Martin Luther King, one of the most well known civil rights leaders in America, believed that some laws during his lifetime were unjust in nature and were acceptable to ignore based on ones conscience. Henry David Thoreau also believed that unjust laws were to be resisted or ignored. While Thoreau was the first American to define and use civil disobedience as a means of protest, King expanded upon it in his letter from Birmingham jail, implementing nonviolence and practical application into the traditional American protest. Henry David Thoreau believed that, “That government is best, which governs least.” Also, while Thoreau had wished for no government, he acknowledged the fact that it was logically impossible and that the government only exists because the people allow it to exist; Thoreau states, “The government does not keep the country free. It does not settle the west.
In the essay, “In Defense of Prejudice”, by Jonathan Rauch, he defines the position opposite to his own as “purism”. He states that the public does not know enough about the term and it has yet to be properly identified. Rauch states that “purism” cannot be justified without the traces of prejudice to be completely removed from society, but that prejudice will never be removed from society due to continuous perceptions that people have. Throughout the essay Rauch defines purism, and it can be attained that the public does not know what pluralism is, what it means to be politically correct, and what society really is without constant prejudice. In this essay, those concepts will be explored with Rauch’s position on them, and what he believes.
Rhetorical Analysis of Letter from Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr. In the message, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King starts off by replying to criticism. He says the reason for him being in Birmingham. He has been invited there because of the organizations he was affiliated with wanted him to be able to be called upon to “engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary.” Then King describes the issues and reasons why him and his supporters take actions into their own hand but in a nonviolent way. Even though his ways are looked as done illegally, King recognizes that this is the only way to receive equality and that freedom is hard to get unless demanded y those who are being discriminated against.
Rand says “Reality, the external world, exists independent of man’s consciousness, independent of any observer’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears…” (qtd. The Ayn Rand Institute 1). Consciousness, therefore, is to distinguish reality, not to fashion or form it around a personal belief. Consequently, Objectivists reject all forms of a supernatural or any beliefs unfounded in fact. In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach.
His letter was a peaceful demonstration on how this injustice, or segregation of blacks from whites, was intolerable, anti-God like and must be conquered for the sake of humanity. Martin Luther King Jr was one of the most influential voices of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all United States citizens. He is famous for using nonviolent protests to overcome injustice. Dr. King never became tired of trying to end segregation laws and did all he could to make people acknowledge the fact that “all men are created equal.” He was also a Baptist minister and one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
His main focus was convincing Virginia that everything they had done to obtain peace wasn’t going to work and probably never will and he wanted to do something about it. Henry felt like if he didn’t find a solution of change that he wasn’t being loyal to his country. While trying to come up with a working solution, Henry was trying to get them to understand that they were going to have to come up with a different tactic other than an argument. His last proposal to the people was to fight for their equality. He knew that they probably weren’t prepared for what he thought should happen to gain their freedom but that certainly didn’t stop him.
In the history of the American civil rights movement, two seminal figures emerge: that of the peaceful and nonviolent Martin Luther King, Jr., and the revolutionary and radical Malcolm X. From these two contrasting images, America did not know how exactly to classify the movement. On one hand, Malcolm X preached independence and a "by any means necessary" approach to achieving equality in America. And on the other, King preached a nonviolent, disobedient philosophy similar to that of Gandhi in the achievement of Indian independence earlier in the century. While most students are familiar with King as a civil rights leader, most are equally uninformed about the impact of Malcolm X in the African-American struggle for equality and freedom.
He was a preacher and a humanitarian who put his heart and soul into trying to bring peace and equality for all. Dr King gave several reasons for the march to go at the time. Negotiations in the economic community failed. Store owners hung humiliating signs in their windows, against the Negro. This was one cause to demonstrate.
Carmichael no longer strode towards racial integration, but rather focused his desires on separation. His Speech argues that African Americans must engage in a “psychological struggle” for control of their own identity as well as question the value of society as a whole. (Carmichael 16) He used rhetorical ethos, pathos and logos to strengthen his arguments. Originally, Carmichael followed Martin Luther King, Jr.’s path of nonviolence and civil disobedience, but by 1966, Carmichael had begun to question the effectiveness of King's nonviolent strategy. When James Meredith, a demonstrator who led a 220-mile "March Against Fear," was shot trying to prove that white violence was not to be feared, Carmichael came to the realization that King’s nonviolence and civil disobedience strategy was not working.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” In other words, life should not be lived waiting for things to fall into place. Do not be passive. Seek your rights, as it will lead you towards your goal. Although you may believe your opinion is what is right, it will not change someone’s mind on its own. I agree with this quote because freedom is a natural right and people must fight to keep what they deserve.