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Only Road To Freedom Dbq

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Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 and was the son of one of the most important Baptist ministers in the South. King grew up in a middle class home and was surrounded by love. At the age of 15, he passed the entrance exam to Morehouse university and furthered his education by receiving his Ph.D. in theology. King followed in his dad and grandfather’s footsteps and wanted to become a local pastor and took his first job at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy made the most sense for 1960’s America because of his views on integrating schools, nonviolent civil disobedience and the way he was able to communicate to the people of his time. MLK Jr. believed that schools should be integrated …show more content…

In “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,” King says, “This is nonviolence at its peak of power, when it cuts into the profit margin of a business in order to bring about a more just distribution of jobs and opportunities for Negro wage earners and consumers,” (Document F). He is saying that nonviolence is more than what it seems at the surface; it has the ability to impact more than expected. It is creating more opportunities for the blacks than there ever were before. It is giving them chances to control their own economics as well as making an impact on the people. In “Stride Toward Freedom” he also says, “we will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we cannot in all food conscience obey your unjust laws… We will still love you. We will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer,” (Document H). He is saying that hate is not the answer, but forgiveness is. He says that the blacks do not hate the whites for what they are doing, but that they cannot comply with what they are asking. King says that they will hold out as long as they can, which will eventually wear them down to giving in. He believes that equality is inevitable, even if it takes longer than expected. King states his beliefs on nonviolent civil disobedience in a speech he made at a staff retreat in 1966 by saying, “violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder,” (Document J). This is important because he is saying that fighting back only creates a bigger problem. He says, “it multiplies evil and violence in the universe,” (Document J). By saying this, he is showing that violence is nothing but a setback for the movement. “Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities and drag us out to some wayside road, beating us and leaving us half dead, and we will still love you,” King says in “Stride Toward Freedom,”

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