“We dreamed a dream”: Ralph Ellison, Martin Luther King, Jr. & Barack Obama

Daedalus ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric J. Sundquist
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Ralph Ellison ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Martin Luther King

In Spring 2010, a manuscript version of Ralph Ellison's unfinished second novel, Three Days before the Shooting, was finally published. Written over the course of more than forty years and running to 1,100 pages, the novel not only has a great deal to tell us about Ellison's craft and his approach to the civil rights movement; it also speaks eloquently to traditions of leadership on American race relations stretching from the days of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass through the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr., and, ultimately, Barack Obama.

The Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen McClish
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Constitutive Rhetoric ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Self Help ◽  
World's Columbian Exposition ◽  
Columbian Exposition ◽  
Martin Luther King

This study of the instrumental and constitutive rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963) and Frederick Douglass's “Introduction” to The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature (1893) explores both the striking similarities between the rhetorical characteristics of the texts and their contrasting receptions. Whereas King's “Letter” took advantage of the powerful zeitgeist of the Civil Rights Movement, Douglass's “Introduction” was stymied by the oppressive climate of the late-nineteenth century, including the conservative self-help movement that dominated African American's responses to discrimination and opportunity.

scholarly journals The Warrior and the Poet

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Nicholas Binford
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
James Baldwin ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Martin Luther King

Artists, scholars, and popular media often describe James Baldwin as revolutionary, either for his written work or for his role in the civil rights movement. But what does it mean to be revolutionary? This article contends that thoughtlessly calling James Baldwin revolutionary obscures and erases the non-revolutionary strategies and approaches he employed in his contributions to the civil rights movement and to race relations as a whole. Frequent use of revolutionary as a synonym for “great” or “important” creates an association suggesting that all good things must be revolutionary, and that anything not revolutionary is insufficient, effectively erasing an entire spectrum of social and political engagement from view. Baldwin’s increasing relevance to our contemporary moment suggests that his non-revolutionary tactics are just as important as the revolutionary approaches employed by civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.

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