Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Research Paper
Stephane Caldwell
History Research Paper of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The author of the “I Have A Dream” Speech is Dr. Martin Luther King. He delivered the speech onAugust 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial. The purpose of the speech is to remind people that no matter who they are, where they came from, or what the color of their skin, we are all equal. Dr. King emphasized this point when he said, “One day, the sons of the slaves and the sons of the slave owners will sit down together at the table of brotherhood . . . one day, the nation would rise up and live the true meaning of the creed: ‘We hold the truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’, . . . one day, my four children won’t be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
The intended audience was the world, American lawmakers, and the people in the mall who came to hear his speech. The evidence in the document would be, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for the freedom in the history of our nation”, Dr. King emphasized at the beginning of his speech. Dr. King’s perspective was his personal experience with segregation, discrimination, and his desire for integrating the races.
The evidence in the document are the incidents he had mentioned in his speech. Dr. King, are you happy with how the dream you spoke of came to fruition?
In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s time, it was rough, hard, and a very evil time for black and white people alike, On September of 1948, Dr. King enters Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. After hearing Dr. A. J. Muste and Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson preach on the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he begins to study Gandhi seriously. On December1st, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, a forty-two year old Montgomery seamstress, refuses to relinquish her bus seat to a white man and is arrested. On December 10th, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Company suspends service in black neighborhoods. On February 14th, 1957,the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded. One of Dr. King’s most famous quotes would be that “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education”, on May 17th, 1957, Dr. King delivers a speech for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom celebrating the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision. The speech, titled, “Give Us The Ballot,” is given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.,on June 23rd, 1958,Dr. King, along with Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, A. Philip Randolph, and Lester Granger meet with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. On January 30th, 1959,Dr. King meets with Walter Reuther, President of the United Auto Workers Union, in Detroit, Michigan.
On February 2nd - 10th, 1959,Dr. and Mrs. King spend a month in India studying Gandhi’s March techniques of nonviolence as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. On June 24th, 1960,Dr. King meets with John F. Kennedy (candidate for President of the United States) about racial matters. On December 15th, 1961,Dr. King arrives in Albany, Georgia in response to a call from Dr. W. G. Anderson, the leader of the Albany Movement to desegregate public facilities, which began in January 1961. On September of 1964, Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy visit West Berlin at the invitation of Mayor Willy Brandt. On September 18th, 1964, Dr. King has an audience with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. On February 23rd, 1966, Dr. King meets with Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims, in Chicago. On July 26th, 1967, Black leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young appeal for an end to the riots, “which have proved ineffective and damaging to the civil rights cause and the entire nation.” One of Dr. King’s quotes other quotes would be, “We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.” This document would be Local, National, and International, because Dr. King was talking to the entire world, not just the law makers, or the people in the mall, who came to hear his speech, but, everyone, who wanted to hear what he wanted to say. Dr. King never liked segregation, or discrimination, or the integration between the races.
The interpretations that I can make about the important people, the events that took place, and the ideas would be that they influenced what Dr. King’s dream really meant that we are all apart of the same world, no matter where we go and who we meet we’re apart of the same purpose. I think that if it was not for Dr. King, we would still be in segregation, discrimination, and the integrating of the two races together, and I think that his dream should never be forgotten. The geography had birthed the document and it was because of the oppression of the black race in the south, that the dream was now created. It was a dream of a better life, one that they did not have, but desperately and passionately wanted. The evidence in the document is because of this same oppression of blacks and other minority races in the south, the dream was birthed into existence. Black people wanted a different more equal life for themselves. And they were willing to do whatever it took to gain it.
I began to read this document because I went to the website and I started to read the document that I was looking for, the strategies that helped comprehend the document was after. I finished reading every paragraph of the document, I summarized every last one, when I did not understand I asked my mom about it and she solved my problems. How I answered the document analysis questions was kind of hard, but, very easy because, I went back to the website that had the document and read it over again.