Martin Luther King Jr.

5 Pages 1242 Words

Martin Luther King Jr.
The nonviolent fight for Equality, Civil Rights, and Justice

By: Sonia Aguilar

Martin Luther King Jr., a martyr, a hero, a man with courage who fought for the equality and civil rights of black people in the United States of America (USA). He challenges segregation and racial discrimination in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 and he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Martin Luther King Jr. is a legendary hero for black people and today’s society. He believes that man has the right to disobey just laws. King was strongly influenced by Gandhi’s use of nonviolent protests in India and he considered Gandhi’s teachings a valuable resource to apply in his leadership as the voice of black people in the U.S.A. His principle idea was to achieve equality and develop improved civil rights for black people in America without using violence.

One of the most important influences on King was Gandhi’s theory of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi was educated in law at the University College in London, England. He worked in South Africa where he was treated as a member of an inferior race and he was shocked at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights to the Indians. Gandhi began teaching a policy of passive resistance after experiencing personal attacks by white South Africans. In 1914 the government of South Africa began to recognize Indian marriages and abolished the poll tax for them. With improvements in South Africa Gandhi felt free to return to India and begin a campaign for home rule. He became a leader in India and used passive resistance techniques to fight for political and economic independence from Britain. He became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. Gandhi’s advocacy of nonviolence was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. King studied deep...