Ashley Segovia
September 23, 2014
Eng. 111
A Taste of Nobility
After the Civil War, many African Americans hoped to join the larger society as full and equal citizens in the United States. Although some white Americans welcomed them, others used people's ignorance, racism, and self-interest to sustain and spread racial division. By 1900, new laws and old customs in the North and South had created a segregated society that condemned Americans of color to second-class citizenship. In response to the stripped freedom of the African Americans, there were many activists and people who organized groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). One activist I will particularly talk about is Martin Luther King Jr. He was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist and led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950's until his death by assassination in 1968. He fought to overturn Jim Crow segregation laws and eliminate social and economic differences between blacks and whites.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial to 250,000 civil rights supporters. It became, and still is, one of the most historically known speeches to be given. The purpose of his speech was to pull together and persuade the citizens of the United States into lifting from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Although Martin Luther King Jr. is generally speaking to the entire American society, his most targeted audience consists of white supremacists and African Americans who know the struggles of being people of color in a discriminating nation at the time. I believe the author successfully captures the key point for his desires of justice in society and delivers the message to the...