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Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders on the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. He was not the first to adopt the non-violence tactics of Ghandi and use them, but he was one of the best at it. Dr. King headed the SCLC and helped to coordinate the various marches that were held around the South. When he looked at people he did not see them as black or white, but as a single race of humans. He cloaked the Civil Rights Movement in good Christian love. It was with this that he was able to justify loving your enemy and turning the other cheek. He stressed that his marchers must be able to take a beating without getting violent. He cultivated the feeling that the suppression of the black race was immoral. This, combined with the fact that his protesters were not violent in the face of naked hatred and aggression, brought about a feeling of moral shame in his opponents. It also developed a strong sense of purpose and a high level of moral.
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It is both immoral because it seeks to humiliate the oopponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community doalogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brultality in the destroyers" (MLK 134, He Had a Dream). This excerpt symbolizes the entire philosophy behind King's movement.
King was a devout Christian and family man. He was also a great orator; he was able to deliver his sermons with intense emotion and purpose. this is best exemplified by his "I Have a Dream" speech. Of all speeches that were given at the March on Washington, the one that people remember most is his. Dr. King was also a loving father and husband. He always made sure that he spent time individually with each of his children and his wife. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a perfect axample of what he preached. He saw people as human, not as black or white.
Finally, he believed that if a man would not give up his life for something he believed in, he was not fit to live. He died tragically by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968, doing what he believed in.
Dr. King accepts the Nobel Peace Prize
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