A Study on Martin Luther King Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A Study on Martin Luther King - Essay Example Martin Luther King combined leadership, activism and clerical duties in his life time. He had a pivotal role in the civil rights progress, in United States, and globally. He advanced his civil rights crusade through nonviolence as mentored by Mohandas Gandhi. Martin Luther King is a national icon in modern American history because of his leadership style, policy and strategic thinking. In his activities, he advanced principles of strategy. His historical significance goes beyond his civil rights crusade or clerical work. He represented black leadership absent at the time in America. During this period, black leaders whether accommodative or reformists had minimum influence on power. These black leaders acted as power brokers for the white leaders or as spokesmen; they never expressed or acted on their own. However, Martin Luther King had his leadership rested on religious establishments that went beyond the church to a constituency that tagged him because of his strategy and ideology . He differed from the times, conventional leaders because of his independence from political machinery and institutional constraints. He addressed broader issues than race and the racial injustices (Barber, 2011, p. 52). Martin Luther King exemplified talented and strategic thinking, and leadership on both a national and international scale. In all his actions, he carefully advanced his strategic principles, and they all paid off. Growing Up and Early Influence Martin Luther King, born on 15th January 1929, grew up in Atlanta Georgia. The son of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King, he had a younger brother and an elder sister. King devoted much of his time in the church choir, where he sang with the choir during the opening of the movie Gone with the Wind. During his early age, king had intelligence and the will to question. He did not believe in things easily without getting all the information required to make a conclusion (Kavaloski, & Kavaloski, 2011, p. 25). Most striking was his skepticism of the resurrection of Jesus at the age of 13. He afterwards noted the inescapable truths in the Bible. This led him to join the seminary at a tender age. He attended Booker T Washington High School, but as a precocious student, he jumped ninth and twelfth grade. He joined the Morehouse College where he graduated with a Degree in sociology. During his seminarian years, King’s educator and theologian Howard Thurman immensely influenced his life. Thurman crucially mentored him as seen by their closeness. The success of Mahatma Gandhi nonviolent resistance inspired King to nonviolence in the movement. He had a commitment to the American civil rights struggle. The oppression that the minority faced played a significant role as well in influencing his thinking. The rich and wealthy had all the powers to do anything they wanted while oppressing the poor. King observed that using nonviolence offered him a strategy to push for the oppressed human dignity a nd justice, and also fight for their civil rights (Barber, 2011, p. 53). King’s society was plagued by racial discrimination, segregation and poverty. He disliked the society’s social state and decided to fight for their justice. The society’s inequality also pushed him to study sociology and theology because he wanted to help socially (Carson, 2005, p. 8). Achievements, Challenges and Great Moments In his lifetime, Martin Luther King had many achievements. He secured the progress of civil rights in U.S, and before his assassination the U.S Congress passed the