martin luther king jr impact on society today essay

Dr. Martin Luther King's Influence on Today's World

"... whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.".

Posted January 20, 2019 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

“If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday, I was privileged to take part in the event March on! Hudson in Hudson, New York. This event largely focused on recognizing the importance of the rights of women, included a march down the main street of this historic Hudson Valley town, ending at a park on the river, where various inspirational speakers, including our congressional representative, Antonio Delgado, reminded us of how important it is to be proactive and engaged as citizens in a democracy such as ours.

The temperatures were well below freezing and a giant winter storm was brewing to the west. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, we could barely feel our fingers or our toes. Even though the conditions were less than pleasant, we were bonded by a common purpose.

In short, we share a common belief that civic engagement matters. And that we, the people, need to be actively engaged in the democratic process at all times. And we embrace the First Amendment, which provides us the right to publicly express our concerns regarding this nation and our government.

A highlight of this event took place when the founder of Move Forward New York (an activist group that focuses on engaging in the civic process to effect positive change in our region), Debra Clinton, spoke about the importance of speaking out and taking action when it comes to advancing human rights. Debra's words added a chill to the event, focusing on the importance of activism in bringing about equality for girls and women—for the benefit of our daughters and granddaughters—for the benefit of our shared future.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, Debra ended with Dr. King's quote which starts this essay and which connects explicitly with the mission of Move Forward New York. Debra ended with an activists' battle cry. There is no time for complacency. As engaged citizens who are privileged to live in a democracy such as ours, there is but one option, and that is to move forward.

Dr. King's Legacy and the Modern Activist Movement

Dr. King was, famously, a visionary who was ahead of his time. Dr. King had every single attribute needed to be a charismatic and influential leader . Coming from a religious background, he genuinely encouraged others to inhibit their own selfish interests and to focus on the interests of the greater good. He bonded people together, getting people to see themselves as part of the same shared struggle. He took steps to organize people into groups, understanding the importance of the power of numbers. And he famously—and tragically—gave his life for the cause.

In his famous treatise on human evolution, renowned evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson (2007) makes the case that the ability for humans to organize and cooperate beyond lines of kinship sits at the core of what distinguishes Homo sapiens from other hominid species. The greatest leaders of human groups are experts at facilitating such cooperation . Dr. Martin Luther King was such a leader. And organizers and activists today who are looking to effect change would be wise to take a page from Dr. King's book.

Our Work Is Still Cut Out for Us

I wish I could say that the injustices that Dr. King worked so hard to fight have been adequately addressed. But, unfortunately, they have not. Social equality is, in fact, a constant issue in such a diverse nation as ours. Here are some statistics to underscore this point:

• While African Americans comprise only 12% of the US population, the number of African American males who are incarcerated in US prisons greatly exceeds the number of white males in prison. 1
• The homicide rate in the US for African Americans aged 18-34 is nine times higher than it is for whites. 2
• The life expectancy for African Americans in the US is substantially lower than the life expectancy for whites. 2
• The number of women who hold seats in the US House of Congress is 123. In spite of this number being an all-time record high, in perspective, it is actually dismal: Only 23% of House seats are held by women, who comprise more than 50% of the population. 3
• The president of the United States has been famously accused of sexual harassment by more than a dozen women over the course of many years. 4

And this all is, by the way, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues connected with social inequality in the United States in 2019.

Bottom Line

As a behavioral scientist and as someone who makes a point to engage in the civic and democratic process, I have to say that Dr. King's vision of true social equality in the United States is still quite far off in the distance. In his lifetime, Dr. King provided a model for effective social activism. He showed us how to call problems out and how to organize to bring about positive change. And he reminded us that democracy and freedom are never free. And that is up to the citizens of a democracy to take part in the process to help advance the greater good. Dr. King told us that moving forward is not an option. It is, rather, an obligation.

Thank you to Dr. Martin Luther King, activist sine qua non, for inspiring this post—and for changing the world for the better.

Acknowledgment: Claps to the primary organizer of March On! Hudson , Gianni Ortiz, founder of Indivisible CD 19 NY , for all your efforts in getting people to engage with the democratic process. Your work matters.

Wilson, D. S. (2007). Evolution for everyone: How Darwin’s theory can change the way we think about our lives. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

1 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/12/shrinking-gap-between-n… 2 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/health/black-americans-death-rate-cd…

3 https://www.npr.org/2018/11/07/665019211/a-record-number-of-women-will-…

4 https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/14/politics/trump-women-accusers/index.html

Glenn Geher, Ph.D. , is professor of psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is founding director of the campus’ Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) program.

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How Martin Luther King, Jr.’s multifaceted view on human rights still inspires today

The legendary civil rights activist pushed to ban nuclear weapons, end the Vietnam War, and lift people out of poverty through labor unions and access to healthcare.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. towers over history as a civil rights legend—known for leading the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice against Black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, largely through peaceful protests. He helped pass landmark federal civil rights and voting rights legislation that outlawed segregation and enfranchised Americans who had been barred from the polls through intimidation and discriminatory state and local laws.  

( How the Voting Rights Act was won—and why it’s under fire today .)  

But King knew it would take more to achieve true equality. And so he also worked tirelessly for education, wage equity, peace, housing, and to lift people out of poverty. Some of King’s most iconic speeches and marches were devoted to ending war, dismantling nuclear weapons, and bringing economic justice. As King said after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 , he believed that any “spiritual and moral lag” in humanity was due to racial injustice, poverty, and war.  

His multifaceted view on human rights still inspires today, and on the third Monday in January every year, the United States honors King’s legacy of fighting for equal rights—and standing up for human rights everywhere.

During his lifetime, King’s views often made him unpopular and heralded harsh criticism. At the time of his assassination in 1968, a Harris poll revealed a low approval rating of only about 25 percent among white Americans and 52 percent among Black Americans. But in the decades after he was killed, more Americans came to recognize the enormity of King’s contributions. Communities across the country began to name streets and landmarks after him, and soon a push began to establish a federal holiday in his birth month of January.  

( Subscriber exclusive: Where the streets have MLK’s name .)

In 1983 , over objections from Southern lawmakers, President Ronald Reagan finally signed a bill creating the holiday into law and the first celebrations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day took place in January 1986—although it would take another decade for states such as Arizona and South Carolina to follow suit.  

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King’s work continues to influence and inspire activism—particularly in the realm of environmental justice, as studies indicate that climate change disproportionately harms marginalized communities. Here are the many layers of King’s work that the U.S. honors on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  

He advocated against the use of nuclear weapons

King was adamant that peace was inextricably linked to civil rights. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, major powers like the United States and the U.S.S.R. were aggressively developing and testing nuclear weapons, and several times crept to the brink of warfare that threatened to annihilate the world.  

King made clear the connection between the Black freedom struggle and the need for nuclear disarmament, writes nuclear studies and African American history expert Vincent Intondi in the book African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement . King argued that it would be “rather absurd” to integrate schools and lunch counters but not be concerned with world peace and survival.

King spoke out about nuclear warfare as early as 1957, when he signed onto a full-page advertisement in The New York Times that called for all nations to suspend nuclear tests immediately. When asked about his stance later that same year, King tied the weapons to the whole of war, and argued that they should be banned everywhere.

“It cannot be disputed that a full-scale nuclear war would be utterly catastrophic,” he told Ebony magazine in an interview. “The principal objective of all nations must be the total abolition of war.”

As part of King’s advocacy for peace and nuclear disarmament, he condemned the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the U.S. government had carried out more than a decade earlier to effectively end World War II. Today, Hiroshima is one of the only cities outside North America to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.  

King also used the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962—a 13-day stretch in which the U.S. and Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war over the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba—as an opportunity to connect nuclear disarmament to racial and economic justice. King called for the U.S. government to instead turn its attention and funds to education, Medicare, and civil rights, Intondi writes. He then voiced his support for a nuclear test ban treaty , which was signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.  

He was outspoken against the Vietnam War

King often linked nuclear disarmament with the Vietnam War as it escalated in the 1960s.

King was against the war but initially worried that making his stance public would derail his work to pass the Civil Rights Act and impair his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University .

But in 1965, the year the first U.S. ground troops were sent to Vietnam, King issued his first public statement, asserting the war was “accomplishing nothing” and calling for a peace treaty.

He tempered his criticism for the next two years to avoid diminishing the impact of his civil rights work, but by 1967, King was active in the anti-war sphere again, attending a march in Chicago before he went on to make his most notable speech on the matter a few days later on April 4.

It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. And the alternative to disarmament… may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation , and our earthly habitat would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On that day at the Riverside Church in New York City, King denounced the war for deepening the problems of Black Americans and people living in poverty. He condemned the “madness” of Vietnam as a “symptom of a far deeper malady” that put the U.S. at odds with the aspirations for social justice throughout the world. Just 11 days later, King led 125,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations headquarters in New York as one of the largest peace demonstrations in history.

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During the last year of his life , King continued his anti-war work by encouraging grassroots peace activism. On March 31, 1968, five days before he died, King denounced the Vietnam War in his final Sunday sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., saying that it was “one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world.”

King did not live to see the war end. U.S. troops officially pulled out of Vietnam in April 1975 .

He championed union representation and worker’s rights

King's passion for union representation and workers' rights is also an important part of his legacy. Much as he had done with his anti-war speeches, King often tied workers’ rights to the civil rights movement.

“I had also learned that the inseparable twin of racial injustice was economic injustice,” King said in a 1958 speech in New York . “Although I came from a home of economic security and relative comfort, I could never get out of my mind the economic insecurity of many of my playmates and the tragic poverty of those living around me.”

In a 1959 interview with Challenge magazine , King acknowledged that labor unions had historically left out Black Americans, but also could be a key to economic justice. He called for Black Americans to organize their economic and political power in the form of labor unions, and he championed ideas in the labor movement, including better working conditions, adequate housing, guaranteed annual income, and access to healthcare.

For years, King continued to call for economic justice, notably at the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Before a crowd of 250,000 people, he delivered the legendary “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he called for an end to poverty, especially targeted poverty and discrimination against Black Americans.

One of King’s last actions before his assassination was in support of the labor movement. King’s final days were spent supporting a group of Black sanitation workers striking in Memphis, Tennessee.  

After two workers had been crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck, 1,300 Black workers went on strike for 11 days, seeking an end to a long pattern of neglect and abuse from their management. The strike would’ve ended after the City Council voted to recognize their newly formed union, but the Memphis mayor rejected the vote. King traveled to Memphis to lead a protest march and, on April 3, he spoke to the striking sanitation workers.  

“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end,” King said . “Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.”

King was gunned down by an assassin on the balcony of his Memphis hotel the next day. On April 16, the sanitation workers’ union was finally recognized and a better wage was promised—the first of many examples of how King’s legacy would continue to reverberate in the work of those whom he inspired.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He’s inspiring a new generation of environmental activists

Although King’s last act supporting the Black sanitation workers in Memphis was not explicitly an act of environmental justice , it has inspired a generation of activists. The working conditions the sanitation workers had endured were polluted and hazardous—much like the conditions many Black Americans endured in their communities and jobs at the time.

Modern environmental activists have drawn on King’s message: Much as segregation and discrimination were inseparable from poverty, they point out that poor communities of color disproportionately face environmental hazards such as pollution. They also bear the brunt of the harmful effects of climate change, including extreme weather events.

( The origins of environmental justice—and why it’s finally getting the attention it deserves .)

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the use of federal funds , even gave marginalized people a means to address racial discrimination in environmental matters.   As the environmental justice movement grew, King’s work also inspired the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

His advocacy for people of color to have a voice and power has inspired many communities impacted most by climate change to speak up—and take action. Now, the holiday honoring King is typically observed as a national day of service. Organizations and individuals alike volunteer for their communities, often cleaning up roads or river banks in the name of a man who many believe would be on the forefront of the climate fight if he were still alive today.

Related Topics

• CIVIL RIGHTS
• HUMAN RIGHTS
• ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
• NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• VIETNAM WAR

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Examining The Global Impact Of Martin Luther King Jr.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Americans pay tribute to the iconic leader renowned for his role in the U.S. civil rights movement. What some may not know is that King’s influence and legacy extended beyond the U.S.; he visited countries in West Africa, toured Europe and South America, and spent a month in India where it is said he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s use of nonviolence in protests against British rule.

Texas A&M Today spoke with Professor of History Dr. Albert S. Broussard about King’s global impact. Broussard specializes in African-American history and is the author of books and other publications on topics including slavery, civil rights and racial equality.

What are some of the ways King carried his humanitarian message to the world?

Martin Luther King, Jr. is regarded today as one of the most significant leaders in world history. Although he is widely regarded as one of the most important civil rights leaders in U.S. history, Dr. King began to speak out on other pressing global issues following receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King, himself, felt that the award imposed a responsibility to address issues larger than civil rights, and he felt that receiving an international award also gave him the gravitas to offer his views. Few people know that King, for example, spoke out against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa, which collapsed in 1991. Had he lived, there is no doubt that King and Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first Black president, would have become kindred spirits. King also spoke out against nuclear war and regarded himself as an anti-nuclear war activist, condemning the use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II. Finally, Dr. King was a major critic of the Vietnam War, and his criticism of the war and the role that the U.S. played drew widespread condemnation against the United States and fueled the anti-war movement in America.

Why do you think it was important to King to have a place on the global stage?

King, like many global activists, believed that he had an obligation to speak out against global issues in part because of his celebrity. But, as a Christian minister, he also believed that Jesus had spoken to him directly from the time of his first civil rights campaign in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. To put this another way, Dr. King believed that he was doing God’s work.

What is your favorite King quote as it relates to spreading his message worldwide?

The quote that I always recall by Dr. King that can be used to support both national and international reform is, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” According to Clayborne Carson, editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, this quote has been attributed to Theodore Parker, a 19th century abolitionist and Unitarian.

How is his message still relevant today?

I think leaders like Dr. King provide hope, even in the darkest moments of a nation’s history, that change is possible if people are willing to struggle and make sacrifices. As the great 19th century Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Dr. King certainly understood that sentiment as well as thousands of ordinary people and activists around the world today fighting to improve their lives and to guarantee a better future for their families.

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Dr. King's Legacy

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The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encompasses influential decisions, monumental actions and steadfast progressions of humanitarian rights that reach far beyond the civil rights movement.

A leader of all people, Dr. King never chose fear, but always chose courage and determination when fighting for civil rights in the face of oppression, ignorance and violence. He refused to allow prison, violence or the threat of death sway his end mission. Instead, he stood beside his goal of achieving rights for all through nonviolent protests.

Dr. King maintained a vision for a more diverse America where all people enjoyed the benefits of equality. During a time when the opposition implemented legislation that withheld rights from people of color and expressed hatred through beatings and killings, Dr. King continued to take the high road.

He realized that violence would play into the scheme of the opposition. He knew that violent retaliation would fit exactly into the assumed mold that many had formed regarding civil rights activists. Because of that, he constantly preached that nonviolence will ultimately allow the opposition to prevail.

Dr. King also understood the impact of unifying the masses in the push for one common goal. Separately, attaining any significant progress would be a challenge. Collectively, he and other civil rights activists could affect policies and influence change nationwide. Dr. King’s leadership contributed to the overall success of the civil rights movement in the mid-1900s and continues to impact civil rights movements in the present.

While King and other leaders generated momentous strides for equality, the push for civil rights remains a preeminent challenge today. We continue to experience poverty in the inner cities. We continue to fight for equal pay regardless of gender or race. We continue to battle education inequality. We continue to call for justice for all.

Dr. King’s legacy provides a staple model for how we combat inequality today. We cannot get comfortable in our current state. Too many people are relying on us to recognize and fight the inequalities that exist today.

Dr. King’s generation did their part. Now, it’s time to do ours. The next generation needs us.

As you engage with Dr. King’s platforms and interact with the timeline of monumental civil rights accomplishments and events, reflect on how far we have come, and recall how far we have to go.

Dr. King's Legacy

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Martin Luther King Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on martin luter king.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American leader in the U.S. He lost his life while performing a peaceful protest for the betterment of blacks in America. His real name was Michael King Jr. He completed his studies and attained a Ph.D. After that, he joined the American Civil Right Movement. He was among one of the great men who dedicated their life for the community.

Reason for Martin Luther King to be famous

There are two reasons for someone to be famous either he is a good man or a very bad person. Martin Luther King was among the good one who dedicated his life to the community. Martin Luther King was also known as MLK Jr. He gained popularity after he became the leader and spokesperson of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Martin Luther King was an American activist, minister, and humanitarian. Also, he had worked for several other causes and actively participated in many protests and boycotts. He was a peaceful man that has faith in Christian beliefs and non-violence. Also, his inspiration for them was the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. For his work in the field of civil rights, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was a great speaker that motivated the blacks to protest using non-violence. Also, he uses peaceful strategies like a boycott, protest march , and sit-ins, etc. for protests against the government.

Impact of King

King is one of the renowned leaders of the African-American who worked for the welfare of his community throughout his life. He was very famous among the community and is the strongest voice of the community. King and his fellow companies and peaceful protesters forced the government several times to bend their laws. Also, kings’ life made a seismic impact on life and thinking of the blacks. He was among one of the great leaders of the era.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Humanitarian and civil rights work

As we know that King was a civic leader . Also, he has taken part in many civil right campaigns and boycotts like the Bus Boycott, Voting Rights and the most famous March on Washington. In this march along with more than 200,000 people, he marched towards Washington for human right. Also, it’s the largest human right campaign in U.S.A. history. During the protest, he gave a speech named “I Have a Dream” which is history’s one of the renowned speeches.

Death and memorial

During his life working as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement he makes many enemies. Also, the government and plans do everything to hurt his reputation. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Every year the US celebrates his anniversary as Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US. Also, they honored kings’ memory by naming school and building after him and a Memorial at Independence Mall.

Martin Luther King was a great man who dedicated his whole life for his community. Also, he was an active leader and a great spokesperson that not only served his people but also humanity. It was due to his contribution that the African-American got their civil rights.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 15, 2023 | Original: January 28, 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.

King Assassination: Background

In the last years of his life, Dr. King faced mounting criticism from young African American activists who favored a more confrontational approach to seeking change. These young radicals stuck closer to the ideals of the Black nationalist leader Malcolm X ( himself assassinated in 1965 ), who had condemned King’s advocacy of nonviolence as “criminal” in the face of the continuing repression suffered by African Americans.

As a result of this opposition, King sought to widen his appeal beyond his own race, speaking out publicly against the Vietnam War and working to form a coalition of poor Americans—Black and white alike—to address such issues as poverty and unemployment.

Did you know? Among the witnesses at King's assassination was Jesse Jackson, one of his closest aides. Ordained as a minister soon after King's death, Jackson went on to form Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and to run twice for U.S. president, in 1984 and 1988.

In the spring of 1968, while preparing for a planned march to Washington to lobby Congress on behalf of the poor, King and other SCLC members were called to Memphis, Tennessee , to support a sanitation workers’ strike. On the night of April 3, King gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis.

In his speech, King seemed to foreshadow his own untimely passing, or at least to strike a particularly reflective note, ending with these now-historic words: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

In fact, King had already survived an assassination attempt in the shoe section of a Harlem department store on September 20, 1958. The incident only affirmed his belief in non-violence.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

At 6:05 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39.

Shock and distress over the news of King’s death sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including burning and looting. Amid a wave of national mourning, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Americans to “reject the blind violence” that had killed King, whom he called the “apostle of nonviolence.”

He also called on Congress to speedily pass the civil rights legislation then entering the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and his life’s work. On April 11, Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act , a major piece of civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex. It is considered an important follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 .

King Assassination Conspiracy

On June 8, authorities apprehended the suspect in King’s murder, a small-time criminal named James Earl Ray , at London’s Heathrow Airport . Witnesses had seen him running from a boarding house near the Lorraine Motel carrying a bundle; prosecutors said he fired the fatal bullet from a bathroom in that building. Authorities found Ray’s fingerprints on the rifle used to kill King, a scope and a pair of binoculars.

On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. No testimony was heard in his trial. Shortly afterwards, however, Ray recanted his confession, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (who also investigated the assassination of JFK ) maintained that Ray’s shot killed king.

Ray later found sympathy in an unlikely place: Members of King’s family , including his son Dexter, who publicly met with Ray in 1977 and began arguing for a reopening of his case. Though the U.S. government conducted several investigations into the trial—each time confirming Ray’s guilt as the sole assassin—controversy still surrounds the assassination.

At the time of Ray’s death in 1998, King’s widow Coretta Scott King (who in the weeks after her husband’s death had courageously continued the campaign to aid the striking Memphis sanitation workers and carried on his mission of social change through nonviolent means) publicly lamented that “America will never have the benefit of Mr. Ray’s trial, which would have produced new revelations about the assassination…as well as establish the facts concerning Mr. Ray’s innocence.”

Impact of the King Assassination

Though Black and white people alike mourned King’s passing, the killing in some ways served to widen the rift between Black and white Americans, as many Black people saw King’s assassination as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed.

His murder, like the killing of Malcolm X in 1965, radicalized many moderate African American activists, fueling the growth of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

King has remained the most widely known African American leader of his era, and the most public face of the civil rights movement , along with its most eloquent voice.

A campaign to establish a national holiday in his honor began almost immediately after his death, and its proponents overcame significant opposition—critics pointed to FBI surveillance files suggesting King’s adultery and his influence by Communists—before President Ronald Reagan signed the King holiday bill into law in 1983.

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How Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ideas Remain Relevant Today

Summary from the allsides news team.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2023, voices across the political spectrum remarked on his values and how they remain relevant in modern society. Some left-rated voices framed King's mission as focused on wokeness, anti-racism, and equity for black people; some right-rated voices said King would disapprove of modern racial activism and some of its polarizing tactics.

Demanding Change:  A guest writer in the New York Times said King's "policy aims were unapologetically color-conscious" despite attempts to paint him as "colorblind," and that he believed meaningful action on race relations required "acknowledging that racism created generational wealth for white Americans and robbed Black Americans of the same economic boost."

Education:  Two guest writers in The Hill said King taught us the value of education and "how we can bring about a world where all people are treated equally," and that schools should focus on the "unifying, universal values" of fairness, understanding, and humanity.

Honest Dialogue:  The New York Post's Editorial Board wrote that while King would be pained to see that young African-Americans "are too often denied a quality education," he'd also be "distressed by the hypersensitivity and growing political correctness of today’s discussions about race," and would likely "bring discipline to every demonstration so as to avoid chaos and violence that badly undermines the cause."

Common Ground: According to recent data from More in Common, strong majorities in all U.S. ethnic, generational, and political groups believe it is important to observe MLK Day.

Featured Coverage of this Story

From the right.

Were Martin Luther King alive in 2023 to celebrate his 94th birthday, what would he have to say about his nation’s contentious racial landscape?

America is a far different place from the nation that saw King felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1968 at the young age of 39.

The United States has seen an African-American serve two terms as president — something King likely thought even his children would never see.

Blacks routinely serve at the top levels of the Cabinet, on the Supreme Court, in the Senate as well...

From the Left

In 1968, four days before he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last Sunday sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It was entitled, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” and although King doesn’t say the word “woke,” he uses the concept as it was understood by many Black folks then, well before the term was co-opted by the political right to refer to any left-leaning policy that it wanted to condemn.

The sermon is an opportunity...

From the Center

In 1947, an 18-year-old student published an op-ed in his college newspaper titled, “The Purpose of Education.” “We must remember that intelligence is not enough,” wrote the young Martin Luther King, Jr. “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

King ended his essay with a warning. “If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, ‘brethren!’ Be careful, teachers!” 

While the young King’s essay has not received the same attention as his other work, it is...

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Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society Term Paper

Introduction, general overview.

The United States of America is a country of many nations and cultures, but there were times when the “white” society did not accept the rights and freedoms of anyone who was different from them. The present world has changed a great deal from before, but even today, there are setbacks and discrimination for certain racial groups. In particular, African American society has come a long way from the way it was treated decades ago. They have fought for their rights and established themselves as Americans with equal rights and freedoms. Martin Luther King is a person who changed the way African Americans were treated, and he did it in an exquisite, unique, and morally correct way.

The movement

Even though the African American society is still suffering from the fact that their families and relatives grew up in a segregated and separated America, things were much worse before Dr. King impacted the world. The oppression of African Americans has been going on for a long time, but the major changes started to happen around the year 1963 when Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Since that time, there was an active fight in the establishment of the respected and valued position of African Americans in American society.

The input Martin Luther King Jr. has made into the American society and how he changed the treatment and lives of the African-American population is enormous. His major social framework was nonviolent conflict resolution, and the letter from Birmingham Jail is an example of that. He talks about being aggressive through active resistance and peaceful protests. The ability of people to refuse to follow the regime is a major way how Martin Luther King accomplished change and respect towards the African American population (Ling, 2002).

He dedicated his life to fighting for the rights and freedoms of his fellow African-Americans. He has written several works and gave famous speeches that changed history and people’s attitudes forever. Martin Luther King’s “Three Types of Resistance” examines the ways in which people can rebel against oppression and what the most effective and beneficial ways of doing this are. Nonviolent resistance to oppression is the best avenue to take, as it promotes nonviolence, a peaceful resolution based on understanding and human kindness.

The majority of times, it is extremely difficult to explain inner wants and goals in a peaceful manner, and conflict breaks out. Martin Luther King was a great man who understood that violence would never solve anything. Acquiescence is a response to oppression, which is based on complete inaction. A person or group of people simply do what they are told, and they do not fight back in any way, violent or nonviolent.

This sort of behavior is caused by a long time of oppression and mistreatment. A person gets used to the unfair conditions and pain, which is inflicted by the oppressor. It becomes such a great part of life that a person cannot imagine how life would be without this suffering. Martin Luther King Jr. states that anyone who chooses this sort of resistance, which in reality is non-existent, is a coward and is himself reinforcing the unequal treatment of the oppressor. Dr. King believed that anyone who chooses acquiescence participates in the evil that the oppressor spreads. By inaction, people allow evil to exist, and the fact that they stand by and allow for it to go on means they do not oppose it, and if they do not oppose it, it means they have nothing against it, which means they permit evil to exist (Glasberg, 2011).

Dr. King has chosen an approach that was bound to be successful through active and direct action.

Types of resistance

Martin Luther King admits that sometimes it is hard to see another way out, and there are even times when violent conflict seems to bring on positive results. The first problem with this form of resistance is the fact that evil is being fought using evil. Simply destroying something will not create anything new. In order for things to change, there must be a careful consideration of all matters. When a violent conflict breaks out, things happen very fast, and people have no time to think, to stop, and consider several possibilities. Violence is the ending resolution to everything. It does not lead to new understanding or ideas; it destroys indifferently and senselessly. Martin Luther King believed that the only way to change the world and people in nonviolent resistance. When people have a common goal and attitude, it is in their right to unite and take action against the oppressors.

This should be done in a tactical and respectful manner with much evidence and support from other groups and individuals. Nonviolent resistance creates a statement that something is wrong with the way things are now and that people demand something must be done to resolve the issue. There were a number of protests and marches by African-Americans, women, and minority groups who have taken the nonviolent approach. They were able to demonstrate that they are in control, and their demands were clearly visible (Nojeim, 2004). Even though it has taken many years for women and African-Americans to gain their rights, some oppression still goes on today; the results have been brought on in a peaceful and most admirable manner (Nojeim, 2004). The social changes that King has made have reshaped the present world and enabled the majority of society to see the correct way to treat others who are different.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the greatest thinkers and fighters for human rights. He has displayed, on numerous occasions, that nonviolence is the only way to exist in a civilized world. People must find ways and patience to resist the oppressing force without hurting innocent people in the process. His essay titled “Three Types of Oppression” serves a specific and clear purpose. It is to educate people on the negatives and positives of the resistance itself but also on the wrongful ways of dealing with such resistance. The explanations given by Martin Luther King are made simple and comprehensible to make sure that there are no doubts and wrongful understanding of his concepts.

His message was very strong and direct.

He wanted people to see how wrong humanity was throughout its existence. At the slightest disagreement, a violent conflict would break out, and instead of resolving the issue, it would be simply covered up and forgotten for some time, just to resurface at a later date. This essay was written for adults and everyone who has some form of power or authority over others. It is not only the politicians and governments; it is also regular people who are parents, doctors, teachers, and writers. The ability to make others listen and comprehend what one is saying is a skill everyone must develop, and Martin Luther wanted to demonstrate this in his paper. But, at the same time, his writings are for those who are being oppressed every day and year of their life. This is a sign that they do not have to suffer anymore, that their inaction is wrong, and something must be done if they want to change anything. It is a way to reassure and give hope to all those who were unable to find ways of how to deal with constant unfairness and belittlement.

Dr. King is educating people on how to make their voices heard and how to do it in a most efficient and peaceful way.

The language that he uses is very formal but, at the same time, very true. Martin Luther is not afraid to call things as they are, and so he openly states that those who do nothing are “cowards.” People who oppress others, he calls “evil” and is very right in doing so.

He tries to make the language and ideas accessible for as many people as possible so that his message is understood.

But it seems that he wanted to reach the heart of people as well. He passionately describes the hardships and unfairness and the ways to combat such things.

Martin Luther King makes it clear that he is pitiful but at the same time angry at the people who allow their oppressors to mistreat others and how they idly stand by without taking any action. When he speaks about violent solutions to problems, it is obvious how much he hates evil and conflict and people who resort to such ways. His words and actions have become timeless, impacting the social fabric of the modern world.

Glasberg, D. (2011). Political Sociology: Oppression, Resistance, and the State . Thousand Oaks, United States: Sage Publications.

Ling, P. (2002). Martin Luther King, Junior . New York, United States: Routledge.

Nojeim, M. (2004). Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance . Westport, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 29). Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society. https://ivypanda.com/essays/martin-luther-king-and-his-impact-on-society/

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IvyPanda . (2024) 'Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society'. 29 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/martin-luther-king-and-his-impact-on-society/.

1. IvyPanda . "Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/martin-luther-king-and-his-impact-on-society/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/martin-luther-king-and-his-impact-on-society/.

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Three Essays on Religion

Author:  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date:  September 1, 1948 to May 31, 1951 ?

Location:  Chester, Pa. ?

Genre:  Essay

Topic:  Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

In the following three essays, King wrestles with the role of religion in modern society. In the first assignment, he calls science and religion “different though converging truths” that both “spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.” King emphasizes an awareness of God’s presence in the second document, noting that religion’s purpose “is not to perpetuate a dogma or a theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.” In the final handwritten essay King acknowledges the life-affirming nature of Christianity, observing that its adherents have consistently “looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.”

"Science and Religion"

There is widespread belief in the minds of many that there is a conflict between science and religion. But there is no fundamental issue between the two. While the conflict has been waged long and furiously, it has been on issues utterly unrelated either to religion or to science. The conflict has been largely one of trespassing, and as soon as religion and science discover their legitimate spheres the conflict ceases.

Religion, of course, has been very slow and loath to surrender its claim to sovereignty in all departments of human life; and science overjoyed with recent victories, has been quick to lay claim to a similar sovereignty. Hence the conflict.

But there was never a conflict between religion and science as such. There cannot be. Their respective worlds are different. Their methods are dissimilar and their immediate objectives are not the same. The method of science is observation, that of religion contemplation. Science investigates. Religion interprets. One seeks causes, the other ends. Science thinks in terms of history, religion in terms of teleology. One is a survey, the other an outlook.

The conflict was always between superstition disguised as religion and materialism disguised as science, between pseudo-science and pseudo-religion.

Religion and science are two hemispheres of human thought. They are different though converging truths. Both science and religion spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.

Science is the response to the human need of knowledge and power. Religion is the response to the human need for hope and certitude. One is an outreaching for mastery, the other for perfection. Both are man-made, and like man himself, are hedged about with limitations. Neither science nor religion, by itself, is sufficient for man. Science is not civilization. Science is organized knowledge; but civilization which is the art of noble and progressive communal living requires much more than knowledge. It needs beauty which is art, and faith and moral aspiration which are religion. It needs artistic and spiritual values along with the intellectual.

Man cannot live by facts alone. What we know is little enough. What we are likely to know will always be little in comparison with what there is to know. But man has a wish-life which must build inverted pyramids upon the apexes of known facts. This is not logical. It is, however, psychological.

Science and religion are not rivals. It is only when one attempts to be the oracle at the others shrine that confusion arises. Whan the scientist from his laboratory, on the basis of alleged scientific knowledge presumes to issue pronouncements on God, on the origin and destiny of life, and on man's place in the scheme of things he is [ passing? ] out worthless checks. When the religionist delivers ultimatums to the scientist on the basis of certain cosomologies embedded in the sacred text then he is a sorry spectacle indeed.

When religion, however, on the strength of its own postulates, speaks to men of God and the moral order of the universe, when it utters its prophetic burden of justice and love and holiness and peace, then its voice is the voice of the eternal spiritual truth, irrefutable and invincible.,

"The Purpose of Religion"

What is the purpose of religion? 1  Is it to perpetuate an idea about God? Is it totally dependent upon revelation? What part does psychological experience play? Is religion synonymous with theology?

Harry Emerson Fosdick says that the most hopeful thing about any system of theology is that it will not last. 2  This statement will shock some. But is the purpose of religion the perpetuation of theological ideas? Religion is not validated by ideas, but by experience.

This automatically raises the question of salvation. Is the basis for salvation in creeds and dogmas or in experience. Catholics would have us believe the former. For them, the church, its creeds, its popes and bishops have recited the essence of religion and that is all there is to it. On the other hand we say that each soul must make its own reconciliation to God; that no creed can take the place of that personal experience. This was expressed by Paul Tillich when he said, “There is natural religion which belongs to man by nature. But there is also a revealed religion which man receives from a supernatural reality.” 3 Relevant religion therefore, comes through revelation from God, on the one hand; and through repentance and acceptance of salvation on the other hand. 4  Dogma as an agent in salvation has no essential place.

This is the secret of our religion. This is what makes the saints move on in spite of problems and perplexities of life that they must face. This religion of experience by which man is aware of God seeking him and saving him helps him to see the hands of God moving through history.

Religion has to be interpreted for each age; stated in terms that that age can understand. But the essential purpose of religion remains the same. It is not to perpetuate a dogma or theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.

[ signed ] M. L. King Jr. 5

"The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry"

Basically Christianity is a value philosophy. It insists that there are eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good. This value content is embodied in the life of Christ. So that Christian philosophy is first and foremost Christocentric. It begins and ends with the assumption that Christ is the revelation of God. 6

We might ask what are some of the specific values that Christianity seeks to conserve? First Christianity speaks of the value of the world. In its conception of the world, it is not negative; it stands over against the asceticisms, world denials, and world flights, for example, of the religions of India, and is world-affirming, life affirming, life creating. Gautama bids us flee from the world, but Jesus would have us use it, because God has made it for our sustenance, our discipline, and our happiness. 7  So that the Christian view of the world can be summed up by saying that it is a place in which God is fitting men and women for the Kingdom of God.

Christianity also insists on the value of persons. All human personality is supremely worthful. This is something of what Schweitzer has called “reverence for life.” 8  Hunan being must always be used as ends; never as means. I realize that there have been times that Christianity has short at this point. There have been periods in Christians history that persons have been dealt with as if they were means rather than ends. But Christianity at its highest and best has always insisted that persons are intrinsically valuable. And so it is the job of the Christian to love every man because God love love. We must not love men merely because of their social or economic position or because of their cultural contribution, but we are to love them because  God  they are of value to God.

Christianity is also concerned about the value of life itself. Christianity is concerned about the good life for every  child,  man,  and  woman and child. This concern for the good life and the value of life is no where better expressed than in the words of Jesus in the gospel of John: “I came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” 9  This emphasis has run throughout the Christian tradition. Christianity has always had a concern for the elimination of disease and pestilence. This is seen in the great interest that it has taken in the hospital movement.

Christianity is concerned about increasing value. The whole concept of the kingdom of God on earth expressing a concern for increasing value. We need not go into a dicussion of the nature and meaning of the Kingdom of God, only to say that Christians throughout the ages have held tenaciouly to this concept. They have looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.

In the light of all that we have said about Christianity as a value philosophy, where does the ministry come into the picture? 10

1.  King may have also considered the purpose of religion in a Morehouse paper that is no longer extant, as he began a third Morehouse paper, “Last week we attempted to discuss the purpose of religion” (King, “The Purpose of Education,” September 1946-February 1947, in  Papers  1:122).

2.  “Harry Emerson Fosdick” in  American Spiritual Autobiographies: Fifteen Self-Portraits,  ed. Louis Finkelstein (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 114: “The theology of any generation cannot be understood, apart from the conditioning social matrix in which it is formulated. All systems of theology are as transient as the cultures they are patterned from.”

3.  King further developed this theme in his dissertation: “[Tillich] finds a basis for God's transcendence in the conception of God as abyss. There is a basic inconsistency in Tillich's thought at this point. On the one hand he speaks as a religious naturalist making God wholly immanent in nature. On the other hand he speaks as an extreme supernaturalist making God almost comparable to the Barthian ‘wholly other’” (King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” 15 April 1955, in  Papers  2:535).

4.  Commas were added after the words “religion” and “salvation.”

5.  King folded this assignment lengthwise and signed his name on the verso of the last page.

6.  King also penned a brief outline with this title (King, “The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951). In the outline, King included the reference “see Enc. Of Religion p. 162.” This entry in  An Encyclopedia of Religion,  ed. Vergilius Ferm (New York: Philosophical Library, 1946) contains a definition of Christianity as “Christo-centric” and as consisting “of eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good.” King kept this book in his personal library.

7.  Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-ca. 483 BCE) was the historical Buddha.

8.  For an example of Schweitzer's use of the phrase “reverence for life,” see Albert Schweitzer, “The Ethics of Reverence for Life,”  Christendom  1 (1936): 225-239.

9.  John 10:10.

10.  In his outline for this paper, King elaborated: “The Ministry provides leadership in helping men to recognize and accept the eternal values in the Xty religion. a. The necessity of a call b. The necessity for disinterested love c. The [ necessity ] for moral uprightness” (King, “Philosophy of Life,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951).

Source:  CSKC-INP, Coretta Scott King Collection, In Private Hands, Sermon file.

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How public attitudes toward martin luther king jr. have changed since the 1960s.

About eight-in-ten American adults (81%) say civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has had a positive impact on the United States, according to a Pew Research Center report that comes ahead of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . This majority includes nearly half of Americans (47%) who say King’s impact has been very positive. Just 3% say his impact on the country has been negative.

Sixty years after Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to determine how views of King have changed over time in the United States.

This analysis uses data from a 2023 Center survey as well as data from Gallup surveys conducted in May 1963, August 1964, May 1965, August 1966, May 1969 and August 2011. The Center survey polled 5,073 U.S. adults from April 10 to April 16, 2023. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Address-based sampling ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the Pew Research Center survey questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

However, views of King haven’t always been so positive.

In May 1963, only about four-in-ten Americans (41%) had a favorable opinion of King, according to a Gallup survey . That included just 16% who viewed him highly favorably, rating him +4 or +5 on a scale of -5 (most unfavorable) to +5 (most favorable). The survey was conducted shortly after King’s Birmingham Campaign , which led the Alabama city to remove signs enforcing segregation of restrooms and drinking fountains and to desegregate lunch counters.

King’s favorable ratings remained about the same in Gallup surveys conducted in 1964 and 1965. But by August 1966, only a third of Americans had a favorable view of the civil rights leader. More than six-in-ten (63%) viewed him unfavorably, including 44% who viewed him highly unfavorably.

Gallup’s survey questions about King between 1963 and 1966 coincided with his civil rights work in a variety of areas:

• In August 1963, King delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington.
• In June 1964, he demanded equal treatment at a segregated Florida restaurant, an act that led to his arrest.
• In December 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize and pledged the full financial award to civil rights efforts.
• In March 1965, he led a civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery.
• In June 1966, he completed fellow civil rights leader James Meredith’s March Against Fear after Meredith was wounded by a White gunman.
• In August 1966, he was hit by a rock while marching through an all-White neighborhood in Chicago as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement. The movement sought to expand civil rights work to northern U.S. cities.

King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Gallup did not ask Americans to rate King again until August 2011, when the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was officially dedicated in Washington, D.C. By then, views of King had changed dramatically, as 94% of Americans had a favorable opinion of him. Americans were also broadly supportive of the memorial: 91% approved of it and 70% were at least somewhat interested in visiting it, according to the Gallup survey.

Racial differences in views of King

Throughout the mid-1960s, Black Americans had much more favorable views of King than White Americans did. In the May 1963 Gallup survey, for example, 92% of Black Americans but only 35% of White Americans had a favorable opinion of the civil rights leader.

As more White Americans learned who King was over the next three years, a higher share of them viewed him unfavorably. Around four-in-ten White adults (41%) had an unfavorable view of King in May 1963 – a figure that rose to 69% by August 1966.

In 1969, Gallup asked Black adults in the U.S. whether they thought King’s beliefs about nonviolence had gained or lost support since his assassination a year earlier. About half of Black Americans (52%) said they thought King’s beliefs had lost support, while 30% said his beliefs had gained support.

By 2011, White Americans’ attitudes toward King had become much more positive. Fully 100% of Black adults and 93% of White adults had a favorable opinion of him, and majorities of both Black and White Americans (96% and 65%, respectively) had highly favorable views of him.

Views of racial equality after King

More than 40 years after King’s assassination, Americans were still divided on whether his dream of racial equality had been realized. In the 2011 Gallup survey, 51% of Americans said King’s dream had been realized, while 49% said it had not.

Pew Research Center’s new report, which uses survey data from April 2023, finds that Americans are similarly divided today about whether the U.S. has made progress on racial equality over the last 60 years.

About half of U.S. adults (52%) say that the country has made a great deal or a fair amount of progress, while 33% say it has made some progress and 15% say it has not made much or any progress. But Black Americans are more pessimistic: Just 30% say the U.S. has made a great deal or a fair amount of progress, compared with 58% of White adults. And 32% of Black adults say the country has made little or no progress, compared with 11% of White adults.

Note: Here are the Pew Research Center survey questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy

A large share of u.s. adults believe that king had a very positive or somewhat positive impact on the country, according to pew research center.

By Kelsey Dallas

This article was first published in the  State of Faith newsletter . Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

Earlier this month ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pew Research Center highlighted its survey on what the civil rights leader means to Americans today.

Pew found that a large share of U.S. adults — 81% — believe that King had a very positive or somewhat positive impact on the country, but only 38% of Americans felt their personal views on racial equality were shaped by his work.

Responses to that second question varied widely between racial groups, Pew noted.

“Fifty-nine percent of Black Americans say their personal views on racial equality have been influenced by Martin Luther King Jr. a great deal or a fair amount. Smaller shares of Hispanic (38%), White (34%) and Asian (34%) Americans say the same,” researchers wrote.

The survey showed that political beliefs also seem to shape how people view the civil rights leader.

“A majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners (58%) say King has had a very positive impact on the country, compared with 37% of Republicans and those who lean to the GOP,” Pew reported.

Most Americans agreed that there is still work to be done to ensure equal rights for all people.

Fifty-two percent of U.S. adults said efforts to secure racial equality have “not gone far enough.” But the group of Americans who are feeling optimistic about the future (28%) is smaller than the group feeling pessimistic (44%).

The survey, which was fielded in April 2023, included responses from 5,073 U.S. adults.

Here are some stories I’ve written about Martin Luther King Jr. and religion over the years:

• How personal faith anchored Martin Luther King Jr.’s public life
• Where are churches in the Black Lives Matter movement?
• Faith leaders reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s religious legacy

Fresh off the press

Why Pope Francis and others want to ban surrogacy

Place of the week: Cáceres, Spain

There’s a unique project underway in Cáceres, a city in western Spain: A Spanish foundation with funding from Asia wants it to become “Buddhism’s headquarters in Europe,” according to Religion News Service .

As part of this mission, the foundation plans to erect a white jade Buddha statue that’s about 47 meters tall and weighs around 6,000 tons. The statue will sit among Buddhist temples and monasteries.

Although land has been set aside for the project, many people in the area are skeptical about whether it will actually come to fruition, Religion News Service reported. There are questions about where the funding is really coming from and whether interest in the Buddha statue will ever justify its size.

“The Buddha project’s aims are lofty, especially for a small city, and there are those who question whether such grandiosity might doom it in the way of the biblical Tower of Babel,” the article said.

What I’m reading

Amid a broader debate over how to make college more affordable for young students, several Christian colleges are rolling out programs designed to reduce or eliminate tuition costs , according to Christianity Today. These programs come in many forms, but they generally share the goal of making it easier for students from a variety of backgrounds to access faith-based education.

Another week, another essay from Simran Jeet Singh for you to enjoy. I really liked his reflection on what to do when you’re sweating the small stuff .

As David and Nancy French deal with a heartbreaking cancer diagnosis, they’re giving thanks for the many, many friends offering them meals, landscaping help and other acts of kindness. David French wrote a beautiful essay for The New York Times about why you should draw closer to others during sorrowful times instead of pulling away.

Odds and ends

The popular social media account “We Rate Dogs” made a religion joke this week and I’m still laughing. Check it out !

Kleenex, the famous tissue brand, is saying goodbye to Canada . I was shocked by this news and interested to learn that a brand of tissues called “Scotties” is already much more widely used in the Great White North.

Resurrecting King and Resurrection City: Opposing Memories of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and a Forgotten Moment in His Legacy

Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.

By  Axell Boomer

Every year, come the third Monday of January, Americans flip through news channels reflecting on the legacy of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Individuals active on social media—depending on the political affiliations of their peers—view a long series of posts listing the bastardization of King’s memory on both sides of the aisle. In discussing fissures in American society, Daniel Rodgers’ Age of Fracture features a treatment of King’s legacy. Rodgers’ writes that “white conservative writers… absorb[ed] the figure who had been their most visible antagonist in the racial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr.” [1] Accordingly, conservatives renegotiated King as a colorblind activist, utilizing his legacy “against what they saw as the post-King course of the civil rights project.” [2] Rodgers’ marks this memory of King produced by conservatives as “a linguistic hijacking of the opposition’s rhetoric.” [3] This article will examine different efforts to memorialize King, first by the participants of Resurrection City—a protest event King helped conceptualize and organize which occurred months after his death—and secondly by contemporary politicians and the National Parks Service.

Resurrection City, a nonviolent encampment of the National Mall to protest economic injustice under the broader title of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), championed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was developed from a protest campaign originated by King. Terry Messman argues that King initially “aimed [the SCLC’s protest in Washington] at disrupting, and ultimately paralyzing, the… [U.S. government], unless and until it granted the Economic Bill of Rights.” [5] However, according to Messman, in the aftermath of King’s assassination, rioting “had taken the non-violent insurrection out of the realm of possibility,” nullifying King’s initial goals for the SCLC’s demonstration. [6] While Messman’s deterministic perspective on the conclusion of Resurrection City does not align with accounts from figures within the movement, it does signify that Resurrection City represented a transformative moment for the Civil Rights Movement in realizing King’s dream after his assassination.

A May 1, 1968 article from Soul Force, the official journal of the SCLC captures the mentality of the movement’s leaders. The article reports “the SCLC staff under the direction of Dr. Ralph Abernathy, were conscious of the admonitions to the disciples, friends and followers of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Chirst.” [7] Just as Jesus’s disciples in Galilee were called “to ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,’” the article explains, “so was the business of Martin Luther King Jr.’s disciples to go to Memphis and preach the gospel.” [8] In the wake of King’s assassination, SCLC leaders understood their mission within the context of Jesus’s crucifixion and assassination. Accordingly, these disciples afforded themselves the responsibility of spreading the Gospel. In time, they would deliver their martyr his own resurrection.

Soliciting financial support, the SCLC further declared their commitment to King’s memory following his murder. An advertisement seeking donations noted that money contributed to the SCLC “continue[d] the Nonviolent work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” [10] Moreover, the advertisement encouraged viewers to “Organize locally to go to Washington,” marking participation in Resurrection City alongside the goals of King. [11]

Three days before Resurrection City was terminated, Reverend Doctor Ralph Abernathy—the individual who led the SCLC and PPC in King’s absence—composed a statement reflecting on conditions in the encampment, as well as the goals of the demonstration. Abernathy signifies that King remained present in his mind, writing that he “came to Washington with a heavy heart… crushed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” [12] The leader added that he was “saddened by outbursts of minor violence in and around Resurrection City,” but hoped Americans would grant their attention to “a greater evil” in America—“the evil of widespread poverty.” [13]

Writing less than a month after the end of Resurrection City, Abernathy remarks that King believed “if the government failed to meet the main demands of the Poor People’s campaign this summer, it would be a tragic failure for our nation.” [14] Abernathy states that Resurrection City had been a successful demonstration, as it underscored “the deeper issue of the poverty and exploitation that breed violence.” [15] While this position contests Messman’s belief that the demonstration was a failure following the loss of King, Abernathy admits that the goals of the Poor People’s Campaign were not fully accomplished, as “the government… failed to move meaningfully against the problem of poverty.” [16] In an effort to navigate and realize King’s goals and legacy, Abernathy highlighted the success of Resurrection City for raising awareness of impoverished Americans.

During the encampment on the National Mall, the Poor People’s Theatre delivered their own interpretation of King’s legacy, with a production titled Beautiful Dreamer . [17] One review of a later performance of the play in Scranton, Pennsylvania—while moderately condescending—lists Beautiful Dreamer as “a tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King that stresses the dedication of the martyred [Black] leader to non-violence.” [18] However, the reviewer emphasizes that play “isn’t the sort of presentation which emphasizes any individual,” instead surfacing the movement itself and the figures within it. [19] In remembering King and his martyrdom, the Poor People’s Theatre continued to champion the movement itself, and the challenges and injustices they fought.

Returning to Rodgers’ scholarship, and the conservative’s vision of King, the Trump Administration’s 1776 Report offered its own interpretation of King’s legacy. The Report considers King’s “I Have a Dream” speech a culmination of “America’s nearly two-century effort to realize fully the principles of the Declaration.” However, the 1776 Report claims that this fulfillment of America’s values was quickly spoiled by “programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders,” echoing the conservatives Rodgers analyzes in Age of Fracture , by using King to condemn “affirmative action.” [20] While other addresses Trump made in office admit the persistence of racism and inhumanity that plague America, the pseudo-history produced by his administration asserts that King provided a solution and realization of America’s ideals, only to be thwarted by his later constituents. [21]

In a similar but optimistic vein, the National Park Service’s website for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial positions King as a figure who solved bigotry within America. Discussing King’s placement on the mall, the website describes King as standing between two other leaders in American history for civil rights—Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. [22] The National Park Service explains that the King monument embodies “the final push for full and equal rights.” [23] Interestingly, the website’s page on King concludes with a section titled “Drum Major Quote Controversy,” referring “to a paraphrased quote” originally featured on the monument that some interpreted as falsely presenting King as egotistical. [24] The paraphrased quote, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,” aligns with the website’s characterization of King—the leading figure who actualized America’s values.

On July 13, 1968, Maurice A. Dawkins spoke at the Lambda Kappa Mu’s 31st Anniversary Conference. As the Assistant Director at the Office of Economic Opportunity for Civil Rights—the organization the PPC sought to influence—Dawkins offered his own interpretation on the consequences and accomplishments of Resurrection City. Dawkins remarked that the leaders within Resurrection City “are seeking changes that will bring about the dream so nobly espoused by the late Martin Luther King,” demonstrating the legacy that the PPC both inherited and embodied. [25] Provocatively, Dawkins positions the encampment’s conclusion as “[t]he ‘assassination’ of the physical Resurrection City,” but asserts that the protest “birth[ed]… a spiritual concept.” [26] Resurrection City, Dawkins argued, provided a “state of mind,” further demonstrating Abernathy’s attitude that the protest delivered a salient image of poverty in America that would move Americans and their government to consider the economic inequalities present in their nation. [27]

The National Park Service’s website for King’s monument omits mention of King’s dedication to economic equality, despite his role as a founding member of the Poor People’s Campaign, and his initial part in organizing a mass encampment which occurred on the same National Mall on which the monument stands. Similarly, the 1776 Report forgets King’s involvement in economic justice—perhaps this is because these actions do not fit within the conservative’s vision of King. How can the legacy of Resurrection City live on when the legacies of its forefathers are rewritten? How can King’s dream be realized when it is diluted?

Conservatives muse patronizingly at marble monuments dedicated to King’s service. Wasn’t he such a good servant? Such a good servant, in fact, that conservatives can still use him today, to serve their own historical narratives. Monuments can communicate many things, but they often celebrate victories. Victory over tyranny, oppression. These monuments tell us that these battles are long over, that they were undoubtedly won after one “final push.” [29] Remembering King inside Resurrection City, the Poor People’s Theatre delivered Beautiful Dreamer , celebrating King’s accomplishments alongside the Civil Rights movement, meanwhile displaying the injustices Black Americans continued to endure. In contrast, federal commemorations of King deliver a monolithic panacea to our nation’s racial issues. What would best exemplify our nation’s dedication to King’s legacy—and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement? A monument, or a bona fide commitment to an enduring equitable future?

[1] Daniel T. Rodgers, Age of Fracture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011), 128.

[2] Ibid., 129.

[3] Ibid., 130.

[4] Aerial photo of the Resurrection City encampment.

[5] Terry Messman, “ The Poor People’s Campaign: Non-Violent Insurrection for Economic Justice ,” Race, Poverty & the Environment 14, no. 1 (2007): 31.

[6] Ibid., 32.

[7] Delta Ministry Series: Poor People’s Campaign—Promotional Materials, Etc. n.d. MS, Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman , Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, Archives Unbound (accessed March 30, 2024).

[9] A figure of what appears to be a seated Jesus Christ, reportedly found within Resurrection City ; Tina L. Ligon, “Resurrection City: The Continuation of King’s Dream,” June 26, 2018.

[10] Other Organization Series II: Southern Christian Leadership Conference. n.d. MS, Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman , Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, Archives Unbound (accessed March 27, 2024).

[12] PPC: Demands On OEO, May 1, 1968. May 1, 1968. MS, War on Poverty , National Archives (United States), Archives Unbound (accessed March 27, 2024).

[13] Ibid., 17-18.

[14] PPC: Internal Memos And Notices. April 3, 1968 – May 22, 1968. MS, War on Poverty , National Archives (United States), Archives Unbound (accessed March 27, 2024).

[15] Ibid., 28.

[17] Delta Ministry Series: Memoranda—May-November 1968. May-November 1968. MS, Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman , Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, Archives Unbound (accessed March 27, 2024).

[18] Delta Ministry Series: Press Releases, Etc. n.d. MS, Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman , Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, Archives Unbound (accessed March 27, 2024).

[20] The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, “ The 1776 Report ,” January 2021, 15.

[21] “ President Donald J. Trump Proclaims the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ,” U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Brazil, accessed March 27, 2024.

[22] “ Building the Memorial ,” National Park Service, accessed March 27, 2024.

[24] ​​Ibid; Eyder Peralta, “ A Paraphrased Quote Stirs Criticism of MLK Memorial ,” NPR , August 31, 2011.

[25] Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., July 10-13, 1968. July 10, 1968 – July 13, 1968. MS, War on Poverty , National Archives (United States), Archives Unbound (accessed March 30, 2024).

[26] Ibid., 15.

[28] A tent featured within Resurrection City echoing the words of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

[29] “Building the Memorial.”

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Martin Luther King Jr. Biographer Wins American History Prize

The New-York Historical Society honor goes to Jonathan Eig, whose “King: A Life” presents the civil rights leader as a brilliant, flawed 20th-century “founding father.”

By Jennifer Schuessler

Jonathan Eig, the author of “King: A Life,” has been named the winner of the New-York Historical Society’s 2024 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, which is awarded annually for the best work of American history or biography.

Billed as the first major biography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in decades, Eig’s book draws on recently declassified government records and other new sources to take a panoramic yet intimate look at Dr. King. The book places him in the context of the many figures, inside and outside the civil rights movement, who shaped his thinking and actions.

The biography, almost 700 pages long, shows a young King struggling to establish himself in the shadow of his father, a prominent Baptist preacher and community leader in Atlanta. As King and his movement grew, Eig shows him in a complicated dance with white leaders like President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sometimes supported and sometimes hampered him, and with more radical Black activists who increasingly saw him as dedicated to an outmoded form of “ respectability politics .”

While hailing King as “one of America’s founding fathers,” Eig doesn’t stint on his personal struggles and flaws, including his marital infidelities and posthumous revelations of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation. Reviewing the biography last year in The New York Times, Dwight Garner called it “a very human, and quite humane, portrait” that is “worthy of its subject.”

The historical society’s prize, which comes with a cash reward of $50,000, honors books that are accessible to a general readership. It generally focuses on works of political history that keep founders, presidents and other prominent figures at the center of the frame, if not always in a celebratory way. Last year’s winner was “G-Man,” Beverly Gage’s biography of J. Edgar Hoover, who as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked to undermine Dr. King , authorizing wiretaps of his home and office and planting bugs in his hotel rooms.

In a statement, the historical society’s board chair, Agnes Hsu-Tang, called Eig’s biography of Dr. King “a deft, multidimensional portrayal” that avoids hagiography, showing how “America — and its many founders — can be both heroic and imperfect.”

Other past winners of the prize include Alan Taylor , Drew Gilpin Faust and Jill Lepore.

Jennifer Schuessler is a culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas. She is based in New York. More about Jennifer Schuessler

Home — Essay Samples — History — Civil Rights Movement — Martin Luther King Jr Thesis Statement

Martin Luther King Jr Thesis Statement

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