Team Talk
Martin Luther King Jr.
To think and speak on behalf of others is noteworthy, to serve and act on behalf of others is heroic, but
what do we call someone who gave his words, actions and life on behalf of others? Martin Luther King, Jr.
is one of the few people in history who have so profoundly changed the world in such a short time. His
visions and actions for social unity, racial brotherhood, true peace and social welfare were not only carefully
thought and weighed, but also acted upon with strategic finesse.
Born to a middle class family on January 15, 1929 in the segregated state of Georgia, Martin Luther King,
Jr. would grow up to become an American philosopher, expert orator and strategic leader of the American
Civil Rights Movement. Martin excelled at school and entered Morehouse College at the age of fifteen and
earned a B.A. in Sociology by the age of nineteen. In the next six years he would marry Coretta Scott, earn
a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary, become a pastor of a church in Montgomery,
Alabama and begin earning his Doctorate of Philosophy from Boston University. It was his education and
travels to other countries that King claims opened his eyes to the world around him and exposed him to “the
complexity of man’s social involvement and the glaring reality of collective evil.” It was the collective sins
and structural evils that Martin Luther King, Jr. would dedicate his life to eradicating.
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar….it comes to see that an edifice which produces
beggars needs restructuring” – Martin Luther King Jr.
King’s first leadership role in the civil rights movement was as an executive of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he lead and organized the year long Montgomery
Bus Boycott. The Boycott would lead to the United States Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were
unconstitutional. His next major role would come as President of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC). This group distinguished itself from other civil rights organizations by using only
nonviolent strategies to expose the evils of oppression while learning to see the common bonds between all.
King stated it most simply when he said, “Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
King also travelled to India to visit Gandhi’s birthplace and learn how the methods of nonviolent resistance
could be used in the struggle for justice and human dignity in the United States. Over the next few years,
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke over 2,500 times and led marches and nonviolent demonstrations for blacks’
right to vote, desegregation, labour and other basic civil rights. Often the demonstrations against unjust
laws were met with police and segregationist violence and force. In the face of high-pressured water jets
and police dogs, massive arrests as well as bomb and death threats, Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to
persuade those fighting for civil rights to remember that their goal was unity and peace.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do
that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1963, King would speak on behalf of the SCLC at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
where demands were made for meaningful civil rights legislation, school desegregation and laws against
racial discrimination in employment, protections from police brutality, a minimum wage and self-
government for Washington D.C. It was at this march that King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
The efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as the other civil rights organizations (notably the NAACP,
National Urban League, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Congress of Racial Equality) led
to the passing of the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For his efforts, King also
became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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