Contouring Black Hope and Despair

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Corrigan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
White House ◽  
Beloved Community ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Martin Luther King

This chapter examines Martin Luther King, Jr.’s production of the “beloved community” that he wanted to produce through direct action protests in places like Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago. It evaluates how hope, disappointment, indignation, and despair framed King’s direct action and the SCLC’s intimate relationship with the black middle class, the White House, and white liberals. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, King’s faith and optimism were shaken and his language about emotion shifted as he was forced to reconsider and respond to the use of rage as a black political emotion because the decade gave way to a more militant black posture about the white political and emotional inadequacies. Corrigan argues that white failure to perform intimate citizenship limited the civil rights movement and fueled rhetorical expressions that engaged a very different emotional repertoire for both whites and blacks. Many of King’s discourses, especially in relation to Birmingham, focused on the relationship between hope and despair as he attempted to translate black feelings about civil rights to white publics as the crisis of hope deepened in 1963.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s white moderates and moderate Baptists: Moderateness as betrayal of the gospel

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203
Author(s):  
Kate Hanch
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Women In Ministry ◽  
Sustained Change ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Martin Luther King

In his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. criticizes “the white moderate,” identifying them as empathizing with the Civil Rights Movement, but not acting upon it. King’s “white moderate” compares to contemporary white Baptists who embody King’s definition. Putting “white moderate” in conversation with “moderate Baptists” demonstrates how moderate actions betray the Gospel. Exploring the identity of the clergy whom King addresses in his letter aids in drawing out a fuller definition of “moderate.” This article applies three aspects of King’s critique to contemporary Baptist concerns, such as women in ministry and inclusion of LGBTQIA persons in all areas of ministry: (1) an avoidance of tension through silence, what King calls “negative peace;” (2) a sympathetic view without sustained change in social structure or policy, identified by King as “lukewarm acceptance;” and (3) using generalized statements to avoid speaking of “hot-topic” issues, which King phrases as “sanctimonious trivialities.” White Baptists can fight against the trend of “moderateness” through being transformed by and participating in what King calls “direct action.” In doing so, Baptists may become, to use King’s term, “extremists for love.”

Keeping the Dream Alive: Meridian as Alice Walker’s Homage to Martin Luther King and the Beloved Community

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 603-627
Author(s):  
Paul Tewkesbury
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
Redemptive Suffering ◽  
Beloved Community ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Martin Luther King

Abstract This essay examines the ways in which Alice Walker’s 1976 novel Meridian is shaped by Martin Luther King Jr.’s notion of the Beloved Community, a religious and social ideal that epitomized the goals of the 1960s civil rights movement. Previous studies of Meridian focus on connections between the novel and the movement, but they do not explore the connections between the novel’s spiritual dimensions and King’s religious philosophy. As Walker pays tribute to King and his religious philosophy throughout Meridian, she also fleshes out her own womanist philosophy. Indeed, Walker’s womanist philosophy as revealed in Meridian is more congruent with King’s Christian theology than one might expect, for the values of redemptive suffering, nonviolence, love, and community are as central to the novel as they are to King’s thought.

„I Have a Dream“

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Werner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The Political ◽  
Church Staff ◽  
Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King and East Germany are connected both directly and indirectly. The Communist Party had the power to make public decisions on agenda-setting topics related to Martin Luther King. The Christian Bloc Party mostly represented the state and published books by Martin Luther King, which churches and the civil rights movement liked to use. Moreover, pacifists and civil rights activists used these books to undermine the political system in East Germany. Church institutions reported by far the most on Martin Luther King. This empirical study, which can also act as a basis for further research on Martin Luther King and East Germany, will appeal to both church staff and admirers of Martin Luther King.

1968: End of The Civil Rights Movement?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Tuck
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Conservative Politics ◽  
Martin Luther King ◽  
New Phase

1968 is commonly seen as the end of the classic era of modern civil rights protest: a year when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when violence seemed endemic in urban black communities, when Black Power groups fractured and when candidates opposed to further civil rights legislation made giant strides at the ballot box. 1968 seemed to usher in a decade bereft of major civil rights activity, ahead of a resurgence of conservative politics. And yet a look behind the headlines tells a different story in the post-1968 years at the local level: of increasing civil rights protest, of major gains in the courts and politics and the workplace, of substantial victories by Black Power activists, and calls for new rights by African American groups hitherto unrecognised by civil rights leaders. This chapter argues that in many ways 1968 marked the beginning of a vibrant new phase of race-centred activism, rather than the end, of the modern civil rights movement.

Conclusion: The Long Stride Toward Freedom1

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kyle Day
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
American History ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The South ◽  
Postwar America ◽  
Martin Luther King

The conclusion assesses the long term implications of the Southern Manifesto for both the course of the Civil Rights Movement as well as the larger racial dynamic s of Postwar America. Under the circumspect rhetoric of moderation, the Southern Manifesto undermined the efforts of civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to desegregate the South, and empowered southern officials to ignore the Brown decision for years. This conclusion thus places the Southern Manifesto in proper historical perspective and provides a summary of the implications of this event, the greatest episode of antagonistic racial demagoguery in modern American History.

The Heart of the Movement

2018 ◽  
pp. 54-88
Author(s):  
Elaine Allen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
White People ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
The Face ◽  
Taxi Service ◽  
Martin Luther King

The chapter reveals the violence associated with the Civil Rights Movement, the courage of African American activists (Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers) and the small minority of southern white ministers who joined them. In Montgomery, Alabama, Robert Graetz provided taxi service for demonstrators. Andrew Turnipseed paid the salary of James Love, who signed the Mobile bus petition, when his parishioners would not. No southern white minister would participate in freedom rides, but John Morris organized a Freedom Ride after the violence subsided. The group was arrested. Joseph Ellwanger was harassed in Birmingham. Hundreds of black protestors were arrested and tortured. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Edwin King was arrested and tortured. The Klan and other white supremacist groups flourished. Black activists and some whites were murdered in Mississippi. As Edwin King commented, “Good white people could do nothing in the face of madness.”

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