Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He was the figurehead of the civil rights movement in USA, using non-violent civil disobedience as his key strategy. He went on to become the national icon of the modern American liberalism. In 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality.

Apart for fighting for the civil rights he fought for many other contemporary issues in the 1960s. His focus included poverty and the Vietnam War. He was inspired by Gandhi and had visited his birthplace in India in 1959. The trip had a profound effect of Kind and he had remarked, "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.”

King always wrote and spoke frequently. He gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. This speech is considered as one of the most inspiring speeches ever and gives various insights into functioning of a great leader:

Link: "I Have a Dream"

• Leaders engage the heart: Leaders use stories and metaphors to connect with the heart. They don’t only inform but they inspire. In the speech, King stated, “In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir... Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'.”

• Leaders refuse to accept the status quo if it is wrong: This quality defines the leader, they are active in challenging the uncontested theories. King stated, “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

• Leaders follow and promote highest values and ethics: King followed non-violent tactics like Gandhi and never resorted to violence. King stated, “But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

• Leaders refuse to be content: It would have been easy for King to end up in a compromise, to settle for less. But he persisted; he stated, “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”

• Leaders recognise the support of their team. They appreciate and acknowledge the effort their people. King stated, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells... You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.”

• Great leaders always have a clear vision: They have clear path laid out for a clear state they want to achieve, which drives them. Kind stated, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”