MARTIN LUTHER KING'S JUNIOR POLITICAL
Background
Martin Luther King Jr. came of age during a time
when Jim Crown Law’s reigned supreme, a time when “separate but equal was the accepted doctrine, a
time when things were always separate but never equal for black and whites. It
was a time when black were not permitted to use the same stores and the whites’ oppression was practiced throughout America. It
was during this time that the winds of change started to blow.
King grew up abhorring segregation, barbarous
and crustal acts it engendered. Such insistence pushed King to start a series
of intellectual quest to eliminate racism in America society. In this
socialization, king became conscious on economic and social injustice within
society and sought means of rectifying these conditions. King was born in a
rich family and he himself escaped harshness of racial injustices but images of
runaway poverty of his playmates form ghettos in Atlanta and Georgia, where he
grew up, remained real stuck. In college he was influenced by Thoreau's’ “Essay on civil obedience”.
Later on in the seminary he spent time studying Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill and Locke; but it was
Rouschenbush’s “Christianity and the social crisis” that provided theological basis for his own
social concern. King realized that in order for Christianity to be relevant to
man-black and white- it had to deal with both spiritual and socioeconomic
environments. It was in reading of the work of Gandhi that he lost his
skepticism for power of love and began to appreciate its usefulness and potency
in the field of social reform. Therefore, Gandhian concept of Satyagracha and the technique of
love and non-violence provided King with tools for social transformation
through which blacks could use in their emancipation against oppression and
injustice.
Human
Nature King’s View
on Human Nature
For King human nature contained a mixture of good and
evil. As the individual enters into the social and political life, the evil
dominates. A basic dualism of constant struggle between good and evil is at
play within man King Partner observers that in a mob man loses his sense of
responsibility. Yields to emotional appeal and act abnormally. Therefore, human
nature is prone to change from evil to good. According to King Suffering was part of human nature and
essential for spiritual growth through self-purification. The stress on
redemptive role of suffering stems from King’s belief in Christianity which
teaches submission to sacrifice just like Christ gave up his life on the cross.
1. King’s Political Philosophy
1.1 The civil Rights movement.
A liberal universalism inspires the classic “letter from Birmingham Jail’ by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. This was a committed response to those within his camp who thought the
civil rights movement was “going too fast” and those among his enemies who
opposed the idea that “outsiders” should seek to change the
American South. Dr. King’s essay insisted upon the need to distinguish between
just and unjust laws and at the same time, to accept the punishment of an
unjust state for breaking the law.
Martin King Jr, also founded the integrations tendency
as it has been called reached its highest peak in the civil rights movement of
1950s and 1960s. He fathomed the fight for more civil rights legislation. By
saying, “we cannot stop until Negroes have
absolute and complete freedom.” At first one would seek to persuade with words and then
deeds, “True compassion is more than
flinging a coin to a beggar….it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars
needs restructuring.” Martin Luther King Jr.
He spoke on much about jobs where his legislation, laws
against racial discrimination in employment, protections from police brutality,
a minimum wage and self-government for Washington DC, the also advocated for
the rights to vote.
2. Equality of the people of color
King also believed in the need to invest in economic and
social improvement for true equality to become a reality. King demanded
economic aid to the poorest communities of all races in America in what would
be called the Economic Bill of rights which did not pass because of his
assassination. He suggested that poverty was a major cause of social problems
in the US and called for “a radical redistribution of economic and political power” that would uplift those from all
racial and ethnic groups’. He says, “We are called to speak for the
weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls
enemy. For no document from human hands can make these humans any less our
brother”.
Martin Luther also advocated and championed for what the
rights in the civil rights movement. He especially cited what the constitution
was saying about human rights in press and the freedom to protect for people’s rights. The movement had a lot
of following and support among both the blacks and whites who thought that it
was time that human rights were to be respected.
“I have a Dream” speech, it was around this time
1963 when the movement was at its peak when King delivered his most famous
speech.: I have a dream:, where he said that he had a dream of the better
future where all people will respect each other to the extent that the whites
will even elect the black as their leaders i.e. the president, governor and
senators.
He continues to say “I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise out and live out the true meaning of its creed, we hold this
truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that one day the red
hills of Georgia, the sons of both former slaves and slave masters will be able
to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. “One day even the state of
Mississippi a state sweltering with heat of injustice, sweltering with heat of
oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom of justice”, that one day his four children
will live in a nation where they will not be judged the color of their skin but
the content of their character.
Impact
of African political thought in the USA for the people of color
King’s influence in the African political thought in the US
was that African American got more involved in the American political process
than other minority groups in the US, indicated by the highest level of voter
registration and turn-out in elections among these groups in 2004. African
American attained higher levels of education than the immigrants to the US.
African Americans also have the highest level of congregational representation
among minority group in the US.
Until the New Deal, African Americans were supporters of
the Republican Party because it was Republican President Abraham Lincoln who
helped in granting freedom to African slaves, at the time, the Republicans and
democrats represented the sectional interests of the North and South,
respectively, rather than any specific ideology and both right and left were
represented equally in both parties.
On May 9, 2012, Barack the first African American president
became the first US president to support same sex marriage. After his
endorsement there is a rapid growth in support for same sex marriage among
African American. Now 59% of African Americans support same sex marriage even
higher than support among the national average (53%) and white American (50%).
The gains made by African American in the civil rights
and black power movements, not only obtained certain rights but changed
American society fundamentally prior to the 1950s, Black American in the South
were subjected to the dejure discrimination or Jim Crow.They would often be
victims of extreme cruelty and violence, sometimes resulting in deaths, by the
post world war II era. African American became increasingly disconnected with
their long standing inequality. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. African
American and their supporters challenged the nation to rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed, that all men are created equal….’
The civil rights movement – marked a sea change in American
social, political, economic and civil life. It brought boycotts, sit – ins, demonstrations, court
battles and other non-violence tactics. This prompted worldwide media coverage
and intense public debate, forged enduring civic economic and religious
alliances, and disrupted and realigned the nations two major political parties.
Over time it has changed fundamentally the manner in
which blacks and whites interact with and relate to one another. The movement
resulted in the removed of codified, dejure racial. Segregation and
discrimination from America life and law, and heavily influenced other groups
and movements in struggle for civil rights ans social equality within American
society, including free speech, movement, the disabled, women, native American,
migrant workers and people of color.
Conclusion
In summary therefore, we see that Martin Luther King,
was not only involved in changing the face of American oppression, but also had
a hand in relieving oppression worldwide. 1960 King was among those urging the
United Nations to step in and end apartheid in South Africa after 69 blacks
were killed during peaceful Sharpeville protests. The King and civil rights
often drew international attention. In 1963 thanks in part of Kings work in
Alabama, the United Nations adopted a policy called the UN declaration on the
elimination of forms of discrimination.
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