August 28th, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lead one of the greatest demonstrations of the fight for civil rights in the history of our country. Thousands of people gathered to witness the great activist's speech titled "I Have a Dream".
The effectivity of Dr. King's speech in ending racial discrimination in America can be debated. It can be said that it was because of this that the Negroes in our country finally found political and cultural equality with all the whites of power and money. It is my personal opinion that even without Dr. King, equity would have been eventually achieved. In the 1960s, racial discrimination in the US had reached such heights that sooner or later, Negroes all over the country would have taken a role similar to the one Dr. King placed upon himself.
I do not by any means refute the effort Martin Luther King Jr. gave to the civil rights movement. In fact, I wholeheartedly believe that his hard work advanced the victory against racism in our country for about a decade. In his speech, he used appeals to the sentiments of his audience, religion, patriotism and history. Martin Luther King Jr. begins his speech with a mention of Abraham Lincoln, pointing out that already one hundred years had passed since the abolition of slavery, and still Blacks were treated unfairly. In the end of his speech he appeals to the heartstrings of every man "...we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men, white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are Free at last!"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. motivated all men who were angered and hurt by the pitiful state of our country's morality and the impetuous ignorance from which it suffers, still to this day. All those hoping for change, all those who envisioned a new nation, all those who believed that all men were created equal by the hand of our Lord; they all acted by the guidelines and pathway set forth by Dr. King, following his example and honoring the life he lived for justice, and the life he eventually gave to the same cause.
Samantha! This is one heck of a post. This is a very strong start for your participation in this blog and for preparing for the AP Exam. Although "Negro" in the sense you used it is not offensive, keep in mind that, while Dr. King used it in his "I Have a Dream" Speech in 1963, using it yourself in a test essay in 2011 might not be the best word to use (only because you don't know who will be grading your essay).
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I like that you didn't jump on the bandwagon and state that Dr. King's speech was the main inspiration for all of the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. You argued that the speech - by itself - was perhaps not the MOST effective trigger in bringing change to race relations in the U.S. by explaining that minority communities were so tired and upset at their discrimination that they would have been persistent anyways. Very nice. My only real advice there would be to include specific examples of people besides Dr. King who got the Civil Rights movement moving (Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, etc) - in time with more study (and with more preparation for all of you on my part as a teacher) you will be able to nail it down perfectly. Brilliant use of vocabulary Samantha - it will be fun to read more of your posts here!
Thank you so much Mr. Parra. I wasn't so sure that my argument was convincing enough so I just tried winging it. And yes you're right. I should probably stop using terms like negro and indian. Honestly, the reason that I didn't use more examples, was because I don't really know much about the Civil Rights Movement. I mean, I know Rosa Parks didn't give up her seat, and in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will Smith talks about Malcom X.. But that's pretty much it :P
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm more prepared by the time the AP Test comes around.