Above: Dr Martin Luther King Jr after delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington DC, 28 August 1963.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr was an activist Baptist minister who had a leading role in the US civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He is known for his oratory style and influential speeches.
King grew up in Atlanta Georgia under segregation. Black and white children attended different schools. Many businesses; restaurants, movie theaters, hotels and such where segregated for white only service.
His father was a minister. As he entered adolescence he began to question the literalist teachings preached at his father’s church. At the age of 13 he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school. At this time in his life he felt religion would not satisfy his intellect. He skipped 9th grade and attended Booker T Washington High School a year younger than normal. He was on the school’s debate team.
In 1944, at the age of 15, King passed the entrance exam to attend Morehouse College. He studied sociology, attaining his BA at the age of 19. During his junior year he decided to join the ministry. This decision he made because of the mentorship he received from the College President Benjamin Mays. Mays is credited with having laid the intellectual foundation for the civil rights movement.
King then enrolled in the Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. He attained his doctorate in 1955. He got a “C” in public speaking. That same year he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger.
During his years as a civil rights leader he gave influential speeches; the most famous is his “I Have a Dream“ speech given in 1963. King was arrested 29 times, his house was bombed and he was stabbed by a mentally ill black woman who thought he was a communist. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of 35.
King pointed out contradictions in socio-politcal thought.
“One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as polar opposites. So that love is identified as a resignation of power, and power as a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused the philosopher Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject Nietzsche’s philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive – love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at it’s best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at it’s best is love correcting everything that stands against love.“ – Dr Martin Luther King Jr on 16 Aug 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech – stanford.edu
King was assassinated by James Earl Ray < on 4 April 1968.