The Daybreakers
We are not come to wage a strife
With swords upon this hill.
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done,
Beating a way for the rising sun.
-Arna Bontemps
Source: Harlem Renaissance Packet, American Literature
A. Introduction
In a recent survey of The North Star, it was revealed that only 1 out of 2 NNHS students could correctly identify the governor as Jim Edgar. But if you ask anybody in the United States, young or old, who Martin Luther King, Jr. was, they could immediately tell you a good deal about his life history, his background, and they could probably quote his "I have a dream" speech for you.
This is because Martin Luther King, Jr. has shaped our country and helped make it what it is today. Although he died in 1968, his legend will live on forever. He is a true hero, by almost anyone's definition. King shaped American culture by influencing public perception of African Americans through his selfless example. He was willing to go to jail for his people, to go up against the president of the United States, and in the end to die for his cause.
B. The Beginning (Childhood)
Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929. His parents had both been "share-croppers" when they were kids, blacks that worked for white farmers and received a portion of the crop for pay. Once King's father was old enough to live by himself, he insisted on him, his wife, and his children owning their own plot of land.
King grew up in a segregated town. There were separate black and white entrances to many businesses, as well as black and white bathrooms and water fountains. Also, in some places, blacks were even forced to ride the freight elevator! That last one may sound ridiculous, but it is true.
Originally, Martin Luther King, Jr. reacted to prejudice like most other blacks, in a violent manner. When he was a kid, he was told he couldn't play with his friend, the son of a white merchant, because he was black. After that, he said he wanted to kill all whites.
Also, King was skeptical about the value of being a minister until Dr. Benjamin Mays showed him the power of religion. As you know, King was a very smart man. As soon as he saw the effects of religion, he immediately pursued a career as a pastor.
C. King's Mission
King became a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He preached for equal rights, as a lot of his sermons were centered around social issues. Pretty soon, his missionary work went beyond his preachings. He started a movement known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The goal of this movement was to unite blacks together for one common purpose. The organization set up goals which they worked together to achieve.
After he started this organization, King realized how many people were willing to follow, if he was willing to take the lead and organize. One time someone shot at his house. He said later that morning, in a sermon for his church, "If I could talk to whoever that was, I'd tell them that it won't do any good to kill me. My movement is bigger than that. It's not just about me."
The major goal of the SCLC was to integrate schools. If they could do that, blacks would be guaranteed an education of equal quality to whites. This was hard to do because back in 1896, the Supreme Court Case of Plessy v. Ferguson established the "Separate But Equal" doctrine which plainly stated that there was no need to integrate schools, or anything else, because the facilities for blacks and whites were of equal quality. Although Martin Luther King, Jr. did not personally override the "Separate But Equal" doctrine, it's safe to say that without his efforts, that doctrine might still be in place today.
Integrated schools aren't the only thing King worked for, though. He also played a key part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, inspired by the active NAACP member Rosa Parks. After Montgomery integrated their buses, King tried to integrate buses everywhere in the country.
King also tried to clean up "bad" neighborhoods in the city. He worked directly with the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) to improve the housing situation in urban areas. One way they accomplished this was through school boycotts, such as the ones in October 1963 and January 1964. If everybody walked out of school, the government couldn't ignore it. They had to do something.
The biggest accomplishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. was his effort to enable blacks to vote. Blacks had the right to vote, however everyone had to take a literacy test to be able to vote. Most blacks couldn't read, and were therefore unable to pass the test. Even the ones that could read were limited by the "Grandfather Clause" which stated that if your grandfather couldn't vote, neither could you. King worked to end the literacy tests and the "Grandfather Clause". Even after that, however, blacks were strictly discouraged from voting by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). One time the KKK hung a dummy from a telephone pole with a sign that said "This Nigger Voted". These types of acts were common among the South.
Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to spread the "Montgomery Experience", all the prejudice he faced in Montgomery, across the South. He gave 300-400 speeches a year, about one per day. Although he was a very fluent speaker and he gave great speeches, he realized that speeches only appealed to enlightened people. One of King's major obstacles, in general, was the fact that many blacks weren't educated. This created a "catch-22" situation because it kept blacks from being as influential towards the integration of schools.
Although not everyone could benefit from King's speeches, they could participate in his marches. His first march on Washington, D. C. was called the "Prayer Pilgrimage". He later gave his "I have a dream" speech at a march on August 28, 1963.
King consulted many racial experts. Many people don't believe that King consulted others, that he would be the one to be consulted, but he often was confused about non-violent means of protest. Still, King could help organize people well, because he was smart and had great social skills. It is said that King was "socially active" when he was in high school, and King probably understood people enough to know what motivated them.
Harris Wofford was a major influence on King. He was a white person who attended a "Negro" college, despite major protests from his family. He later spent a year with Gandhi learning about peace and its uses. He later decided that the major "peace" issue in the United States was race relations. He tried writing to Martin Luther King, Jr. but got no response, because King was too busy to read his own mail. All he got were "Thank-You" notes from King's secretaries. Eventually he found Martin Luther King at a speech he was giving.
King was impressed by Wofford, and took a lot of advice on non-violent protests from him. Wofford didn't get along well with King's staff, however, and never got much recognition for the things he taught Martin Luther King, Jr.
D. Political Endeavors
King tried to gain the support of Eisenhower when he was president. Eisenhower stated that "You can't legislate morality," which King agreed with, however King stated that he believed laws could stop acts which were morally wrong. He said, "A law can't make someone love me, but it can keep them from lynching me."
Eisenhower claimed to support blacks, however he refused to associate with them. He ignored all of King's telegrams to him. Later King was able to win the support of the democratic party by saying that he was trying to undo "Eisenhower's failure". He got marches approved by the democratic party this way.
King knew a lot about politics. In public, he acted like he didn't support any one political party, so that everyone would support him and no one would be biased against him. In private he would take whichever side would help him the most. For example, taking the democrats' side would be going up against Eisenhower. King relied on "inside politics" to get many of his marches approved. King is probably not the only one to use these tactics, however his case is unusual because he was trying to gain moral ends.
King once said, "My race is worth dying for," almost as though he knew what was going to happen to him. He said that when you feel strongly enough about a cause, nothing else matters.
King said that he wanted "radical redistribution of social and economic power". He wanted to go against racism, materialism, and militarism. Not many people know about his actions against materialism and militarism.
He said "We have guided missiles and misguided men," and later he participated in the "Vietnam Summer." The goal of this program was to end the Vietnam War. He said he wanted to "defeat Lyndon Johnson and his war."
King is considered to be a hero for the U. S. but he even said himself that he was concerned about international relations. He was concerned about what happened in Africa, and he started a movement in Africa to feed the hungry by establishing farms in African countries.
King didn't have much faith in any one system of government. He said that capitalism was too "I-centered," that capitalists were prone to selfishness. He said communism was too "collective, statist", and he believed in the value of the individual. He wanted to spread racial unity on an international level, but not through communist means. At the same time, he gave a lot of credit to communists for their support in race relations, making himself appear to be a communist.
Martin Luther King got frustrated with the U. S. government, as he stated in his "Mountaintop" speech, on April 3, 1968, the night before he died. The next day he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
E. Summary
King left a major legacy. He didn't try to promote himself, and that was probably the biggest reason he managed to be promoted. King is one of the world's most selfless heroes. He was trying to support his race, but he supported them for the race's sake, not for selfish reasons. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been willing to die for the cause. King has created a major part of United States history and is a hero we can be proud to say is "one of our own" here in the United States.
"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character...When we let freedom ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963
