The Man With a Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr. is a renowned civil rights activist. Although I have never read any of his speeches before, I knew beforehand his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" should and would be a powerful one; after all, he was able to change a world with his words. As I read his letter to the fathers of Birmingham, the first thing that came to mind was his manner of speaking. King's writing was very formal and well-spoken, complete with a strong active voice. King was very polite to the fathers, as well. As he concluded his letter, he asked for forgiveness if he stepped over a line. Although his time period and audience does not quite pertain to me, personally, his writing was able to affect me. Martin Luther King uses profound expressions that make me think, such as, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and, “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” (213). Many of his, as well as the SCLC’s, “non-violent direct action programs” (213) were very passive-aggressive, which were able to affect both white and black communities and fix the black communities’ “injustices”. King explains to the fathers that these programs “[seek] to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” (215), and they worked. At some point, many of the various civil rights group of that time were able to make the white people worked up enough to a point where something had to be done.

King’s approach to the problems the black community had was very successful and in turn made him a strong leader. His “plan of attack”, in my opinion, would be in a separate category if it was to be compared to Lao-Tzu and Machiavelli’s approach. Martin Luther King was able to help others find peace without being too passive and without any method of war or use of arms. In his “I have a dream” speech, King had also included that “we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force”, which made me think of Mahatma Gandhi. Just like Gandhi, King changed the world, if not part of it, through words and, if not, just a little bit of “Satyagraha”