Dr Martin Luther King Jrs Influence on the Social and...

Few Americans have had as tremendous an influence on the social and political culture of the country as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Kings most formative writings and sermons dated from when he was just a teenager in seminary school (Kuruvila, 2007). Kings character was formed within the forge of the Christian faith. It was from a firm bedrock in Christianity that Kings concepts of morality and spiritual justice sprouted. However, Kings political and social activism also bore roots in the rich soil of philosophy. As Blakely (2001) points out, As Martin moved on to the seminary, he began to pass countless hours studying social philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill, and Locke. Next, Thoreau, Hegel and Marx grabbed Kings attention, as did Reinhold Niebuhr and of course Mohandas K. Gandhi (Blakely, 2001). It was Gandhi who perhaps had the strongest influence on Kings methodologies of civil disobedience. Therefore, Kings theories and methods did not evol ve in a vacuum of American backwardness. King was fighting against the current of racism that gripped the American South, but he did so in an educated and thoughtful manner. Moreover, King drew from the strength of the burgeoning black empowerment and black nationalism movements of leaders as diverse as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois. Martin Luther King, Jr. would synthesize this complex and powerful array of formidable philosophical influences. King is a Christian herald because heShow MoreRelatedEssay His 135 Week 9 Final Project3576 Words   |  15 Pagesmostly the bad times like the wars, the civil rights movements, President Kennedy’s and M. L. King Jr’s associations, just to name a few. In this paper I will discuss those and more going into the start of the 21st century. The previous five decades consisting of the 1950s into the millennium happened during the U.S. History equally turbulent, but exciting. There also were numerous transformations within social, governmental, plus technological sections, but the WWII era currently seems rather prehistoricRead MoreThe Role Of Music Festivals On The Inner City Muslim Action Network ( Iman ) Essay2375 Words   |  10 PagesIn Iranian jails, artists, musicians and filmmakers are held as prisoners on charges of â€Å"insulting Islamic sanctities† through their work. Coordinated by Amnesty International, the #FreeArtists social media campaign was recently launched to secure artists’ release. Considered the â€Å"nail in the coffin for freedom of expression in Iran,† the imprisonment of these artists was an attempt by Iranian authorities to silence what was considered sacrilegious rhetoric in their works. For most Americans, the