2010.01.17 11:27
Our Hero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Daniel Jo Every year we observe the third Monday of January as a national holiday to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the foremost champion of the civil rights movement for African-Americans. In fact, he rebuilt our society in the United States of America as its own “New World” without segregation, racial discrimination, and with all human equal rights. Furthermore, Dr. King’s greatest victory was that he achieved his goals by non-violent action with no blood shed. For his contributions to society and his commitment to the principle of non-violence, Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and, at 35 years of age, was the youngest Nobel Laureate ever to have received the Peace Prize. Until not long ago, we saw so much racial discrimination in our societies and it is hard to believe that King used just non-violent action to resist and to redress social injustice. I still have doubt that it was even realistic and effective. However, forty years ago, Dr. King declared, “I have a dream” in his famous speech for over a quarter million people on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. Today, we see an African-American president of United States of America, Barack Obama. Dr. King’s dream, in many many ways, has come true. And it could not have been possible without his dream.. From that point, eventually, King’s skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished and he reached to see for the first time its potency in the social reform, again according to his book. Dr. King insisted that the philosophical concept of non-violence is to love the enemy, or the realization of the humanity of all people, and that the goal of this nonviolence is not to defeat the enemy, but to win them over and create love and understanding between all. We all remember that Jesus urges his followers to “love thine enemy.” By the same token, the pragmatic fundamental concept of nonviolence is to create a social dynamic or political movement that can effect social change without necessarily winning over those who wish to maintain the status quo. In modern industrial democracies, nonviolence has been used extensively by political sectors without mainstream political power such as labor unions, environmental advocates, and the women’s movement. In the 21st century, the world has been made aware of the impact of Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and the Dalai Lama of Tibet, each of whom has been used non-violence action to resist in their political purposes. Both of them received the Nobel Peace Prizes in 1991 and 1989, respectively. Gandhi’s emphasis on love and nonviolence was the method for social reform that Dr. King had been seeking. Gandhi’s true pacifism is not nonviolence to evil, but nonviolent resistance to evil. According to Gandhi’s famous book Non-Violent Resistance, Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but he resisted with love instead of hate. Gandhi insisted that true pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. Similarly, Dr. King defines in his autobiography that non-violent resistance is courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflictor of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent. We now know that Dr. King’s philosophy and theology of non-violent resistance emanate from Gandhi and Christian love. The meeting of Rosa Parks and Dr. King in the same area and at the same time was indeed highly fortuitous. Certainly, on this occasion, the black community leaders decided to organize and protest. The bitterness against white people and racial discrimination had accumulated for a long time and this protest movement was the first explosion of blacks at that time. With the full support of Montgomery’s blacks, the first boycott was successful and they got what they wanted such as employment of African-Americans to drive buses and desegregation in transportation and so on. As the autobiography says, actually the boycott protest was the beginning of the long civil rights movement of American blacks in the 20th century of America and Dr. King became the main leader of the movement. Among his many activities, one of the actions to be mentioned was the Washington D.C protest with the mobilization of 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial Monument and the famous “I Have a Dream,” which inspired both black and white people who agreed with Dr. King regarding social injustice and human equality. Now it is considered one of the three most famous American speeches, along with President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural address. King said that he had never seen such enthusiasm for freedom and his heart was full. Dr. King expressed that the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi began to exert its influence and he realized that the Christian doctrine of love, operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence resistance were the most potent weapons available to the African-American in his struggle for freedom. He also claims in his book that people responded to his philosophy with amazing ardor. We could assume easily there were so many difficulties in civil rights movements out of our imaginations at those time. Works cited : Allen, Reniqua. “ The Montgomery Bus Boycott.” Home. att. April 1st 2009 |
2010.01.17 13:03
2010.01.18 00:27
I agree with you,WM and Jo sun-bae-nim.
If I add one or more of my thoughts;
1. Wherever there is political oppression, robbing Freedom and Equality,
there has been always (rebellious) Movement/or even Revolution.
Haiti's independence was achieved in 1804 by Slave Rebellion after they saw French
Revolution. China might be next when their GNI reaches ca.$7,000. What about N.Korea?
2. If I avoid racial/or black issues, there are two kinds of people, regardless of color.
a) Courteous/or Refined Human being. b) 'Ssa-ga-ji uep-neun-sa-ram'(rude and uneducated)
Most, or maybe all, of my African-American patients are The Best, nice and very courteous.
We exchange jokes and any other matters of our life. There is, so far, no barrier.
No longer we can apply to Race Itself, rather I would say, it's case by case and individual
by individual.
3. Condoleeza Rice's life story (Condi; The Condoleeza Rice Story, 2005)
fascinated me when I read her biography. Maybe her story might be our young generation's
Role Model they'd better follow as Minority Group in this country.
Thanks anyway, WM and Jo sun-bae-nim to give me a chance to read MLK's life story on his
birthday and to let me take part in this sensitive and volatile issue.
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Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday.
To celebrate his birth and what he had done for all of us in American society,
we have it as one of the national holidays.
I came to America 10 years after the "Montgomery Bus Boycott" ignited by Rosa Parks
and two years after the "I have a dream" speech by MLK.
In 1965 in America, it was still a racially segregated society,
something that I had never seen in my home.
Even though the orientals got a better treatment, I could feel the social injustice then.
At that time, deep down in the South, for an example, Blacks and Whites used different
compartment in the public bus.
I was told that I may take the white's compartment in case I go there.
This went on until 1968 when US Supremem Court declared that all forms of segregation
are unconstitutional.
Since then, the segregational tradition has slowly disappeared to zero.
But the feeling in our heart hasn't disappeared. It will stay with us.
I have lived in the last part of the transitional period in American history.
Surprisingly, I see a lot of Koreans look down on the blacks even today.
This happened often during the presidential campaign of Barak Obama.
I think these are idiots who spit on their own faces.
They should know that, without black's and MLK's effort,
we could have been in the same boat as one of the bottom layer of the American society.
No doubt, Martin Luther King, Jr. is a hero.
He's as much a hero to us Koreans as he is to blacks.
Dr. Jo, thank you for your article.
And thanks again for sharing the same view.