Dr. Kings Work, and Frederick Douglass Efforts

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In the history of the Western world, huddled masses have erupted in protest against oppressors of all kinds. The curiousness of this truth lies atop some fundamental differences in Western culture. These differences are accepted without question by many within the Western world as human advancements. The tragic results of these differences then are never connected to their source, because advancements taken as such without pause, or consideration, are overlooked while in search of a cause.

In every human culture, there is some semblance of a class system. There is leadership. There are common people. The divide between these classes in savage cultures is a divide of quality. The courageous and bold step up to lead, and the rest follow that courage. In Western Civilization, agriculture is used as a primary source of sustainment and thus creates a class system based wholly on power. Those in control of food production, and later production itself, wield power over those who must toil in the fields. The spread of mankinds totalitarian agricultural, the ongoing agricultural revolution, is responsible for an ever-present need for a laboring class (Quinn, Ishmael). Slavery in Americas history is one example of this truth. The consequences of our societys dependence on agriculture include specialization of labor and densely populated cities. These phenomena resulted in germs of strength unknown to other peoples, alongside steel, technologygunscreating such an imbalance of power between Western Civilizations and the rest of the world, that other cultures could scarcely defend themselves against another result of totalitarian agriculturethe need to spread (Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel).

Africans were another link in this chain. Heroes of Black-Americans, like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr., were living out the last stage of a cycle those who have been victimized by this larger phenomenon go through. They struggled to gain the freedoms possessed by peoples previously bonded by those in control of productionthe middle class. Some of the most inspirational oratories and essays have emerged from the final stage of the ordeal pressed upon the Africans, and these two talented individuals upheld that history. Frederick Douglas, on the fourth of July in 1852, while Americans around him were celebrating the ideals for which they fought less than a century before, presented a scathing speech to a surprised crowd as he was invited to speak by Rochester, New Yorks leading citizens (The History Place, 1). A little over a century later, Martin Luther King Jr. writes a Letter from a Birmingham Jail, pursuing the freedom of his race from the oppressive forces they had the misfortune of falling victim to. In an examination of these two works, one finds many similarities and contrasts, most of all in the patience each writer affords their opposition, the fire with which each communicates, and in the times from which each activist performed.

Frederick Douglass lived in the era of slavery. He experienced it himself. He was a runaway slave. He toiled in the fields. He felt the lash of the whip and the scorch of the sun. So, it is dumbfounding, baffling, that those who asked him to speak at the fourth of July celebration of 1852 could have expected anything but a mournful, scornful, rage-filled rebuke of the hypocrisies a celebration of freedom and justice, in a nation still practicing slavery within its borders, embodies. Yet, it appears they did expect another type of oratory, much to their detriment.

Douglass speech is one of passion, eloquence, and fervor. Here is an excerpt:

Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity, which is outraged, in the name of liberty, which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! (Douglass, 1).

Douglass is righteous in his indignation and without caution blasts away at the evils responsible for the condition of his race, as he sees them. His oratory, in comparison to Martin Luther King Jr.s letter, is short. It is pronounced. It is evocative, provocative. It is because of the presence of bondage in Douglass timea bondage Douglass himself experiencedthat these contrasts exist.

Dr. King wrote his letter from a jail cell, as indicated by its title. He is responding to some criticism his non-violent movement had received from the clergies of Birmingham. Some key differences in his style, in his force, lie above his experience of more liberty than Douglass had ever been experienced himself. From a lineage of preachers, Dr. King also approaches his criticizers from the Christian values of love for, and faith in, his fellow man. Though at times passionate and enflamed, Kings rhetoric is much more patient and bated than his predecessor Douglass. In consideration of this fact, one must also bear in mind that he is writing from within a cell, and expresses the following himself: I can assure you that it [this letter] would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers? (King, in closing).

King takes the time to address every criticism launched at the movement of which he is a part with distinct chains of logical argument. Kings letter is like a marathon. His pace is slower and more persistent than Douglass. Douglass oratory is a dashit is a sprintshort-lived, and full of fire and excitement. Considering the above excerpt of Douglass, take the following as an example of the contrast of temperament in these two intellectuals:

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first, I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of somebodies that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses (King, 1, written at about the half-way point of the letter).

Notice here that though King is addressing the same oppressive powers (granted, to a different degree), he takes the time to explain to his enemies, with tolerance and respect, all the forces that are acting on the Negro in his time. He expects to be understood. Dr. Kings faith in his fellow man is not as broken as Douglass is, though to address the issue at all requires hope.

The commonality in their approaches to the issue of racial inequality comes from the kinds of responses they each received, and expect to receive, from the moderates from which they require, most dearly, support. Douglass says, But I fancy I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother Abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed (Douglass, 1). Dr. King writes, You may well ask: Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isnt negotiation a better path? (King, 1). Each faced a group of people who saw the merit of their positions without being willing to concede that to change the unjust nature of racial relations, submission to the evil power structure was not an option. Dr. King goes on to write about these types, saying they paternalistically believe they can set the timetable for another mans freedom (King, 1). Douglass takes a common-sense approach in addressing these moderates: Must I undertake to prove that a slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it (Douglass, 1). Each, however, is criticized for being uncompromising in the pursuit of their races freedom, and each of their responses circulates that assertion.

Dr. Kings work, and Frederick Douglass efforts, bore fruit. Todays Black-Americans still experience discrimination in the wake of the egregious sin of slavery, but at a much lower level than ever before in our nations history. Their speeches ultimately reflect different stages on the continuum of the struggle for the black races libertyDouglass having spoken during slavery itself, and Dr. King writing to further balance the inequality between the black and white races. What is easy to ignore, since it is not experienced by America first hand, is that somewhere in the world, right now, other people are being oppressed. In sweatshops that circle the globe, men, women, and children are toiling still, at the behest of the powers that be, in service to a lord, enslaved by a cultural phenomenon that has never been properly considered as the cause of so many injustices through history.

Works Cited

Diamond, Jarod. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: Norton. 1999.

Douglass, Frederick. I Hear the Mournful Wail of Millions. 1852. The History Place: Great Speeches Collection. Web.

The History Place: Great Speeches Collection. Web.

King, Martin Luther Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. 1963. University of Pennsylvania: African Studies Center. Ed. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D. Web.

Quinn, Daniel. Ishmael. New York: Penguin. 1996.

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Dr. Kings Work, and Frederick Douglass Efforts

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