Martin Luther King Jr Civil Rights Movement Essay - 5,400 words

... means, and the organization for militant mass-resistance. Expressing an any-means-necessary mind set, Stokely Carmichael proclaims, Were going to organize our way. The question is how were going to facilitate those matters, whether its going to be done with a thousand police men and submachine guns, or whether its going to be in a context where its allowed by white people. (41) Regardless of the means, RAGE will be heard.


As Carmichael points out, white resistance, in most cases, will determine where and to what extent rage will lead. The struggle for social power between white and black America was brought to a head during the Civil Rights Era. Williams explains, The oppressors heart is hard. The experience of history teaches that he only relents under violent pressure and force. There is little hope that he will see the handwriting on the wall before it is too late... America is a house of fire -- FREEDOM NOW! -- or let it burn, let it burn. (USA 333) Paralleling similar warnings provided to white America prior to the Civil War, as well as during Jim Crow, Williams admonition reflects both the presence and reoccurrence of black rage throughout American history, continually insisting on pressing upward against white dominance.


The fact is, white society fears, and has always feared, losing power. White America has been resistant and forever reluctant to relinquish her position of social, economical, and political dominance. At the same time, black America is likewise reluctant, reluctant to give up the fight. Demonstrating the upward mobility and momentum of the black race, Carmichael announces, We are on the move for our liberation.


Were tired of trying to prove things to white people. We are tired of trying to explain to white people that were not going to hurt them (41). Hurt them? Yes, white America fears being hurt -- physically, economically, and socially. The question remains: Will white America continue its resistance until black rage inevitably boils over? The question is, exclaimed Carmichael, will white people overcome their racism and allow [us to organize] in this country?


If not, we have no choice but to say very clearly, Move on over, or were going to move on over you (41). Concluding this thought, Williams writes, The fact is that racist white America is not worried about the possibility of Negroes being exterminated. It is more worried about the loss of its privileged position in its racist caste society; its system of white supremacy and world government (USA 325). After all, the United States was built and founded on the double standard Jeffersonian principle that all men are NOT created equal, that the black race (or any other non-white group) must be held down at all costs. While many during the Civil Rights Movement supported a nationalistic movement with a separate black government, the possibility of black dominance in America, a reversal of racial power, was also voiced.


Nathan Hare writes, A broad-based black power movement need [not] fear the white-voiced deterrent that black power may simply replace white power. If that is the case, then turn-about is fair play. This will depend on the willingness of white power to cooperate in the just correction of grievances and inequalities without delay. It is their decision, and this is not a plea, for I have no faith that -- given the nature of its existing institutions, belief systems, and practices -- white America can fully rectify the situation. (223) Continuing, Hare asserts, Black men must bring an irresistible black power force to clash with the immovable object of white oppression with such velocity that America will either solve her problems or suffer the destruction she deserves (my emphasis) (223 - 4). And this is the key to understanding black rage in America.


Can this velocity, once in motion -- and it is in motion -- be stopped? Will the resulting behavior caused by white oppression -- black rage -- subside at a place called equality? Or, will a reversal in racial dominance occur? Racial dominance has been tried and proven time and time again.


Equality has not. Perhaps encapsulating the entire struggle of rage during the Civil Rights Movement are the works of Malcolm X. In one speech, he proclaims, Until the problem of the black people in this country is solved, the white people have a problem thats going to cause an end to this society, system, and race as you know it (Harlem 71). To Malcolm, black rage is not a black problem created by the black race, but a white problem conceived in the very root of white oppression. In another speech, he states, [The black man] can see where every maneuver that [white] America has made, supposedly to solve this problem, has been nothing but political trickery and treachery of the worst order (Revolution 53). The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, constitutional amendments, civil rights legislation, Brown vs.


the Board of Education -- have all failed to give a race of men and women what they rightfully deserve in white America: peace, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Malcolm insists that the only viable solutions to Americas Negro problem are violence and revolution. Concerning the impending violence seen throughout the nation, he says, Well, Negroes didnt do this ten years ago. But what you should learn from this is that they are waking up (The Black 49). Rage, though dormant at times, is very much a part of the black American fabric. It was stones yesterday, Molotov cocktails today; it will be hand grenades tomorrow and whatever else is available the next day... (The Black 49).


To those who dismissed the possibility of mass demonstration of rage, Malcolm explains, One thing that you have to realize is, where the black community is concerned, although the large majority you come in contact with may impress you as being moderate and patient and loving and long-suffering... the minority who you consider to be Muslims or nationalists happen to be made of the type of ingredient that can easily spark the black And to those who advocated nonviolence and a peaceful revolution, Malcolm proclaims, Black people are fed up with the dilly dallying, censored footing, compromising approach that weve been using toward getting our freedom. We want freedom now, but were not going to get it saying We shall overcome. Weve got to fight until we overcome. (The Ballot 38) Taking the same impatient now approach as others in the movement, Malcolm tells us that freedom does not come without a fight. Again and again, in speech after speech, Malcolm advocates the use of violence, channeling the rage in bitter retaliation.


He says, You dont do that in a revolution. You dont do any singing, youre too busy swinging. Its based on land. A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation (Message 9). But what land?


What revolution? Malcolm warns, There are 22 million African Americans who are ready to fight for independence right here. When I say fight for independence right here, I dont mean any nonviolent fight, or turn-the-other-cheek fight. Those days are gone. Those days are over...


If George Washington didnt get independence for this country nonviolently, and if Patrick Henry didnt come up with a nonviolent statement, and you taught me to look upon them as patriots and heroes, then its time for you to realize that I have studied your books well... (The Black 49) Explaining the nature of a revolution and highlighting the inevitable fate of America, he also exclaims, Historically you just dont have a peaceful revolution. Revolutions are bloody, revolutions are violent, revolutions cause bloodshed and death follows in their paths. America is the only country in history in a position to bring about a revolution without violence and bloodshed. But America is not morally equipped to do so. (The Black 56 - 7) Malcolm reemphasizes that black rage in white America is a white problem.


Yes, white America has the ability to concede, to once and for all end the momentum of black rage in the United States. But could they admit and allow defeat? Calling on the arguments of Garvey and others, Malcolm X also envisions a racial reversal of power on a global level, beginning in America. He says, Not only is this racial explosion probably to take place in America, but all of the ingredients for this racial explosion in America to blossom into a world-wide racial explosion present themselves right here in front of us. Americas racial powder keg, in short, can actually fuse or ignite a world- Is America a powder keg waiting to explode? Will good prevail?


Will white society finally come to terms with itself and allow all persons to enjoy what is rightfully theirs? And, can the rage of a race, the black race, be diffused before the apparent inevitable occurs? These questions remain to be answered. As Malcolm X has sought to channel black rage to effect change, so too has Martin Luther King, Jr. During his life, no doubt, King understood the rage of his race.


He says, There is the danger that those of us who have lived so long under the yoke of oppression, those of us who have been exploited and trampled over, those of us who have had to stand amid the tragic midnight of injustice and indignities will enter the new age with hate and bitterness. But if we retaliate with hate and bitterness, the new age will be nothing but a duplication of the old age. (Facing 562) King describes a duplication of the old age -- this time black over white. Although he does not want to accept it, King knew what both history and reality teach. Desiring to divert the rage of his people, he dismisses the rhetoric of violence and hate, proclaiming, I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality...


I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into a hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality... (Nobel 110) But will they? Will Kings refusal make his dream a reality? Dreams and belief do not a reality make. King, like other black spokesmen, also stresses the coming of the inevitable.


Encouraging people to act and to avoid complacency, King himself exhorts, We must speed up the coming of the inevitable (Facing 565). But has he understood the inevitable? In his famous I Have a Dream speech, King prophesies the following: It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negros legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality (103). Knowing this, has the nation now entered into a fatal situation? Possibly.


Kings vision has yet to be realized, and the sweltering and urgency are still propelling black society. Yes, King is not a prophet of rage. He advocates peace, brotherhood, and equality. However, much can be learned about rage from his words. Explaining where white oppression has led, King proclaims, But there comes a time when people get tired. There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by iron feet of oppression.


There comes a time when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of exploitation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of lifes July and left standing in the piercing chill of an Arguing against the determination of some to racially dominate, King says, We do not wish to triumph over the white community. That would only result in transferring those now on the bottom to the top. But, if we can live up to nonviolence in thought and deed, there will emerge an interracial society based on freedom for all. (Our 13) If!


What if rage is not kept in check? What if violence is not held back? When asked about receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in an interview, King responded, The Nobel award recognizes the amazing discipline of the Negro. Though we have had riots, the bloodshed we would have known without the discipline of nonviolence would have been frightening (Washington 108). Here, King recognizes, understands, and admits that the potential of black rage is immense -- frightening. As the transition from the Civil Rights Era to the era of Affirmative Action takes effect in America, members of white society again boasts that they have successfully dealt with the Negro problem.


Brown vs. the Board of Education proclaimed an end to Plessys Jim Crow. President Kennedy called in the National Guard. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Yes, blacks have finally been granted their rightful human place in white society. They are finally free.


They are finally equal. But are they? Ellis Cose writes in his 1993 book, The Rage of a Privileged Class, Why, a full generation after the most celebrated civil rights battles were fought and won, are Americans still struggling with basic issues of racial fairness (1)? Black men and women in todays United States clearly understand and agree that a state of equality has not yet been achieved. White concessions have been made along the way, making America better for blacks than ever before; but there is still a long way to go.


The battle surrounding affirmative action, the imprisonment of a highly disproportionate number of blacks, the economic plight of the inner cities, the continued misrepresentation of blacks in Congress, all point to the fact that, yes, a work remains to be done to ensure But, thankfully, today the rage is gone. Blacks have finally learned to live peacefully, without regret, in white America. But then how does one explain the inner self-destruction of the race through crime, drugs, and murder? Many in America can only hope that the rage of the Civil Rights Movement will never reappear. However, it will. Black rage is not gone.


In his 1993 book, Race Matters, Cornell West explains, The emergence of strong black-nationalist sentiments among blacks... is a revolt against [the] sense of having to fit in. The variety of black nationalist ideologies, from... Thomas... to Farrakhan... rest upon a fundamental truth: white America has been historically weak-willed in ensuring racial justice and has continued to resist fully accepting the Likewise, middle-class blacks, who have fled from the ghetto into corporate America, realize they too are still oppressed by the master.


Cose writes, America is filled with attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, and behaviors that make it virtually impossible for blacks to believe that the nation is serious about its promise of equality -- even (perhaps especially) for those who have been blessed with material success. (5) Yes, these sources are from the 90 s. Blacks still have rage -- rage that has not subsided since slavery was abolished; rage that has not been abolished since integration was made the law of the land; rage that has not subsided since civil rights legislation proclaimed equality in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where do we go from here? Can a state of equality ever be obtained between blacks and whites in America? Whitney Young foretells well todays current state of race relations in America in his 1970 address to the Annual Convention of the National Urban League.


He explains, It is a fact of life that there is developing a national standoff between those of us who are fighting for justice [blacks] and those who want to maintain the status quo [whites] (408 - 9). While blacks continue to press upward, whites continue to press downward. This is an impasse that leads nowhere, proclaims Young, unless it be to further polarization, further division, further bitterness (408 - 9). It is clearly seen and understood from history t ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: civil rights movement, annotated bibliography, emancipation proclamation, martin luther king jr, white america

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