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Was Dr. Martin Luther King Or Overrated?

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Dr. King thrived to achieve legal equality for African-Americans in the United States (archive). Everyone has their personal opinion of what he stood for, but is it based on factual evidence? Simmons, a Feminist from Kings era, felt that Dr. King didn’t accomplish anything different from what the people before him did, yet he received all the credit for everything. Perhaps Dr. King’s success was overrated. Many scholars believe that he was diligent and very deserving of all the titles he obtained. It’s significant because to claim that Dr. Kings success was “overrated” is discrediting him and his contributions. In this paper, I will explain why he deserved all the recognition he received and how his determination for equal opportunities led …show more content…

The Birmingham Campaign was created to try end discrimination based on race everywhere in Alabama. Protestors did everything they could to try and get arrested so the jails would become crowded and police officers had no choice but to let protesters go. The protest sometimes got violent because of the methods the police used to try and get the crowd under control. Eventually law enforcement gave in causing protestors to win, which lead to discrimination in public places to be banned (Godwin 27). As you can see he succeeded in some and failed in others. No matter what he never gave up and kept fighting for what he believed in. The March on Washington was very important, it was the day Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.” The march was to create equal opportunity rights at jobs for every race. Later Dr. King spoke on the topic of having the freedom to go and do anything one desires no matter your race. In his speech, Dr. King brought up good points, one being that even though society believed that African Americans were free, they were not because of segregation everywhere (Godwin 28). Many great things came from this famous speech, and eventually almost all his dreams have become

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Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch is a historical book dedicated to educating individuals on the civil rights movement during 1954 through 1963. This book majorly highlights Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the movement, as well as his life rooting back to his childhood. Branch is able to clearly depict the struggles that African American people faced during this ear of oppression and segregation. Taylor Branch is an American author and historian who became famous due to his award winning trilogy of books that reviewed the life and fight of

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King was a sonorous voice for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. He refused to give in to the comfort of laziness and decided to conquer the discomfort of discipline. Dr. King listened to God who presented him with a miraculous gift of writing, public speaking, and standing for equality. He was able to relate to this gift by relating to God as he held true to this faith and belief. In a corrupt society where he was constantly being degraded and belittled, he embraced his calling to persuade others to fight for social injustice.

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Hearts of the oppressed will always cry out in desperation; waiting for anyone to swoop in and liberate them from their cruel reality. Few are capable of mustering up the gumption to throw their neck on the line in defense of the defenseless. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one such man. Trading in his comfortable life for one of danger and ridicule, King was catapulted to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement following the profound leadership he demonstrated during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As a well-educated, African American pastor, he provided a unique perspective on the racial issues at hand.

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Martin Luther King Jr. inexplicably opened the eyes of Americans across the nation with his role in the movement and his use of resonating imagery, excellent emotional appeal, powerful voice, and evocation of logic in his “I Have a Dream” speech. With such an enthralling rhetoric he gained a vast amount of support and exponentially increased the pride in standing up for what’s righteous and just. Exemplifying the throes of being a colored person, King evoked sympathy whilst simultaneously applying the valid logic that no human should be subjected to lesser standards. His rhetoric wholly changed American history that day and thus conveyed his ability to maintain equanimity throughout all of the

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Eventually, he got his education and his freedom and escaped the slave trade, after having suffered repeatedly at the hands of his ‘owners’. Dr. King on the other hand was born in in 1929, a time when the slaves had been emancipated, slavery had ‘officially’ been ended, but the bias and segregation still hadn’t been wiped out

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Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America.

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The success of Martin Luther King’s peaceful movement against discrimination and injustice towards African Americans owes much

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Even through all of the threats King received, after going to jail and having his house bombed, he persevered and pressed on against segregation. This was only another of his many achievements that greatly affected the civil rights movement. One of King’s most popular achievements was the Birmingham Campaign. King organized large groups of students to march from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to City Hall. Eugene Connor, Birmingham's commissioner of public safety, met the students with fire hoses and and police attack dogs.

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On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of people marched to support freedom. They marched up and down Constitution and Independence avenues in Washington D.C. before the long awaited speech. They wanted to listen to the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had, and they wanted to be the people to make that dream real. The March on Washington was an important part of the Civil Rights Movement, including the “I Have a Dream” speech. The effects of this event can still be seen today, and have changed how our nation has developed.

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King also received a Nobel Peace Award. This speech was so powerful that it took a step forward in fixing injustice racial problems in

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Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech). King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. King was able to. join Jefferson and Lincoln ranks of men who've shaped modern America with a single phrase. 50 years after the March on Washington we recognized that King was able to reshape the economic landscape for Black Americans.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.

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Introduction: The civil rights movement of 1954-1968 has made a huge impact on the history of African-American equality. All the great leaders of the movement have gone down in history for their courageous work and outstanding commitment to the civil rights movement. One of the most famous of the activists was Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968) . King is still remembered today for his legendary speech entitled “I had a dream”.

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He grew up with a deeply rooted determination to obtain equal rights for all American citizens. He led many protests and gave extremely motivating speeches that eventually made him the most known Civil Rights leader. “Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the head of a movement for justice and equality that branched out from Montgomery and swept through the south” (ramsees7). This established the success in his accomplishments within the marches

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