Martin Luther King Essays (428 words) - Community Organizing

Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Martin Luther King, Jr. was born at noon Tuesday, January 15, 1929, at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. He was first named Michael Luther King Jr., and later changed his name to Martin, after his father. He was the first son and second child born to the reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King, a schoolteacher. Growing up as an African American in Georgia, Martin experienced and suffered discrimination throughout his boyhood. This discrimination against black people was cruel and demoralizing. Martin Luther King Jr. told once of an experience he had riding a bus with his schoolteacher from Macon to Atlanta, "the driver started cursing us out and calling us black sons of bitches. I decided not to move at all, but my teacher pointed out that we must obey the law. So we got up and stood in the aisle the whole 90 miles to Atlanta. It was a night I'll never forget. I don't think I have ever been so deeply angry in my life." There were many discriminatory laws in the South. They had certain restaurants that they were allowed to eat in, separate water-fountains, separate bathrooms. Just about everything you can think of was segregated. One of his first experiences was with the curtains that were used on the dining cars of trains to separate the whites from the blacks. This incident struck King pretty hard, he said, "I felt just it as if a curtain had come down across my whole life. The insult of it I will never forget." King was an extremely bright student and skipped right through his high school years and entered Atlanta's Negro Morehouse College at age 15. His father encouraged him to study ministry, while he had his heart set on medicine or law. King was embarrassed of his own religion. He didn't understand what all the shouting and stamping was all about. But after reading and rereading Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience," he came to the conclusion that the only way he could bring about his ideas on social protest was through ministry. At Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, King studied the writings and teachings of many philosophers, such as Hegel and Kant, but the person that impressed him the most was Mohandas Gandhi, and his beliefs in a nonviolent protest. On June 18, 1953, King marries Coretta Scott,.a young girl from Marion, Alabama. The marriage ceremony took place on the lawn of the Scott's home in Marion. The reverend King, Sr., performed the service, with only a few attending. The Kings will go on to have four children, Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice Albertine King. Martin Luther King Essays (428 words) - Community Organizing Martin Luther King The person whom I respect who fought for what he believed is a person whom we celebrate every year, on the third Monday in January. He was an American Clergyman and Nobel Prize Winner, one of the principal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement and a prominent advocate of non-violent protest. That is right, it is Martin Luther King Jr. The reason I admire this man so much is for everything he has done for this country, in the way of racism. It amazes me to see how one person challenged the segregation and racial discriminations in the 1950 and 60s and helped convince White Americans to support the cause of the Civil Rights in the United States. For one man to become a symbol of protest in the struggle for racial justice. After his passing to show how racism really is still out there and needs to be desegregated. I admire how he used nonviolent protests to get his view points across about racial issues. Martin Luther King Jrs public speaking abilities gave him the strength and courage to fight non-violently for what he believed. I feel that he was a great person who was changing the society for the better of all human beings. Although he went through some rough roads, like his house being bombed. Martin Luther King Jr. did not give up. Hw went on about what he believed and continued his marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. To me Martin Luther King Jr., if not assassinated in the Spring of 1968 (April). He probably would have made the United States even a better place than it is now on racial issues. I look to him as a wonderful person who never gave up in what he believed, and died for doing so. I find it unbelievable that the King came to represent black courage, and achievement, high moral leadership, and the ability of Americans to address and overcome racial divisions. Even though he criticized the United States foreign policy and poverty, he soared above all and became a historical figure among the country. Martin Luther King Jr. is one who I will admire always. He was a great and remarkable individual who fought for the rights of Black. I applaud him for fighting and dying for what he believed in. And most of all, I respect all that he has changed for the United States with his marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. America lost a great person, but has gained a lot for his fight against racism. Politics Essays