A paper I wrote for a class on Martin Luther King's Leadership style and legacy.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR'S LEGACY
By Ipatia K. Apostolides
September 10, 2019
I want to begin my discussion by stating my limited perception of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). I was a young child when he was leading the civil rights movement, and just like John F. Kennedy, he was a blur in my mind. We had arrived in the US in the early sixties, and I grew up in a poor, predominately black neighborhood of Cleveland. I remember attending classes with black children, and I often shared half of my peanut butter sandwich with some of them because often they did not have food to eat. During this experience in a Cleveland elementary school, I didn’t feel segregated. We were all equal, black and white, at that young age. Segregation was one of the issues in the civil rights movement that MLK was involved with, but I did not witness it. It might have happened in other states, though.
According to Wikipedia: MLK’s father was a Baptist minister, and Martin Luther King followed his father’s footsteps and became a Baptist minister; he also attained a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University. He was known for advancing the civil rights movement from 1955 until his death in 1968. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott after the Rosa Parks incident, became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLS), and helped organize the March on Washington in 1963, where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech (Martin Luther King Jr). In 1964, MLK won the Nobel Peace Prize (Martin Luther King Jr.). His legacy has continued: after his death, buildings, streets, and highways have his name; there is an annual holiday named after him; and more importantly, a few years ago, America voted for Obama, a black president.
I believe that his Baptist upbringing and university education strongly influenced MLK’s leadership style; he came through as a transformative, brave, and charismatic leader. Martin Luther King’s Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery story reveals three theological ideas that inspired his activism and leadership: spiritual motivation for his leadership, the ethical basis for nonviolent direct action, and the theological understanding of human nature (Cited in Neumann, D., 2018). From his theological training, MLK believed that the value of individuals was found in their personality and linked to the care of God (p. 47). The color of a person’s skin did not matter; their character mattered, and MLK hammered that message several times during his speeches.
Here is an example from one of his speeches that emphasizes the value and equality of individuals:
“First, we’re challenged to develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone. And anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution. The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood” (Remaining Awake).
As I listened to several of MLK’s eloquent and dignified speeches for this class, I felt a solid connection to his principles and ideals. Tears flowed from my eyes because I could picture what he was trying to achieve in his persistent messages, and I was moved by both his march toward equality for the negroes, and his untimely death.
In addition, two things stood out for me in MLK’s speeches: how he would address his listeners as friends, just like Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his fireside chats, giving him a trustworthy character; and how he would often refer to death (maybe because he had been stabbed, his home bombed twice, and he received threatening letters). According to Cummings and Niles (2001), MLK viewed death as the price for freedom, yet he was careful not to speak of death too often so as not to cause fear in the people joining the movement (p. 50), but I heard it enough times in his speeches to notice it. So, I would say courage was one of MLK’s strong traits as a leader.
Charisma was another strong trait that MLK had. According to Carson (1987), “King used charisma as a tool for mobilizing black communities, but he always used it in the context of other forms of intellectual and political leadership suited to a movement containing many strong leaders.”
It took about one hundred years for MLK and other strong leaders to follow up on what Abraham Lincoln had started (freedom of slaves in 1863-65). We’ve come a long way since then.
References
Carson, C. (1987). Charismatic leadership in a mass struggle. Journal of American History, 74(2), 448-454. Retrieved from https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/sites/mlk/files/martin_luther_king_jr_-_charismatic_leadership_in_a_mass_struggle.pdf
Cummings, M.S., Niles, L.A. (1991). King as persuader: Facing the ultimate sacrifice. Journal of Religious Thought. 48(2), 49-55.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.
Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution. Video file retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFbt7cO30jQ
The Three Evils of Society. Video file retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sT9Hjh0cHM
What is your Blueprint? Video file retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmtOGXreTOU
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