Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

In order to achieve true freedom one must discover that you can break unjust laws through peaceful protest. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and “The Speech at The March Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community, the equality and power of education. We must learn to act with patients and not guns we must protect are self’s with a pen and paper not violence. Dr. King once4 said “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is unique in history which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals”.

The civil rights movement was a revolutionary chapter in American history. Leading the movement was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy has been etched in history. Troy Jackson explores the roots of King’s legacy in Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and The Making of a National Leader. Jackson analyzes how different influences in Montgomery, Alabama shaped Dr. King into the leader of the civil rights movement.

In this letter, King explains the importance and the planning of the Birmingham demonstration. King illustrates this when he faces the criticism of his demonstrations as “unwise and untimely” (King 1). He shares key features to his anti-violence movement: “determining whether injustices exist, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action” (King 1). With the help of these four steps, he justifies the need for the demonstration. King illustrates the city of Birmingham as “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States,” (King 2). Here King is able to show that injustices are present in Birmingham, which further justifies his reason for a peaceful demonstration. King proceeds to speak about his method of protesting. He states that negotiation was not met, and that “[their] hopes had been blasted,” that like “victims of a broken promise,” their wishes had been disregarded, (King 2). Even though this was the case, the other

The essay “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives a brief explanation of a 1960’s boycott sit-in organized by a small group of African Americans who weren’t allowed to sit at the snack bar that was reserved for Caucasians. Gladwell used this example to further elaborate about how high-risk activism requires a strong hierarchical structure in order to thrive. “Tweet like an Egyptian” is about the Arabs that are located throughout Africa and the Middle East gaining access to social networking. Attaining the internet allowed Arabs to acquire a virtual life of freedom of speech and expression. The internet empowered these people with information to challenge their authorities in real life.

Imagine living in a world of segregation - constantly judged by color of one’s skin and not being permitted to associate with the “superior” race. From slavery to discrimination, African-Americans experienced this horror in daily life since the beginning of their existence. Due to the fear of severe punishment, blacks were scared to fight for equality; however, on April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, one brave soul finally did. His name was Malcolm Little (known as Malcolm X), a widely acknowledged human rights activist. Although he supported black equality, he attacked the problem unlike others such as Martin Luther King Jr. did. Instead of promoting peace to solve problems, Malcolm X used violence when necessary to get his points across to his audience. Little’s speech has a significant lack of logic; although, it is a clever move to predominantly use emotional appeal due to his motive - to incite anger in America and to showcase the government's faults. Through repetition of inflammatory phrases and accusatory diction both which create appeals to anger, Malcolm X effectively persuades his audience during “The Ballot Or The Bullet.”

To change the world, one must use their words to give the sense that the change is for the better. Speeches by the leaders that influence today’s society and those who came before have been able to cause emotions in the people who listen or read them. To be able to make people feel things with your words is a skill necessary for those who want to change the world. Martin Luther King Jr. is a great example of someone who used their words and ability to make people feel to make a change that impacted the whole world. Words are a very powerful weapon that can be used to provoke, calm, and inspire change.

Malcom X urges the Negro community to fight to gain the equal rights they deserve by taking action against their white oppressors. He emphasizes that blacks will gain their rights either thorough voting, with the ballot, or else through the inevitable violence with the bullet.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. As he sits in a cell of Birmingham Jail in 1963, he responds to criticism from eight white clergymen. Though this letter was intended for the judgemental and condescending men of high faith, his response touched the hearts and minds of the entire U.S. population, then, and for years to come. In his tear-jerking, mind-opening letter, King manages to completely discredit every claim made by the clergymen while keeping a polite and formal tone. Metaphors, allusions, and rhetorical questions are used in the most skillful way to support his argument and ultimately convince his audience of the credibility behind his emotional, yet factual, claims. King strategically persuades

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower. In a similar light, King addressed the speech ‘I have a dream’ to a peaceful mass gathering in Washington asking for change. The speech deemed racial segregation to be an inhumane practice that subdivides society into groups that essentially alienate them from the true sense of humanity; which is brotherhood. King argues that all people are created equal and directly challenged the outdated and abhorrent views that upheld the false flag of racial superiority among White Americans. Luther’s speech was a passionate rhetoric that preached his views about the future. Furthermore his speech did not

Racism and racial inequality was extremely prevalent in America during the 1950’s and 1960’s. James Baldwin shows how racism can poison and make a person bitter in his essay “Notes of a Native Son”. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” also exposes the negative effects of racism, but he also writes about how to combat racism. Both texts show that the violence and hatred caused from racism form a cycle that never ends because hatred and violence keeps being fed into it. The actions of the characters in “Notes of a Native Son” can be explain by “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, and when the two texts are paired together the racism that is shown in James Baldwin’s essay can be solved by the plan Dr. King proposes in his

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America. Howard-Pitney made this book interesting by representing

behavior, learning and memory of an individual ( 1). While Dr. Noble noted the more affluent children possessed larger hippocampuses than their disadvantaged counterparts (Brain Trust 47), Hanson notes that the lifestyle of less affluent families affect the hippocampus negatively. For instance, maternal separation can negatively impact the hippocampus, I.e. working mother's. The lower the income a household has, the more stress it faces. Outstanding stress can have long-lasting negative effects on the hippocampus (1.). Hanson found that poor children had less gray matter within the hippocampus (5). Hanson concluded that “higher levels of chronic stress” could result in small hippocampal volumes into adulthood and other “early environment” factors, such as

Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham City Jail makes heavy use of ethos and logos to clarify issues and concerns from his criticizers, but relies even more on the emotional connection that it portrays on the reader. With this clarification, King is able to defend his image, and re-ignite the drive, that his imprisonment and criticism had halted, towards the progression of the Civil Rights Movement.

The film Selma directed by Ava DuVernay expertly represents the struggles African-Americans and supporters faced while advocating for an end to the corrupt exploitation of the civil rights of African-Americans. The issues that African-Americans contested during the film accurately represents the sentiment of many African-Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Because of the compelling and despairingly honest depiction of the struggles that the African-American community faced during this time, the film was able to create an accurate account and the importance of the historical events surrounding the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.