting its citizens ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ in its Constitution , the USA was created a slave trading nation, and while many states slowly began succeeding their rights to slavery, however it was not until the 13th amendment was published in 1865 after the American Civil War that slavery was finally abolished for all states , 91 years after the initial declaration of independence was signed.

However, this was not before years of slavery endured by millions of African-Americans and oppression by both slaveholders and the US Government. Despite slavery being abolished in many states, black people were still targeted for their race, and this can be seen in a decision by the US Government which shows a clear discrimination. This ruling by the US Supreme Court is now often referred to as the Dred Scott decision. It ruled that Scott, an African-American slave, who was being forced to work as a slave in the free state of Illinois, was to remain a slave as black people ‘are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.’ , as per the ruling of then Chief Justice Roger Taney. Historian David Thomas Konig referred to the ruling as ‘unquestionably, our court’s worst decision ever.’

Despite the victory of the Union in the civil war, the abolition of slavery with the 13th Amendment5, the granting of citizenship to all people born in America, regardless of race, with the 14th Amendment and the power to vote without consideration of previous servitude and race with the 15th Amendment , the African-Americans were still discriminated against, especially in the southern, former slave holding states that had fought against the rest of the nation in the civil war.

This discrimination then leads to the 1950’s and 1960’s, two decades in which the USA saw mass changes towards it African-American population, but this was not without mass struggle. These two decades saw the rise of many prominent African-Americans to popularity in the US, but many of them for their support and championing of African-American rights. In this essay, I will look at which multiple people who were involved in this civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s and assess the claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was the most influential factor on the American Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Firstly, I will be looking at Martin Luther King Jr., the most well-known activist of this era, he campaigned for peaceful protests against the laws and discrimination by the Government and people, inspired by work of Mohandas Gandhi in India . Secondly, I will look at Malcolm X, to consider if he was more influential than King. By character, he was a complete contrast, and believed that black people should rise up and fight the US Government and their white oppressors for their power, rather than peacefully protest . Finally, I will be looking at the claim that there is not one significant figure, but rather the acts of everyone involved allowed the movement to be a success and cause national change. In this section, I will be looking at multiple people involved and their individual impact, to show that although these people aren’t considered as important, there impact is potentially just as important as others like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. These people are Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus , Jackie Robinson, Professional Baseball’s first African-American player , E.D. Nixon, who was instrumental in organising the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Thurgood Marshall, who was the first black person on the US Supreme Court .

Martin Luther King was born Michael King Jr. on January 15th, 1929, to Reverend Michael King Sr. and Alberta King. His father was prominent minister in Atlanta and in 1934 was sent to Berlin to attend a Baptist World Alliance meeting. Here, Michael King Sr. saw Wittenberg Castle Church, where German monk and theologian Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses in 1517. Seeing this, and the rise of hatred and discrimination in Germany due to Hitler’s rising power, is what Clayborne Carson, director of the King Institute, believes is the main reason for giving Michael King Sr. the idea of changing the name of him and his son .

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, he was on the receiving end of many Jim Crow laws, including being forced into a ‘Negro’ school. He was also stopped from playing with a white friend as the child’s father no longer wanted his son playing with a black child . He had a very religious upbringing due to his father’s religious roots, and after studying sociology at the historically black Morehouse College and graduating in 1948, he became ordained as a minister after giving sermons at his father’s church at 17 before graduating Boston College with a PhD in Theology in 1955 . It was during this time frame where he was first introduced to the work of both Mohandas Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau, both of whom were strong advocates for civil disobedience, which King campaigned with for is entire time as an activist.

In ‘The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.’, this is significant influence is shown in the second chapter, where he says During my student days I read Henry David Thoreau’s essay On Civil Disobedience for the first time. Here, in this courageous New Englander’s refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery’s territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance.… Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau’s insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice ’

As shown in the extract, Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in multiple different peaceful protests against the institutional racism that was being suffered by African-American’s in their everyday lives, ranging from small scale sit-ins to large scale events such as the March on Washington, which had an estimated 250,000 attendees, with approximately 75% of those who attended bring black . It was also during this event that he gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, which is viewed by many as one of the greatest speeches of all time, ranking 1st of the greatest American speeches in the 20th in a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A&M University, from opinions of 137 leading scholars of American public address .

King first major campaign was 8 years prior to the March on Washington, in 1955, where he was one of the key leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where, in protest of the bus laws which stated black people must give up their bus seat for a white person at the bus drivers discretion, even if their seat wasn’t in the designated ‘white person’ area of the bus, King and other activists did not use the bus services for 381 days, which was extremely detrimental for the bus service for which 75% of all passengers were African-Americans . This first major attempt at activism for Martin Luther King resulted in a ruling that Alabama’s bus segregation laws are unconstitutional and were outlawed. However, during the boycott, King’s house was firebombed, and this gave him a chance to preach his peaceful rhetoric, saying to angry people who had gathered outside his house: ‘If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: ‘He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword’.’

King also began to gain national fame at this time, and then spent the next few years using his support and fame to protest other acts of segregation across southern cities, he organised sit-ins where he and other black men would sit at ‘white’ lunch counters and would refuse to leave till they got served. They also began going on what became known as ‘freedom rides’, where groups would ride buses across the south, stopping at bus stations and using the white-only lunch counters, waiting rooms, and rest rooms, towards Birmingham, Alabama, which was arguably regarded as the most racist city in America .

In Birmingham, the Police Chief, Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor would often boast about his ability to keep black people ‘in their place’. The city also had large scale segregation and King believed that defeating segregation here would be a large defeat for all segregation. In 1963, in Birmingham he led many protests. King and his supporters also refused to buy at downtown stores with segregated lunch counters and washrooms. The numbers protesting grew daily and resulted in many protesters being arrested, including King, where his release was organised by President Kennedy. In response, Police Chief Conner got tougher on the protesters, using clubs, dogs and fire hoses to protesters. However, when these images surfaced in mainstream media across America there was widespread outcry and this widespread attention led to King getting most of his demands met, including desegregated lunch counters and rest rooms in stores, more jobs available for blacks and a group of various races to work out a plan for desegregating Birmingham even further .

This success in Birmingham is what then led to the aforemented March on Washington, which, due to the increased support for the African-Americans, led President Kennedy to pressure Congress to begin creating a new civils rights bill. When Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, his former Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson, called for ‘The earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he [Kennedy] fought so long’ in his address to the Joint Session of Congress. This finally resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law’s provisions created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to address race and sex discrimination in employment and a Community Relations Service to help local communities solve racial disputes; authorized federal intervention to ensure the desegregation of schools, parks, swimming pools, and other public facilities; and restricted the use of literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration, according to Stanford University’s King Institute , King was present alongside other Civil Rights Leaders to sign the Bill. King’s involvement in this, and his now global influence now resulted in him winning the Nobel Peace Prize that year, further showing the widespread of his success .

Though legally King had been successful in his battle, he continued to fight against social equality for others. He led voting drives in Alabama, which led to violence and police brutality, but eventually resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which further strengthened the rights of African-American’s given to them from the 15th Amendment . After this victory, King turned his attention to poverty for African-Americans as 1968 began, King had become influential within ‘The Poor People’s Campaign’, who were planning a second March on Washington . However, before King was able to see this happen, he was murdered while attending a sanitation worker’s strike in Memphis . After his death, the US Government did pass bills relating to poverty, but were based around Affirmative Action as opposed to King’s recommendation of race-blind guaranteed basic income for all, which he wrote in his final book, ‘Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?’ . This shows that despite all his successes, he still wasn’t always able to the get laws he believed in passed.

Approximately 200,000 people attended his funeral, according to the Daily Mail , and he was buried in Georgia. President Johnson made April 7th a national day of mourning, three days after his death on April 4th. In a 2005 poll, King was voted the 3rd greatest American of all time , and left behind a legacy of peace and inspiration, and his nonviolent protest and interracial cooperation enabled him to fight effectively against the Southern system of legalized racial segregation and discrimination, according to Clayborne Carson .

On the other hand, Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, in Omaha, Nebraska, is a member of the Civil Rights Movement most known for his more controversial beliefs; he preached not for racial integration, like King, but for racial separation, due to his thought that black people should be allowed to manage their own lives without white people getting involved, which he spoke about in a speech in 1963, which as become knowns as ‘The Race Problem’ . His ideals of black superiority can be traced back to his childhood, where is father, who was murdered when Malcolm was 6, was a strong supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey . Like King however, X’s father was also a Baptist minister. Malcolm X himself rose to fame as a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), an Islamic based African-American group believing in the creation of black-only schools, churches, and support networks .

During the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were very prominent. They were both great speakers and shared one goal, but they had two separate ways to solve it. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to solve the problems by using non-violence to achieve the goal of promoting justice among all races. Malcolm X always wanted to reduce segregation and be separated, but to use another strategy to achieve the same goal effectively. These men’s experiences were one of the main driving forces behind the ways in which they carried out their attempts to rise above the frequent inhumanities.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a more accented speaker, a more articulate ruler, seeing the broader picture rather than Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr. came from a middle-class home with two loving and supportive parents. He was born on January 15, 1929, in Georgia. One of three children was Dr. King Jr. The influence he had on black and white audiences changed the way racism and harmony were perceived. He was such a revolutionary orator he won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King Jr. was the living definition of a nonconformist prototype who is a person who does not change his initial thoughts or actions based on what others are doing. The prototypical nonconformist explanation he describes so well is because his speeches have been written to inspire all races, especially young African Americans, to use non-violence to solve any problems and never lose sight of their dreams. His most famous speech ‘I Have a Dream’ spoke about uplifting one another with the absence of hatred and violence to help achieve each other’s goals. He also brought forth the belief that God considers no race higher than any other, in his view all races are equal.

Often known as Malcolm Jr, Malcolm X took a slightly different direction in his speeches with how he attracted his audiences. Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He wasn’t as lucky as growing up Martin Luther King Jr. was. Malcolm X, with two loving parents, was one of eight children, but later died. From the Islamic point of view, he was more a speaker on racism than an orator. The irony that poured through all his speeches had implications as serious as Martin Luther King Jr. made his speeches look. Literally, Martin Luther King Jr. was born as a general ruler. He was inspired by the rage generated in the past by white men. His mother was forced to move out of town when he was younger because the sermons of his father were starting to cause an uproar between blacks and whites in the area.

Malcolm X’s leadership brought to the world was rejuvenated power which gave hope to young black men and women to rise above the white man and his rules. To target a specific audience, he used sarcasm and irony. While in jail, his leadership skills were taught. Martin Luther King seems to be the perfect hero that everyone in the Civil Rights era wanted to have. Since being a little boy, he has been a family man and has stuck to his values all the time, he has been a spiritual leader. From the very beginning, great leadership abilities flowed through his veins. Martin Luther King Jr. saw the larger overall image and felt that at least he should try to open the eyes of the people to see what he did. Malcolm X is also a big hero. His thoughts and actions were brilliant, but in a more dictatorial sense they were executed. The target wasn’t as large as it was with Dr. King Jr. His goal was more about black young men and black young women. The mentality people received was to be superior to whites in the future along the lines of love for black power and blacks. When it came to political and social issues, there was nothing comparable. This is where many blacks challenged his leadership. Equality sounded better than other races dominated.

We know in history that no two men are alike, but they were phenomenal people and leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both had in the future visualized change; yet, they could not see it literally. Both Dr. King and Malcolm X set out to give blacks across the United States a sense of confidence. Their main purpose was to help instill the power and strength of black to transcend the racial disparity and racism surrounding them, but they both had some unique and distinct ways to promote their message. Martin was more focused and centered on the justice and well-being of the world as a whole, the subjective view of the world by Malcolm X was very well tainted by indignation, resentment, and the desire for revenge at the detriment of the society he felt unfairly treated him.

Malcom X and Martin Luther king where two people who fought to achieve the one thing civilization aspires most in the world, peace. Even though they both shared a similar goal, the controversy begins at the question: Who made the right approach? Martin Luther King made the decision to stand in front of hundreds of thousands of black people and families who were hurt and fed up. He said what needed to be said for people to finally earn the respect and freedom they deserve. He wanted people to look at his family and merely see a happy family not a happy “black” family. Malcom X wanted the same, but his approach was quite different. Malcom X wanted his people to stand with him and fight for what they deserve and finally make a difference in this cruel world. They both hated the way their families and themselves were being treated and decided that it was up to them to make a difference and take action. Martin Luther’s approach was the right approach, he said what needed to be said on behalf of himself and every black person and made a difference without using violence, and he stood up in front of thousands of people and spoke the truth. Martin Luther and Malcom X both gave a speech to fight for freedom. However, Malcom X had more violent intentions. Which approach was the better approach? Why? Did any of them achieve anything?

Martin Luther King’s approach during the civil rights movement was the right approach. He was able to say what he wanted to say and come through with his plans, to achieve freedom for every black person, peace, respect, and equality without using violence. He motivated so many people and he changed every black person’s life. However, he didn’t only inspire black people but also white people, everyone listened to his speech and most were moved by it. If it weren’t for Martin Luther King we would most likely still be living in a world of racism today. Martin Luther gave a lot of speeches in his time on earth but the most infamous speech that came through and was heard by thousands of people was his ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech “, in which he “spoke of his dream of a United States that is void of segregation and racism” (Tikkanen, 2019). The speech took place on August 28, 1963 and was witnessed by “A massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC” (Zarr,2018). Martin Luther’s leadership played a main role in the movement’s success in ending the legal segregations between black and white people. Martin Luther King, Jr is known for his contributions to the American civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Malcom X wanted nothing less than what Martin Luther King wanted. Yet, he had a different approach towards achieving his goal. Malcom X wanted a world in which the black people were completely separated from the white. He believed that the right way to achieve the segregation he aspired, would be if the black people went back to Africa and the white people remained in America, and that would be how they would achieve their freedom. Malcom X believed that the way they would be able to earn the respect they deserved, was if they stood up for themselves and fought against anyone that treated them differently or tried to get in their way. His dream was to build an army that would stand beside him and fight. He believed that if they stood up strong with their heads held high and didn’t fear anyone that they would be able to earn their freedom. Malcom X lived a very difficult life, he was not always sure what it was he believed, and at one point he even landed himself in jail. Although, Malcom X always faced difficulties “Malcolm dropped out of middle school, and a few years later moved to Boston and found work on the streets as a shoe-shiner, drug dealer, gambler and burglar”(love,2019). In addition to this, he even had to face his father’s death and even suffered from homelessness. Malcom X and his family always received threats from white organizations for his hopes and beliefs for the black community. The threats eventually grew to become a reality that threatened his and his mother’s lives. “His mother was attacked by Ku Klux Klansmen trying to force his family out of town because his father had spoken to a meeting of local blacks in support of Marcus Garvey’s ‘back to Africa’ movement. Malcolm’s family moved to Lansing, Michigan where one of his earliest memories was seeing his home burnt down in 1929 by members of the Black Legion, a white fascist organization; later his father’s body was found hacked to death.” (Simon, 2005). Malcom X once said “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts a hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” After Malcom X’s death a group called the black panthers was formed and they followed and believed in Malcom X’s goals. The black panthers were a group of people that stood by Malcom X’s beliefs and wanted to be a part of his revolution in order to have freedom.

Martin Luther King Junior’s approach during the civil rights movement was non-violent, he wanted to be heard. Although he and his family were being treated horribly he didn’t want to use violence and fight for their rights, he gave many speeches until one of them was finally heard by everyone. His ‘I Have A Dream Speech’ its one of the most important speeches that took place during the civil rights movement, it is the speech that led to the freedom of all black people and families during the movement, Martin Luther King’s speech did lead to his death, but the freedom of every black person in the United States of America. “On October 14, 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting against racial inequality. In 1968, King was assassinated on April in Memphis, Tennessee. He continues to be remembered as one of the most praised African-American leaders in history”.(Johanna,2016). Malcom X’s is approach was preferred to by many people because many people gave speeches but barley were heard by the people so some believed that the only way they would finally be heard was if they united and defended themselves, Malcom X believed that if they did that then they would all be able to go back home to Africa, away from the whites, in a separate world. He wanted no contact what so ever with the whites. Malcom X also gave many speeches like Martin Luther King but had a different approach towards the crisis. Malcom X was loved by many people and many black people looked up to him he wanted to start a black organization just like the KKK (which threatened him and his family most of his life) but for the blacks, he wanted to show the whites that they are no better than the blacks.

In conclusion I prefer Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach rather than Malcom X’s approach because although Malcom X was a very brave and hardworking man willing to achieve his goal, Martin Luther was able to stand up for his people without violence and not only inspire the blacks but also the whites. He was able to get the whole country to listen to him and do something about the racism. Martin Luther changed every single back person’s life forever, he is the reason black people now a days walk the streets alongside their white friends, he’s the reason black and white children go to the same school and are friends, he’s the reason that most of the racism ended in this cruel world. Martin Luther did what every black activist tried to achieve but failed, just like himself many times, and this caused everyone including the president of the United States to listen and be moved by his words and his dream, he didn’t dream of being better than the whites, he simply dreamt of living in a world where they weren’t seen different because of their color, he wanted his children to be able to go to school and sit on a table with white children he wanted everyone to see the blacks as people not ‘black people’ he gave a speech the same as no other and he changed the lives of his family and his people forever, he gave them their freedom and rights till today. Thanks to Martin Luther king the blacks are now seen as people, not the ‘blacks’ and the whites are now seen as people and not the ‘whites’.

The Civil Rights Movement did not suddenly appear out of nowhere in the twentieth century. The efforts to improve the quality of life for African Americans are as old as the United States. However, it was until the year of the 1960s, a nonviolent approach by Martin Luther King, Jr. had awakened the conscience of Americans both black and white about a world where” All men are equal” and be treated fairly. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, written to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison, he made use of ethos, pathos, and logos, which are directed towards his reputation and wisdom, to have the attention as well as innate human rights, engendering guilt in his audience.

This letter was written as the result of a series of peaceful demonstrations aimed at ending segregation at Birmingham. Martin Luther King Jr. and his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) have met obstacles where “police reacted violently with attack dogs and high-pressure fire hoses” which caused hundreds of protesters, including King, were jailed. At first, King was criticized for taking on Birmingham; eight white clergymen published a letter calling his actions ‘unwise and untimely.’ But he responded with his letter citing philosophers, religious scholars, and biblical figures to justify his actions.

In “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, the rhetorical appeal of ethos are present from the first paragraph. By starting the letter with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” he is putting himself on the same “level” as the clergymen, sending the message that he is no less than them and they are no better than him. He then goes on with establishing his credibility “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently, we share staff, educational, and financial resources with our affiliates.” The purpose of the introduction is to establish his credibility as a member of the United States of America as well as one of the religious leaders. Such connections are important because they show his audience that Dr.King share the same beliefs with them as well as having a similar authority as they do, therefore he has the right to exercise his faith.

MLK compares his mission to spread his message to Paul’s religious expeditions implying that he is also God’s chosen people to bring liberation and freedom to people, “Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid!“ (King). By noting that he has been sent by Jesus, Dr.King shows his authority in the religious field, that he has the support of God no matter how people may be against him. Just as Jesus sent his disciples all over the world to take the gospel, Martin Luther makes it clear that he came to Birmingham due to the injustice that was prevailing. Here, Dr.King is making his audience feel guilty about not living up to both their religious and moral obligations to the movements.

Aside from appealing to the religious reader, Dr.King continue to assert his use of Authority on non-religious readers by paraphrasing famous philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas and Martin Burber “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” His use of logos here encouraged people to follow the laws that benefit him while breaking laws that do not. By taking for granted that his audience accepts the validity of Christian morality, he insists that one should apply this sense of morality towards the world’s complications. And yet even within this logical argument is an implicit use of pathos, as he implicitly asks the question ‘would you want to support a law that “distorts the soul?”’ Dr. King’s argument urged his audience to question their view of the Civil Rights Movement and feel ashamed of their failure to support the movement.

Parallelism was used when Dr.King is addressing his disappointment with the white moderates “ Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” The frustration that King speaks of here is that although these sympathizers sided with King and blacks about their right to equality, they felt that this equality was to be granted only when it was convenient for the white man. Their sympathy/understanding of King and the blacks’ struggle was thus shallow, and as such, more frustrating to bear than the outright resistance shown by intransigent whites who blatantly rejected any thought of racial equality for the black man.

Martin Luther King then proceeds to justify his cause for protest and establish reasons for the advancement of civil rights by continuously raising doubts about the meaning of a “just law” and pointing out specific examples in which laws were unfair and unjust. King says, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’ It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.” Here he establishes a powerful example of an unjust law (how it was illegal to aid a Jewish person in Germany during Hitler’s rule), and how he would have reacted to it (giving aid to his “Jewish brothers”). This tosses the ball back into the clergymen’s court – implying that they should think about what they would have done. It is assumed that as good Christians, they would have given aid to any person in need. He draws a correlation to the atrocities committed against the Jews to the atrocities committed against African Americans in America – though, on a much smaller scale, the situations can be considered similar, with unjust laws bringing about violence and deaths. King forces the clergymen to think about the morally correct course of action.

Finally, the rhetoric engenders shame in the inability of churches to live up to the standards of Christianity. King describes his disappointment in the church, “The judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century” (King). Here, King conveys a sense of panic and urgency to the audience by suggesting the future of Church is at risk if they don’t change their behavior. The phrase “judgment of God” is associated with fear of the power of God, about biblical stories involving consequences of God’s disapproval, causing the audience to feel fearful (an effect of pathos) and to feel a need to change to avoid God’s wrath. Also, by referring to the Church as “an irrelevant social club,” King disrespects the Church to convey his point and demonstrate the future of the Church if people are not to take action. Calling the Church “an irrelevant social club” can anger the clergymen and other readers, forcing the clergymen to realize that if they are irritated by a rude reference now, then they must take action to prevent such disrespect.

The author of the “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, was an extremely prominent and the most influential civil-rights leader during the era. He was able to effectively show the American people the injustice the black community faced and why nonviolent protests have a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement. Without his cleverness in using rhetorical devices, the Civil Right Movements wouldn’t be as successful as it ended up to be.

“You can not separate Peace from Freedom because if one man does not have freedom he shall never have peace” (Malcom X) . Malcom is presenting that one man can never have peace of mind without freedom because without freedom the man would never know how he would be treated in day to day life . He could have the best day of his life just to be killed the next , he may not be able to get enough money to feed his family because he can’t find a job that hires him just due to the fact of his race , as well as not knowing whether his children will be safe during their day to day life . Malcom X was a human rights activist that died for what he believed for when he was assassinated in 1965 . Around the 1940-1960 there was another man that was very loud in the civil rights movement this man’s name was Martin Luther King Jr . Martin Luther King Jr had many famous acts he did for Civil rights including “I Have a Dream Speech” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” . In the “I have a dream speech” Martin Luther King Addresses how even after 100 years of freedom for the black man and women . There has been little to no progress to civil rights and that’s why black people will not wait around any longer waiting for something to happen they will take action in peaceful protesting . Martin Luther King addresses the clergymen in the “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he also explains more in depth why the blacks are protesting and not trying to make an agreement with the council of Birminglam.

These two pieces of King’s legacy he uses rhetorical devices, figurative language, and tone to get across his point about Civil Rights in the United States of America as well as making an overall difference in the regular black man’s life .

The “ I Have a Dream” Speech was a major part in the movement Dr Martin Lurther king had towards Civil Rights . The way King made his speech even more effective was by using metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts such as “the negero lives on a lonely island of poverty in amidst a great ocean of wealth”(Martin luther king jr.) What king is addressing here is how Black people are held back in society well white people prosper in the united states . King get’s his point across stronger by using a metaphor instead of just out right saying what the metaphor means . King furthermore makes his speech even more compelling by utilizing quotations and allusions as king says “ Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree is a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been a.hard in the flames of withering injustice.” King Alludes to the Gettysburg Address another famous speech spoken by Abrham Lincion during the civil war . Abrham Lincion was the 16th president of the U.S.A as well as a strong believer in civil rights as much so that he was willing to split his own country and go to war for it . King really grabs u in this speech with all the different ways he uses metaphors and allusions to peak your interest in it .

In the “Letter from Birmingham” king uses Ethos and logos to make his point to the clergymen . He uses Ethos’s when he compares himself to paul the disciple of Jesus Christ . “ I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” This shows his credential in many ways first as a leader because of how confident he is comparing himself to paul showing himself to be confident in his ability in being a leader . By showing himself to be a leader it makes his point he makes to the clergymen ten times more effective . Then king uses logo’s when he states what unjust and just laws are “A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state’s segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?” This shows that King is certain that this is a cold hard fact . He made millions believe the same thing as him this is why the quote is logos. In this Letter King wrote to the clergymen he used ethos and logos to make his point clear on why people are protesting for civil rights to the clergymen .

Martin Lurther did both of these pieces of writing/speech for one reason mostly for civil rights for all black people . There are differences between how these two pieces were written and how King present them to the public . Such as in “I Have A Dream” king use more metaphors and Allusions . Like when King says in “I Have a Dream” , “In the amendments of this country it states that all means have the right to Life,Liberty,and the pursuit of happiness . King Alludes to here is the 13 Amendments of the Constitution . In the “Letter From Birmingham” king uses more Ethos and Logos such as “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.” King is stating facts in this way because it is true that if King had done all his civil rights movement from his desk . King’s Secretary’s were to busy doing everything related to the civil rights movement then doing more important tasks. These pieces of writing/speech compare in the way that they are used to help the civil rights movement but contrast in a way in how they are shown to the public .

Overall, King was a crucial part of today’s society and a massive part in the civil rights movement. Till King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 . Both texts are amazing writings to just read and for the civil rights movement just in the many ways these two pieces of writing affected people’s lives . There is really only one way to get something that is important to you and that is to stand up for what you believe in and fight for it. That is the life lesson in these pieces of history and many other parts of history . Such as the Civil War and the Women’s Rights movement . All these parts of history people stood up and fought for what they believed in . All these were to build this country foundation on the right to have equal freedoms to every citizen on are ground . This is why Martin Luther King Jr is so well remembered is because he stood up for what he believed and fought for civil rights.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. At the peak of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) and other African American leaders decided to concentrate their power in the most segregated city in America’s Birmingham, Alabama. As the nonviolent protest increased MLK was arrested in April 12, 1963 for breaking an unjust law against political demonstration, held for a day with no permission to his right to call a lawyer. When he finally contacted his lawyer Dr. King wrote a letter call “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Answering an article in a newspaper calling him “unwise”; in this letter Dr. King explains four steps of his nonviolent protest which are: fact finding, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. In this essay I will be analyzing the letter from two different points of view: moral and legal. Also, we will be analyzing Dr. King’s actions and consequences and why he kept his position.

A direct action is the creation of a situation that will inevitably open the door to negotiation. The strategy that Dr. King used was a nonviolent direct action as a form of activism that sought to create conditions that directly pressured the power structure (government) to change or to make clear for a larger audience. The power structure is engaged in oppression (segregation) that should not be allowed to stand. In other words, stop the segregation in Birmingham the most racial city, where the small offenses such a sign in a restaurant or the rules in the buses and the big offenses were attacking African American houses throwing bombs in them. As Dr. King says in his letter “freedom is never voluntary given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” He realized that the government would never make a change if the minorities never asked for it, so his idea was to show the government in a pacifist movement that African Americans were tired, annoyed, and disappointed with the racial problem that was affecting the United States for a long time. African Americans will not take “wait” for an answer because they took that already for the past340 years and they understood that “wait” is a different way to tell them “Never”. It is important to understand that at this moment, nonviolent direct action was just one of several possible responses to the continued oppression of African Americans. Other groups advocated for violence or armed resistance during the 1960s, while some figures argued for a more gradual approach to change because of their fear of civil disorder. Malcolm X, a member of the Nation of Islam, for example, argued for black separation from whites and armed resistance when attacked. Dr. King labeled such beliefs as examples of the “bitterness and hatred” that would end violently if other channels for constructive change were not allowed.

Dr. King uses appeals to emotion throughout the essay to dramatize the impact of segregation and racism on African Americans and to humanize them. An example of this is in the letter when he says how do you tell your six years old daughter with tears in her eyes that she cannot go to the new park because “Funtown” is closed to colored children. King gave the readers different examples of how African Americans were treated just because of his color and he also exposed the injustice and inequality that they dealt with every day. When King used the example of a little girl with “tears welling up in her eyes” as her parents explained to her that racism prevents her from attending an amusement park, the idea of an innocent child pulls at the heart strings of the reader and thus makes the readers more sympathetic to the abused humanity of African-Americans.

While Dr. king was in jail eight clergymen issued an article in a newspaper where they accused King of being an “outsider” and that he is not related to the community in Alabama therefore it shouldn’t be his business. As response to this allegations Dr. King wrote on his letter “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Alabama was affecting the African American community with heavy segregation and racism which was a national problem back in the 1960s and was affecting every African American in the country. This is why Dr. King decided to focus his efforts trying to make the state of Alabama think that if the state collapses and avoids segregation the rest would do the same.

Morality is an importance aspect of this letter. Attention needs to also be put on the legal aspects and how they are shown in this document. Dr. King argues that in Alabama African Americans are the majority and none of them can vote. Alabama does the impossible to prevent them to vote. This leads Dr. King to ask, “Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that the state’s segregation laws was democratically elected?” Democratically elected or a direct democracy is where the people directly deliberate and decide on legislature and the people elect representatives such as presidents or senators. But why African Americans couldn’t exercise their right if there are “people” from the same community? And here is where the comparison between just and unjust laws appears. Just laws are a code or rule men made with morals that creates equality in a society. On the other hand, we have unjust laws that degrades people from the society and distinguishes them for their looking or aspect or in one word “segregation.” Dr. King is trying to make readers understand that law is a synonym of equality in the eyes of justice everybody must be equal and judged for breaking the law and no for their skin color.

An important purpose of this essay is to mobilize not only African Americans but also white moderates, who had been sitting on the sidelines of the Civil Rights Movement. He says, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klan, but the white moderate.” King directly criticizes white moderates to drive home the point that their complacency and attitude toward African Americans are part of the problem. King references Christian and American examples of civil disobedience to help them understand that the actions of the protestors are not extreme at all. By using sources of authority that align with the beliefs of his audience.

Works Cited

1. King, Martin L. “Letter from a Birmingham” 1863
2. Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, eds. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume Two: Since 1877. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019

On April 14, 1954, Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the position of pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. As we know now, that decision would set off a chain of events that would lead King to become the spokesperson of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and ultimately a leader of the civil rights movement. Today, Dexter Avenue Church’s basement holds a mural (Figure 1) “depicting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ascension into heaven, …, in the painting he is surrounded by his forebears and teachers, including Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, [and] W. E. B. Du Bois.” In the course of taking Professor Clayborne Carson’s class “American Prophet: The Inner Life and Global Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” I was surprised that images of these and similar black forebears were seldom evoked in King’s speeches and sermons. Instead, King spent much of his time grounding his ideology in American intellectual traditions and the broader Western civilization tradition. This tendency was a byproduct of King’s upbringing, of his education, and of his desire to appeal to white moderates.

King’s Background

Michael (later Martin) Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia to parents Michael (later Martin) Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams. King was raised in a loving, financially stable household with a deep connection to Ebenezer Baptist Church. King’s grandfather, A.D. Williams, and father “Daddy King” both served as pastor of Ebenezer. From an early age, Martin Luther King Jr. was witness to how Christianity could be used as a tool for making the world a better place. The church was a catalyst for literacy and education, and produced black leaders. It enabled A.D. Williams to fight for black public schools and King Sr. to work towards desegregating Atlanta’s city hall. The bible itself is filled with messages of justice and providing for the less fortunate which had a lasting impact on King. In a 1950 essay titled An Autobiography of Religious Development King wrote, “it is quite easy for me to think of a God of love mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and where lovely relationships were ever present. It is quite easy for me to think of the universe as basically friendly mainly because of my uplifting hereditary and environmental circumstances. It is quite easy for me to lean more toward optimism than pessimism about human nature mainly because of my childhood experiences.” Therefore, it is not surprising that King came to be one of history’s strongest advocates of nonviolence. As phrased in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) Statement of Purpose, “nonviolence as it grows from Judaic-Christian traditions seeks a social order of justice permeated by love., …, Love is the central motif of nonviolence. Love is the force by which God binds man to Himself and man to man.”

It has been interesting to think about King’s upbringing in contrast to Malcolm X’s early life experiences. Malcolm’s father passed away when he was six years old, leaving his mother to struggle to provide for Malcolm and his siblings. Eventually, in the words of Professor Carson, “Malcolm’s mother [was] institutionalized in an insane asylum and [Malcolm] became a ward of the court, to be raised by white guardians in various reform schools and foster homes.” King once stated that Malcolm, “was clearly a product of the hate and violence invested in the Negro’s blighted existence in this nation. He, like so many of our number, was a victim of the despair that inevitably derives from the conditions of oppression, poverty, and injustice which engulf the masses of our race.” This common juxtaposition between their economic conditions and ideologies invites further investigation, especially in comparison to King’s wife Coretta Scott King. While Coretta’s beliefs and ideologies aligned very closely to King’s, she was raised in a poor community in Southern Alabama. Unlike King, she attended college with the help of a scholarship, worked her way through school, and was completely self supporting. This is in contrast to Martin Luther King Jr. whose father provided him with an apartment, car, and living allowance while he was studying leading some of his peers to lightheartedly refer to him as a “prince.” This illustrates that in addition to economic factors, the rural-urban and south-north divide was an equally strong line of demarcation between the ideologies represented in the movement. For example, both Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael spent a significant portion of their lives and were heavily influenced by the urban North and came to have ideologies more closely aligned.

Another area of interest is how King and others viewed and spoke about the United States. During a 1965 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church titled The American Dream King said, “And so for those days we traveled all over Jamaica. And over and over again I was impressed by one thing. Here you have people from many national backgrounds: Chinese, Indians, so-called Negroes, and you can just go down the line, Europeans, European and people from many, many nations. Do you know they all live there and they have a motto in Jamaica, ‘Out of many people, one people.’ And they say, ‘Here in Jamaica we are not Chinese, (Make it plain) we are not Japanese, we are not Indians, we are not Negroes, we are not Englishmen, we are not Canadians. But we are all one big family of Jamaicans.’ One day, here in America, I hope that we will see this and we will become one big family of Americans. Not white Americans, not black Americans, not Jewish or Gentile Americans, not Irish or Italian Americans, not Mexican Americans, not Puerto Rican Americans, but just Americans. One big family of Americans.” This message is in stark contrast to the words of Stokely Carmichael at a speech given at the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. Carmichael said, “I do not want to be a part of the American pie! The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you’ve been in. I don’t want any of your blood money! I don’t want it, don’t want to be part of that system.” While King was critical of the United States, he remained invested in its tradition and rhetoric.

In The American Dream sermon King later goes on to say that, “The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth. It doesn’t mean that every musician is equal to a Beethoven or Handel, a Verdi or a Mozart. It doesn’t mean that every physicist is equal to an Einstein. It does not mean that every literary figure in history is equal to Aeschylus and Euripides, Shakespeare and Chaucer. (Make it plain) It does not mean that every philosopher is equal to Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Hegel.” In my research I found that it was not uncommon for people in the movement to invoke the names of history’s “great philosophers.” In his 1966 speech “Black Power” Stokely Carmichael said, “The philosophers Camus and Sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself. The black existentialist philosopher who is pragmatic, Frantz Fanon, answered the question. He said that man could not.” But as seen in this example Carmichael used this as an opportunity to incorporate into the conversation a black existentialist and revolutionary, Frantz Fanon. Later in the same speech he says, “I don’t think that we should follow what many people say that we should fight to be leaders of tomorrow. Frederick Douglass said that the youth should fight to be leaders today. And God knows we need to be leaders today, ’cause the men who run this country are sick, (applause) are sick (applause).” Similarly, James Farmer a founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and organizer of the Freedom Rides wrote in his book Lay Bare the Heart, “despite the NAACP and the Urban League; despite Fred Douglass; despite DuBois and James Weldon Johnson; despite Charles Hueston, Thurgood Marshall, Bill Hastie, and a whole battery of superb lawyers; despite the bombardment of the nation’s ears by writers who can stride into the human heart and orators who put Demosthenes to shame. Despite it all, segregation persists.”

Education

Martin Luther King Jr. enrolled in Morehouse College at the age of 15. Both King’s grandfather, A.D. Williams, and his father were alumni of Morehouse College. After graduating, King wanted to experience a more liberal environment and receive an advanced education in the North. He wanted to preach a gospel based not only on emotion but on intelligent, and look at the Bible critically. In The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. King reflected, “not until 1948, when I entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, did I begin a serious intellectual quest for a method to eliminate social evil. I turned to a serious study of the social and ethical theories of the great philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle down to Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill, and Locke.” King also speaks about reading the works of Walter Rauschenbusch, Karl Marx, Henry David Thoreau, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. All of these writers/ thinkers mentioned are white.

King grew up in the church but struggled in his preaching courses, he was criticised for being too intellectual. The remnant of this is illustrated during a sermon titled ‘Can A Christian Be a Communist?’ delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church. King said to his congregation, “now, this will not be the traditional sermon with a text, and you may feel when it’s over that it’s more of an academic lecture than a moving sermon.” He goes on to say, “You remember the words of Shakespeare’s Othello. As he stood there before the villain Iago, cried out, “Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’twas mine, ’tis his, has been the slave of thousands. But he who filches from me my good name robs me of that which might enrich him but makes me poor indeed.” This is in direct contrast to how Malcolm X began his speech “Message to the Grass Roots,’ delivered at a Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference in Detroit. He began by saying, “We want to have just an off-the-cuff chat between you and me, us. We want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand.”

King’s approach was quite different, which is probably most clear in King’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” During this address delivered at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis he was speaking to the black sanitation workers who were on strike. He said: “And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, ‘Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?’ I would take my mental flight by Egypt (Yeah), and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, on toward the Promised Land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there. (All right)

I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon [Applause], and I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Oh yeah)

I would go on even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire (Yes), and I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Keep on)

I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah)

I would even go by the way that the man for whom I’m named had his habitat, and I would watch Martin Luther as he tacks his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn’t stop there. (All right) But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah) [Applause]

I would come on up even to 1863 and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah) [Applause]

I would even come up to the early thirties and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation, and come with an eloquent cry that ‘we have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ But I wouldn’t stop there. (All right)

King is known for being able to take the “ordinary” struggles of man and put them in the global context, in the context of the civil rights movement as a whole. And this was certainly an important way to mobilize people and bring them into the movement. It was especially effective in mobilizing young people. However, it could also be argued that these topics (Plato, Aristotle and the Renaissance) are not the most accessible and relatable for less educated working class people.

King’s Appeal to White Moderates

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech which he gave at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, is the cornerstone of King’s popular media legacy and MLK holiday celebrations. People highlight King’s messages of love, nonviolence, and unity. The speech’s patriotic themes appealed to a wide audience including white moderates.

In his speech King said: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (Yeah), they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men (My Lord), would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.,… , this will be the day when all of God’s children (Yes, Yeah) will be able to sing with new meaning: “My country ‘tis of thee (Yeah, Yes), sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. (Oh yes) Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride (Yeah), from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

It is extremely interesting to put these words in conversation with Malcolm X’s words at the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference in Detroit that same year. Malcolm X said, “you are ex-slaves. You didn’t come here on the ‘Mayflower.’ You came here on a slave ship. In chains, like a horse, or a cow, or a chicken. And you were brought here by the people who came here on the ‘Mayflower,’ you were brought here by the so-called Pilgrims, or Founding Fathers. There were the ones who brought you here.”

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert F Kennedy was scheduled to speak in Indiana. He was advised to cancel his appearance but decided to instead gave an unprepared statement addressing King’s assasination to a mostly black audience. Bobby Kennedy said, “Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black, considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.” On one hand this speech could be seen as a touching statement by a man who lost a brother to assassination, in line with King’s beliefs. But this speech is also the first example of the way King’s legacy has been used by white american politics for its own agenda. As we learned in class, white politicians and leaders came to Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral who would not have taken a photo with him the night before the assassination.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King Jr. is the best known black leader to emerge from the “civil rights movement.” He is known in popular culture as a gifted orator and a prolific writer. In reading many of King’s speeches and sermons it becomes clear that King often grounded his ideology in American intellectual traditions and the broader Western civilization tradition. By putting these pieces in conversation with the works of men like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael I concluded that this was due to King’s upbringing, education, and desire to appeal to white moderates. This is important to acknowledge because it foreshadows what Cornel West has called the “Santa Clausification” of Martin Luther King Jr.

The fight for reproductive rights has been a long and continuous one that has been prominent for centuries. A woman’s right to have control and power over her own body and its abilities has been historically difficult to achieve, due to the patriarchal structure of our society, and is a battle that women are still fighting globally. However, there was rapid growth of the movement in the second wave of feminism that happened between the 1960s and 1980s. The rise of forced sterilization in the United States began in the mid 1900s and has had a lasting impact on the Reproductive Rights movement and the activists within it. Coerced and forced sterilization was a racist, elitist tactic that, in conjunction with other aspects of our country’s history of white supremacy, created a biological hierarchy in society that is still embedded in today’s culture and practice. Eugenics lobbyists and white nationalists allowed their racist ideals to be the motive for violating reproductive rights of minority women and traumatizing their bodies just to keep them from reproducing. As a result of the emphasis on sterilizing the minority population and forcing them to not have the ability to reproduce, the Reproductive Rights movement became a divided, exclusive movement at a time where unity and intersectionality in the movement was needed the most in order for progress to be made.

Within my research, I aimed to identify the position of minority women in the Reproductive Rights movement and support the theory that forced sterilization in the 1900s defined this position and differentiated marginalized women in the movement. Exploring the history of forced sterilization provides background to the divide in reproductive rights activism and connects to the lack of inclusivity and attention on minority women’s issues in the second wave of feminism. Understanding the history also provides an explanation as to why minority women are still targeted and encouraged not to have children in modern circumstances. Analyzing the origins of eugenics, the timeline of laws that allowed forced sterilization, and how the affected women organized against this issue allows for a full grasp on the experience of marginalized women in the Reproductive Rights movement and how this experience has aged.

In order to interpret how forced sterilization became common, one must know what movement the procedure stemmed from: the eugenics movement. Eugenics is a concept that began as a method of Gregor Mendel, a scientist in the late 1800s, used to cross-breed and create plant hybrids that contained all the best genes a plant could have in order to ensure strength and survival of the plant.[footnoteRef:1] Although eugenics had its starting place in plant sciences, American biologists began to adopt this ideology and apply it to human genetics. This shift was often referred to as ‘new’ eugenics, or neo-eugenics, especially when targeting women of color. The biologists believed that if you could genetically alter a plant in order to give it the best traits, human traits could be altered in the same way. Maggie Lawrence includes in her piece that “American biologist Charles Davenport quickly became a main proponent of the eugenics movement, promising Americans that certain traits (for example, intelligence, cleanliness, and work-ethic, among others) were predetermined by race, temperament, and status.”[footnoteRef:2] Davenport’s argument that “you could indeed hybridize strong individuals to create the best human” would inspire the eugenics movement in the United States and earn him the title as one of the “fathers” of eugenics.[footnoteRef:3] [1: Lawrence, Maggie, ‘Reproductive Rights and State Institutions: The Forced Sterilization of Minority Women in the United States’. Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT (2014), 13.] [2: Lawrence, “Reproductive,” 14.] [3: Ibid, 14.]

People who believed that eugenics would create a better future society believed that society would be ideal if those who had a certain ‘undesirable’ race, socioeconomic status, and disability were not allowed to reproduce. Although the human application of eugenics would prove to be inevitably racist, this did not stop the nationalist mindset of the United States from permitting eugenics activism to be widespread. This enforcement of eugenics became prominent through several events, organizations and even legislation. In 1907, the first law in support of eugenic sterilization (specifically for the mentally ill) was passed in Indiana and this law, which was later referred to as the “Indiana Plan,” “became the benchmark for the rest of the nation.”[footnoteRef:4] Thirty states followed Indiana in their legislation of mandatory sterilization and the law was not officially repealed until 1974, when over 2,500 people had already been sterilized legally in Indiana.[footnoteRef:5] In addition, by the 1970s, a total of 70,000 people were forcibly sterilized nationwide.[footnoteRef:6] Through the efforts of eugenics lobbyists and supporters, the idea of forced sterilization as a way to reduce the reproduction of the ‘unfit’ population became normalized and the popular opinions of who was ‘fit’ versus ‘unfit’ to reproduce became hard to refute. [4: Lombardo, Paul A., ed. Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. 26.] [5: Ibid, 37. ] [6: Roberts, Dorothy E. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. First Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. ]

The determination by eugenicists of who was ‘fit’ to reproduce and who was ‘unfit’ was originally grounded with the intentions of not reproducing mentally disabled people in order to rid the population of “confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists,” but this evolved into the inclusion of more ‘undesirable’ individuals in the ‘unfit’ population.[footnoteRef:7] As the Reproductive Rights movement progressed in the mid-1900s, as well as the Civil Rights Movement, forced sterilization, with intentions of eugenics in mind, became more detectable in marginalized groups of women. These women were facing intense coercion to be sterilized and were being manipulated into doing so, while white women and men were not at all affected. The ‘unfit’ population targeted to be violated of their reproductive rights was refocused to women of color, immigrant women, low-income women, and physically disabled women. Whereas, on the other hand, the ‘fit’ population still entailed white, upper/middle-class women (who were often Anglo-Saxon Protestant). It became immediately obvious that the restriction of control these minority women had over their own bodies was an act of racism intended to limit their identity and culture in the United States, even though they deserved the right to have a choice with their reproductive ability as much as any other woman did. [7: Lombardo, “Century,” 98.]

Works Cited

1. Bader, E. J. (2006). Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice. Off Our Backs, 36(4), 82–83. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth&AN=25027780
2. Caron, Simone M. “Who Chooses?: American Reproductive History Since 1830.” Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
3. Follet, Joyce C. 2019. “Making Democracy Real: African American Women, Birth Control, and Social Justice, 1910–1960.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 18 (1): 94–151.
4. Fujimoto, Victor Y, Tarun Jain, Ruben Alvero, Lawrence M Nelson, William H Catherino, Moshood Olatinwo, Erica E Marsh, Diana Broomfield, Herman Taylor, and Alicia Y Armstrong. 2010. “Proceedings from the Conference on Reproductive Problems in Women of Color.” Fertility and Sterility 94 (1): 7–10. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.12.068.
5. Kluchin, Rebecca M., Fit to Be Tied: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1950-1980, Rutgers University Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wvu/detail.action?docID=871480.
6. Kulp, Denise, and Jennie Mcknight. ‘BETWEEN OURSELVES REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY: A FORUM WOMEN OF COLOR.’ Off Our Backs 16, no. 4 (1986): 2-4. http://www.jstor.org.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/stable/25794935.
7. Lawrence, Maggie, ‘Reproductive Rights and State Institutions: Forced Sterilization of Minority Women in the United States’. Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2014.
8. Trinity College Digital Repository, h p://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/390
9. Luna, Zakiya T. 2010. “Marching Toward Reproductive Justice: Coalitional (Re) Framing of the March for Women’s Lives*.” Sociological Inquiry 80 (4): 554–78. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.2010.00349.x.
10. Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York University Press, 2003. https://hdl-handle-net.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/2027/heb.04379. Accessed 16 Sept. 2019.
11. Patel, Priti. 2017. “Forced Sterilization of Women As Discrimination.” Public Health Reviews 38 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1186/s40985-017-0060-9.
12. Roberts, Dorothy E. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. First Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1999.
13. Solinger, Rickie. 2005. Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America. New York: New York University Press. Accessed November 18, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central.
14. Volscho, Thomas. 2011. “Racism and Disparities in Women’s Use of the Depo-Provera Injection in the Contemporary Usa.” Critical Sociology 37 (5): 673–88.

Have you ever wondered if laws were different a long time ago? I have, and they definitely were. There were unfair laws that separated black people from the white people. These laws were called Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws made black people’s lives horrible. They were kept from using the same things as a white person. People had to go through a lot of horrible events to get where we are today. Civil rights were made to treat everyone with equality. No matter what their beliefs, religion, or skin were. Because of racism, the Civil Rights Movement took place in the South in the 1950s and 60s. Jim Crow laws were made illegal in 1965. That meant nobody could treat black people unfairly just because of their skin.

Segregation wasn’t fun, it was a really depressing time. Black people had to use different bathrooms, different water fountains, different schools, they even had to get different jobs than a white person. All of this led to protests. Black people would get beaten, yelled at, injured, and even killed just for peacefully protesting. Discrimination was when someone would make stereotypes of a black person. Even if they didn’t know anything about them. Black people would get called cruel names, as a matter of fact, the law Jim Crow originated from a mean name people used to call black people.

On December 1, 1955, a woman of color named Rosa Parks was sitting on the bus. All of a sudden, a white man asked her to give up her seat and go sit in the back of the bus. Rosa refused and it caused her to go to jail on the same day. Rosa got fined $10 and an additional $4 in court fees for not giving her seat up to a white man. She lost her job as a tailor’s assistant and because of that, her and her family had to move to Detroit to find work. Just 4 days after her arrest, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. 40,000 black bus riders boycotted busses. They rode bikes, scooters, carpooled, or just simply walked. The boycott lasted 381 days, in other words, more than a year.

In conclusion, the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended in 1956. Busses had to allow black people to sit where ever they wanted without harassment. If they didn’t, they would have gone bankrupt. Because of Rosa Parks, protesters, and other civil rights leaders, segregation and discrimination are illegal.

Human rights are an important aspect to your life and to law making and everyone needs them to have a good life. If you live in the United States, you have many rights unless you’re trying to do something wrongful like murder or steal. It wasn’t always like this however, before the Civil Rights Movement you could be denied public access to a public area because of your race or religion. Thanks to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Montgomery Bus Boycott, people have started to treat each other equally. The Civil Rights Movement is the most significant event to happen in the last two hundred years.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a big step towards ending discrimination, at the time it helped with desegregating public places such as restaurants, public bathrooms, etc. There were different titles which dealt with discrimination, the first was Title VII. Title VII dealt with worker discrimination, so you couldn’t not hire someone based on their skin color or religion (Baughman). This helped people of color because if a white man and a black man applied for a job even if the black man was more qualified, they would hire the white one. This act made it so that if a worker felt they weren’t hired because of skin color you could file a complaint which could then become a charge. Another part of the Civil Rights Act was Title II which dealt with another part of discrimination. Title II ended discrimination against people in public accommodations which included places such as gas stations, theaters, etc. (Baughman). The title allowed people to file complaints and charge the place they felt discriminated against them. The last part of the Civil Rights Act was interstate commerce which gave the government the ability to enforce the act. The Supreme Court made the commerce clause this allowed the federal government to regulate all business in the country this was essential for the Civil Rights Act to be effective (US Legal). Interstate commerce made it so the federal government had power over states so they couldn’t discriminate without consequences. It gave the government the ability to charge business that discriminated against people who wanted to buy their goods or services.

In 1870 blacks were guaranteed the right to vote however racial discrimination still occurred when voting, they would receive different test to see if they could vote then others. The first part of the Voting Rights Act was the 15th Amendment which was made in 1870 and gave African Americans or any American citizen the right to vote. “The 15th Amendment says people can’t be denied the right to vote due to race, color, or previous conditions of servitude” (History.com). This amendment had no power till the Voting Rights Act came in to effect because they had no way enforce the rule. The amendment was mostly ignored in the south they would give test that most African Americans would fail due too little to no education from years of suffrage. Literacy tests were another big problem when it came to the voting, these tests would be given at random to African Americans. Literacy tests were a big cause of the Voting Rights Act blacks could be given super challenging test and white people wouldn’t be given these tests, the African Americans weren’t as educated due to their oppression and poverty (History.com). The Voting Rights Act put an end to the literacy test so African Americans were now given the same requirements as everyone else. Lyndon B. Johnson was a big part of Civil Rights Movement he passed the bills and acts needed to put an end to discrimination. “Within three years nearly one million African Americans were registered to vote in the south, ninety eight percent of all hospitals agreed to serve without discrimination… by nineteen sixty-eight most African American people earned seven thousand dollars a year doubling from 1965” (World Bibliography). LBJ’s bills were a big help in ending discrimination due to everything he passed such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act are just some of the big legislation to help end discrimination.

The final topic was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, African Americans at the time would be forced to move from their seats and if disobeyed could be arrested and fined. Rosa Parks really started the bus boycott when she sat on a racially segregated Montgomery Alabama bus. “Rosa sat on a bus towards the front and was forced to get up and was arrested after refusing, this started the boycott” (Rosa Parks). Rosa and Martin Luther King led a protest for around a year that made the company go bankrupt and forced to allow blacks to ride anywhere on the bus. By Rosa standing up for herself she made a change for African Americans that would affect all their life’s. The Jim crow laws were laws in the south that just discriminated against African Americans and were a big spark to the Civil Rights Movement when people finally got fed up with them. During the nineteen tens people suffered from legalized race control, which sought to deny them equal political, social, educational, and economic opportunity (Jim Crows). The bus boycott forced an end to discrimination in bus rides and when the bus company was forced to allow blacks to choose seats MLK was one of the first to ride. There was peaceful protest were a big help to ending the discrimination and African Americans couldn’t be charged or fined due to the peacefulness. “During a peaceful protest in Selma march the protesters were met with troopers who had night sticks and teargas, Johnson called a voting legislation about how officials are unfair” (History.com). African Americans finally got what they wanted and forced the president to make a change. These peaceful protests were exactly what was needed to force a change without anyone getting harmed.

You can now see in the last two hundred years, that the Civil Rights Movement is the most significant event to happen. This is due to the importance of the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Today we are closer to all being more equal than ever and keep striving to get closer. The United States is great because no matter what race, religion, or anything you are, nothing can stop you from being successful. The United States government has made it, so every U.S. citizen has the same amount of human rights.