Essay

This is not a research paper. This is an application of knowledge project.

You will read a biography or autobiography of someone who is known for his/her accomplishments due to their own efforts. This can be someone in the arts, the sciences, explorers, athletes, academic/medical researchers, writers, or many other disciplines.

I don’t want a simple accounting of their lives. I want you to read the person’s life with an eye to how they became as excellent in their field as they were. You will need to apply at least three learning theories to their life stories.

Read for their process. This can include failures as well as successes. What did they learn from their failures? How did they adjust when they failed or didn’t measure up to their expectations? Learning is not linear. People make changes to their training or study as they discover new directions that are more intriguing or challenging. Many of you have done that when you change majors or schools in order to satisfy what you think will be successful for your life.

I also want you to read and include at least one critique of this person’s accomplishments. Tell me if you think negative criticisms of their work validity are justified. You need to consider your own view of this person’s work, beyond what has been common knowledge.

This project will be worth 100 points. It should be at least 7 pages long, including a reference page, listing all the sources you used. It is required to be formatted in APA style, and I will have notes on that in the syllabus. If writing in English is difficult for you, make appointments with the Writing Center to get help. This will be graded rigorously, so you need to factor that into your planning for the semester. Because this assignment is available the entire semester. I won’t accept any late papers.

Rubric

The 100 points will be distributed among the following issues:

20 Description of the subject’s accomplishments

20 Description of the subject’s process and means of improvement/ failures and successes

20 Description and application of learning processes used to improve

10 Public Critique of person’s achievements

10 Your thoughts about this person’s accomplishments

10 APA style, grammar, spelling

10 References

ANSWER

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in the third generation of men in his family. King distinguished himself from other family members through his theological and academic excellence. King later married Coretta Scott and together had two sons and daughters. King was upset by how African Americans were being treated and decided to become active in fighting for the civil rights of the African Americans (Cooke, 2016). Therefore, this paper will focus Luther King accomplishments due to his own efforts, his failures and success as well as critiques to his personal accomplishments. King is well known for his non-violent methods as a leaders of civil rights movement and accomplishing the dream of promoting equality and eliminating racial discrimination in United States.

The early years of King were defined by a middle class household that lived in the custom of the Southern Black government. Both his maternal grandfather and father were Baptist ministers. His parents lived in Black Wall Street home to some of the country’s largest and most flourishing Black churches and businesses before transformation by the civil rights association. King was brought up in an extended family and received basic education up to the University level. Despite the secure bringing, King was not an exception of the experiences of prejudice that existed in the South.

One remarkable moment is when his white playmates said to him that their parents would not allow them to play with King since the kids were now in segregated schools (Cooke, 2016). King became an American activist, humanitarian, minister and leader of the Civil Rights movement which begun in 1929. He was chosen as the leader of the movement due to his Christian based knowledge and morals that were useful in persuading people.

Success and Accomplishments

Dr. Martin Luther King is one of the famous historical figure who was known to be a visible spokesperson among the African Americans and minority groups. King dedicated his life in his whole life to serve the best interest of the people especially the African Americans. He believed in justice, equality and fairness thus fighting until he was assassinated. He had a great impact on America which led to the development of the American dream, inclusion and cultural diversity (Livingston, 2020). King struggled hard to enlighten the African Americans and bring understanding on the need for equality. Martin Luther wanted a world where the subsequent generation will not be discriminated on the basis for their color but through their character. He turned out to be the leader of Montgomery Bus Boycott which was a non-violent civil disobedience. One of the achievements of Martin Luther King was eliminating bus segregation through civil disobedience.

Civil disobedience is considered as a political approach which movements rely on to advocate for social change (Reddick, 2018). This is a non-violent action where people refuse to obey the law for philosophical and moral reasons. Ideally, the participants of the civil disobedience openly and wilfully refuse to comply with the law in order to raise concern about the unjust issue. King believed that civil disobedience does not mean lawlessness but rather a higher form of lawlessness that focuses on bringing positive change and conformity into divine or higher law. King relied on civil disobedience as a way of promoting social change. This took large-scale refusal to obey the government offers. For instance, there were marches and sit-ins that were conducted against the wishes of the local government. One of the most renowned civil disobedience was the denial by Rosa Parks to surrender a seat to a white passenger that resulted to arrest (Livingston, 2020). This single act was considered effective since the non-violent act helped in sparking the Montgomery bus boycott that resulted to struggles to desegregate the buses.

Winning basic civil rights for the African Americans was the most notable achievement for Luther. He clearly organized and led countless protests and marches against desegregation, voting rights and labor rights for the African Americans. The initiatives of Martin Luther King were fulfilled after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was enacted into law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark to elimination of discrimination based on religion, color or race. The provisions of the Act prevented discrimination and inequality in public places and job opportunities, promotion and firing. The African Americans and other minority group enjoyed some basic civil rights as the whites as a result of King’s efforts.

Development of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership conference was founded by Martin Luther King as a civil right organization which successfully conducted the 381 day bus system boycott. The aim of the organization was to help Luther to have a regional organization that would him in coordinating the civil rights protests within the South (Garrow, 2015). Some of the direct actions included in the organization were marches, boycotts and other non-violent protests that were considered ineffective by the blacks that felt that apartheid ought to be challenged. King was supported by others leaders in the organization that believed in battling civil rights.

Bus Boycott

One of the greatest achievements of the civil disobedience of bus boycott was enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling which state that public bus segregation was unconstitutional. The bus boycott led by Luther King ended successfully and became the mother of the civil rights movement bring the issue raised by King to the national spotlight (Isaac, 2019). It’s through Martin Luther King that America, his followers and the world got an accepting of the power of non-violent demonstration. For instance, when his supporters bump into violence, they garnered responsiveness to ensure they followed King’s demands for non-violent acts. Most of the black leaders and radicals were alienated by King’s patience to the non-violent appeal. They saw the non-violent approach as an old approach and too weak to lead social change but King believed that non-violent resistance was the only ideology towards curing the society’s evil and offering justice to the people regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender or nationality.

March on Washington

Martin Luther led a March on Washington which was a massive protest that occurred in 1963 when more than a quarter a million supporters congregated in Washington D.C at Lincoln Memorial. The main aim of the march was to bring more attention to the continued challenges, discrimination and equality challenges that were faced by the African Americans (Isaac, 2019). The occasion is marked by Luther’s speech “I have a dream”. The speech was considered a turning point for the civil rights movement since it shifted the demonstrations and demand for racial equality that occurred in the South.

The speech combined making the world better and harsh reality among the African America population. The speech was a watershed moment in the history of American Civil rights. King stated that his dream was that the next generation would live in a world that no one is judged from their color or skin but by their accomplishments. His words and quotes are still used today as a form of inspiration.

Failures

Birmingham Campaign

King led the Birmingham Campaign which is one of his failures. Birmingham was one of the highly ethnically divided cities within United States in the 1960s. The African Americans experienced discrimination both ethnically and lawfully. King begun a movement which focused on ending discrimination in Birmingham which was known as the Birmingham Campaign. King was able to enroll youngster and young students after the movement ran low of adult volunteers. The campaign was able to gain countrywide attention especially after the Birmingham police used police attack dogs and high pressure water jets on the youngsters.

The main challenge of this Birmingham Campaign was that King used youngsters and children who people believed were at risks due to the police violence. Both the black and white clergy opposed King’s decision to use youngsters since they believed that this led to risks and threatened the loves of the youngsters who were involved in the protests (Isaac, 2019). Despite the fact that King focused on his non-violent hypothesis, they still encountered violence from law enforcers which threatened the lives of the youngsters.

Opposition of Vietnam War

Martin Luther was publicly criticized and disliked by many Americans after condemning the Vietnam War. King believed that the war had a deleterious impact on both the Vietnamese peasants and poor Americans which is why he insisted on the federal government taking steps on halting the war in nonviolent manner. King sentiments about the war were not liked by many people. For instance, he stressed on wrong use of the American power which should be used to harness peace and not attack the defenseless people (Mulhall, 2018). Most people argued that King had diminished his significance among the people and his country through flawed and simplistic view of the war. King was disliked for attacking Vietnam War on economic and moral ground as well as connecting the issue of war with civil rights.

Means of Improvement

Martin Luther focused on learning from failure to improve. His past failures were part of learning experience which he used as tools for improvement and optimize process that will lead positive outcomes. Ideally, the effects of failure is the source of change and improvement. Re-organizing and building upon the present opportunities plays a major role in overcoming the present failures. Throughout his lifetime, Martin Luther King focused on changing the lives of the African American and other minority groups in the segregated America.

King made a lot of enemies and gained few friends throughout the process of social change. He insisted on non-violent acts but at some point was a failure when the cops began usual arrests and several youngsters chucking rocks at the police. This was a failure that King learned from and in the following days he could visit the blacks and talk to the youths at a length on the need for non-violence to facilitate the success of the movement. King came up with a strategy that he would use to end segregation which included boycotts, lawsuits, direct action and voter registration.

Critique

During the early 1950s, the southern states had policies that had made segregation legal. This required the white and black people to have separate facilities such as lunch counters, schools, and transportation and water fountains. The greatest achievement of Martin Luther King was achieving social change which included the civil rights for the African Americans, ending segregation in a peaceful means. He ensured that the Black people understood that they should not be suffering from oppression, discrimination and segregation but should be involved like any other race (Dorrien, 2018). Some of the crucial impacts that he had to include were implementation of the non-violent disobedience that focused on fighting for the civil rights.

King focused on non-violent resistance and peaceful demonstrations bust still encountered violence but King and his supporters progressed with peaceful protests that motivated lots on the vision of eliminating racial discrimination. King brought about social change in the way African Americans lived during the following decades. He believed that everyone is created equally and that it’s the right of African Americans to enjoy the privileges of the whites. For instance, his main agenda in the speech of I have a dream was to change the minds of the people and bring a common understanding that would motivate social change and racial equality (Wittenstein, 2019).

Martin Luther King was able to speak up the challenges that people encountered during the time and engaged in challenging conversations and protests. He respected all the valued and rules of other people and failed to use coercion or force people into becoming his followers. He understood the need for patience and coped with his failed nonviolent methods which he believed would be effective one day to influence his believers. He was patient that his approach to social change finally led to changing the Nation where African Americans gained equality and allowed to vote. Martin Luther King was a powerful leader who motivated the black and white to speak about the racial prejudice. He took a different method to approach racial discrimination and inequality which required patience and devotion to make the dream of equality a reality.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King is a motivation to the people to attain equality and harmony through boosting racial equality. One of the greatest achievements of Martin Luther King is achieving social change through non-violent acts. He embraced his Christian values, determination, patience and respect for the human race. Martin Luther learnt from his failures to improve to build on his success and kept pushing towards making his dream a reality.

References

Cooke, T. (2016). Martin Luther King Jr. Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP.

Dorrien, G. J. (2018). Breaking white supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the black social gospel. Yale University Press.

Garrow, D. J. (2015). Bearing the cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the southern Christian leadership conference. Open Road Media.

Isaac, L. W. (2019). Evidence from US Civil Rights Movement Campaigns. Social Movements, Nonviolent Resistance, and the State, 27-53.

Livingston, A. (2020). Power for the powerless: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s late theory of civil disobedience. The Journal of Politics, 82(2), 700-713.

Mulhall, T. A. (2018). Making All Things New: Martin Luther King Jr, the 1968 Civil Rights Movement, and the World Council of Churches. The Ecumenical Review, 70(2), 247-263.

Reddick, L. D. (2018). Crusader Without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. NewSouth Books.

Wittenstein, B. (2019). A Place to land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the speech that inspired a nation. Holiday House.