Martin Luther King,Jr.,--The Prometheus Of American Blacks

As one of the best known leaders of American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his limited life leading American blacks in the struggle for civil rights and equality through nonviolent resistance. During the twelve years in which King dedicated his life to the Civil Rights Movement, he had been preaching his idea of nonviolent direct action and striving for love, justice, equality and integration. Under his leadership, the American black people made more progress than in any other period in the American history. They won themselves certain constitutional rights, overcame the damaging psychological effects of generations of oppression, and acquired a sense of unity and dignity. Nobody contributed more than him for the freedom of the African Americans. To some extent, King, like Prometheus, illuminated the road to liberation for the American black people. Therefore his role was important and indispensable. Just as Louis Harlan maintained "King, through his example, his personal style of leadership, and his dream, altered the direction and accelerate the time table of the Civil Rights Movement."This thesis synthesizes King's philosophy of nonviolence and his significant role in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The study of King himself and his philosophy still holds valid nowadays when racial and ethnic conflicts even terrorist attacks prevail in someareas of the world. The author intends to probe for a tentative solution to the violent conflicts in the world. This thesis is organized as follows:Chapter One discusses the domestic and international background of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s for a general understanding of the times King was in.Chapter Two consists of two parts: content of King's philosophy and origin of his philosophy. This chapter probes into King's faith in the power of love, his belief that freedom and justice could finally be achieved through nonviolence and his ultimate goal of creating an integrated society. King's philosophy was not something of a sudden birth out of nothing. Many factors combined to work on his mind for a long time. His family background, his growing up in a black church, his education and Mohandas K. Gandhi all had great influence on the formation of his philosophy of nonviolence.Chapter Three analyzes King's role in the Civil Rights Movement. Under the guidance of King's philosophy of nonviolence, the blacks won great victories in Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma and gained certain constitutional rights.Chapter Four gives a critical view on the other black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael and by comparing their ideas of violence and separation with those of King's nonviolence and integration shows that although they were all well-known civil rights leaders, King'snonviolence, with less loss and damage, proved more powerful and more fruitful.Chapter V presents some figures and charts to show the social and political improvements of black Americans after the Civil Rights Movement. Meanwhile it emphasizes the significance of King's philosophy of nonviolence on the basis of analyzing the violent conflicts in the world. The use of violence is one of the characteristics of those crises, but violence can never really solve the problems. If nonviolent actions had been taken, the racial and ethnic problems may have been solved in a more peaceful and effective way and people in those areas may not have suffered so much. There may not have been so many bloody crises. The whole world may have been a more peaceful and pleasant place to live in.Conclusion vetoes some opinions upon King and further emphasizes King's role and importance both in the Civil Rights Movement and in the whole world. The frequent occurrence of violent attacks shows that learning from King and his philosophy of nonviolence has its practical significance today.