Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his famous "I Have A Dream" speech
“A lie cannot live”-Martin Luther King, Jr.
By this quote we can already see that Martin Luther King, Jr. is a great man. He Fought for the African-Americans in the USA because they were being subjected to unfair treatment. By unfair treatment I mean that if you were a African-American in USA at around the 1940’s you could not walk on the same street as a Caucasian. It was against the law and you would be beaten. In these terrible times, King brought together an uprising to promote African-American equality. Not an uprising of violence but an uprising of non-cooperation. It was like saying “We will not follow these rules and cripple ourselves but we will do what you do and accept the punishment.”. Kings most famous speech was the “I Have A Dream” speech to promote America as a color blind country, that everyone is equal. King also won the Nobel Peace Prize and he earned it. He became the youngest person to receive this prize as stated here on Wikipedia, search “Martin Luther King, Jr. I believe that everyone cannot be a hero, but a hero can come from anywhere. King had concern for everyone including the Caucasians, he was magnanimous to all and he knew how to reach the people of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
King had concern for everyone. He did not want to hurt anyone in his campaign. King states “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” This means that even though the Caucasians hated the African-Americans but King was determined to not hate them back, but to see them as one of them and to love them. King believed that violence is a cycle that gets you that results in the more violence. King defiantly did not want that in his beloved, but unfair country. Mahatma Gandhi had used non-cooperation to win Indian Independence by leading protesting marches that involved no violence and would tell his fellow Indians to not cooperate to the Britisher's unfair rules. He would also tell them to accept the punishment and Gandhi himself was sent to jail many times. King was greatly inspired by Gandhi and thought to himself “If Gandhi can do it, why not I?” In these ways did King not hurt anyone and made an example to everyone.
“We will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hand 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. In his speech, “I Have A Dream” This quote implies the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr. was good and fair to all. He included everyone. Not just Black men and White men, which he was fighting for. I did not realize this before, but looking at this part of the Kings speech, I now know that King wasn’t fighting for his race. He was fighting for everyone. So that everyone would be on the same level and that everyone would finish the race at the same time, No winners, and no losers. The United Nations mas the global millennium development goals to make sure every country finishes the race together. I think that they took this idea from King and again enforces my previous point of being a great example.
Part of being a great leader, is to know how to reach the people. I feel that this is a essential skill that you need to know if you want to be a leader. If you want to be a leader, you need people who will follow. If you do not have any reasons for people to follow then no one will follow you. You also have to tell the people that you will listen to all their demands and give them reasons on how you will accomplish them. This is just one part of reaching out to the people. the other? Action. To actually do what you said you would do and Martin Luther King, Jr. had plenty of both. He did not make empty promises to his audiences. In his speech “I Have a Dream” King says “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality”. This means that King is saying that he is battling the police brutality and battle them he did. King also reached out to the people by telling them what they wanted to hear. This was easier for King because he himself had been part of the violence, brutality and inhuman treatment (both kinds of treatment, medical treatment, getting rid of germs and how unfair the Caucasians were to him) happening to and around him. King’s in Kings speeches, he addresses every thing as “we” not I. When ever I read a very good sentence or statement, I get this weird feeling in my chest and somehow I know then it is amazing. It happens only on the computer. When I read and heard King’s speech, I instantly got that feeling. King address the audience in his speech by making most of his points with “we” with the exception of the I have a dream part in King’s speech “I Have a Dream”. One part is “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” you can read King’s speech here.
Before I did this post, I did not know much about Martin Luther King, Jr. I didn't even know that there was a “Jr” In his name. I knew that he peacefully protested for African-American civil rights but that was it. Doing further research in King, I now know him not as a protester, but one of my idols. He followed the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who was from a different religion, Hinduism. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian and both of them used their religions as a guideline and it lead to the same results for both of them. I now realise the success in King and how much of a hero he was. I wouldn't have realised this if I hadn't done this post which implies my thesis “Not everyone can be a hero, but a hero can come from anywhere." From the leader waiting inside of me (my name Meaning leader) I thank Martin Luther King, Jr. for his teachings. But it is up to us to make sure his teachings don’t go to waste.
