The Author Martin Luther King, Jr.

, (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration

of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Timemagazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

I Have A Dream A speech addressed not just to black people but to all people whos dreaming about being equal with everybody else. Even before Martin was born in this world, his grandfather and his father did not escaped racial prejudice and segragation even him with his siblings have also suffered the injustices showed by the white people. The speech was considered one of the greatest speech ever made because of its content and how Martin Luther deliver it infront of many people in the March of Washington. It gives the Black American of what they are dreaming of, they are longing for, the freedom and equality which is taken away from them long time ago. We can observed that Black people in America was obviously segragated everywhere. For example, the black woman riding in a city bus, she was been pushed back because the driver says that they prioritize white people even if a black was already sitting in the passengers seat. Now, lets try to analyze the speech of Martin Luther King Jr. Historians says that Martin Luthers I Have A Dream was a powerful metaphoric speech. Lets see the metaphors used in the speech. First , we should discuss metaphors that are of geographical orientation that includes: island (of poverty) ocean (of prosperity) valley (of segregation and later, of despair) sunlit path (of racial justice) quick sands (of racial injustice) rock (of brotherhood) waters (justice) a mighty stream (righteousness) an oasis (of freedom and justice) mountain (despair); stone (of hope)

The sense of these metaphors taken collectively is that of the rugged individualism of Americathe independent spirit of a nation of people who have traversed harsh, unfriendly terrain and conquered hostile environmental forces in order to complete the picture of a new, progressive yet durable nation. Mountains and hills carry the desired implication of the elevation of the status of the black community to that which is equal with the white community; and the idea that the implied journey to that metaphoric mountaintop will be a difficulteven treacherousone. Second would be metaphors associated with containment and compliance: manacles (of segregation)

chains (of discrimination) and even tranquilizing drug (of gradualism).

Another metaphors that could can be found are words associated with weather conditions such as: the light (of hope) joyous daybreak (a lone vehicle qualifying the aforementioned subject of the Emancipation Proclamation) autumn (of freedom) whirlwinds (of revolt) bright day (of justice) are positive terms or phrases emblematic of a hopeful change through the natural processes of cultural evolution. flames (of withering injustice) heat (of injustice, also of oppression) These are indicative of the destructive forces of discrimination and inequality, expressed as the various destructive forces found in nature.

Then, metaphors associated with finance or money that inlcudes: a promissory note (Declaration of Independence) heir (every American) a bad check (again, to the Declaration of Independence ) vaults (of opportunity) bank (of justice) riches (of freedom) security (of justice) palace (of justice) insufficient funds (the implied inequality regarding the Declaration of Independence)

With these monetary metaphors, King was speaking to all Americans in a distinctly American voicethat of the lone, struggling, but earnest capitalist. The financial pioneer pulling himself up by the bootstraps is bothintrinsically and historicallyan American icon. Further, there remain a few metaphors that are markedly illustrative of the common American mythology of Christianity. These include the table (of brotherhood) and cup (of bitterness and hatred); and the musical/spiritual vehicles of symphony (of brotherhood) and discord (of our nation).

The vehicles of table and cup have connotations of Christs Last Supperwhere a symphony of brotherhood shared a table, passed a cup and was ultimately destroyed by discord and bitterness (on the part of Judas). King utilizes these metaphors and images to symbolize the betrayal of the black race (according to the precepts of the Declaration of Independence)which is, ultimately, the betrayal of Christs teachings and Christian doctrine. Martin Luther King spoke and endeavored to inspire a black audience of every educational and financial status, every age and gender. He used a variety of images and references that touched both the intellect (i.e. summer of the negros legitimate discontent) as well as the emotions (whirlwind of revolt) of his audience. Further, King aimed his message at the more responsible, sympathetic portions of white America by reminding them of their intellectual obligations as rendered by both the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation as well as their emotional obligations as (mostly) Christians (the cup, table, discord and symphony metaphors) and as descendants of Abraham Lincoln (a great Americans symbolic shadow)a enduring source of sympathy and passion for most Americans. Finally, Kings I Have a Dream speech represents exactly that the American Dream. Within all of its metaphoric themes geography/terrain, containment, natural phenomena, monetary and Christianitythere is a message of both the desire and struggle common to all Americans, of every raceto achieve that which was promised long ago: The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence is an anti-Vietnam war speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4 1967. The major speech at Riverside Church in New York, New York, followed several interviews and public speeches in which Dr. King came out against the war in Vietnam and the policies that created the war. Some civil rights leaders, organizations and editorial page writers of the Washington Post and the New York Times called the Riverside Church speech a mistake on Kings part. But others, called it Dr. Kings most important speech. A Time to Break Silence protests the command and deployment by the American government of almost unlimited violence against the people and the land of Vietnam for the declared purpose of protecting them from the menace of world communism. A time comes when silence is betrayal -Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam Dr. King started his speech by expressing his delight upon seeing how many turned out concerned about the war in Vietnam and their nations involvement. He addressed some of the distinguished leaders and personalities of America and expressed his pleasure upon having the privilege of preaching again in the Riverside Church. He then pledged himself in full accord with the recent statement of the organizers of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam: A time come s when silence is betrayal and he declares, that time has come for us. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their governments policy, especially in time of war. I think we would all have to agree with Dr. King here, because although supporting acts of nonviolent protest or non-cooperation is an easy role, it becomes a very difficult choice when the task requires us to oppose our governments policy especially in times of war. Though we can see that evil is on both sides of those involved in the war, it is obvious that Americas violence has greatly exceeded that of the enemy and its use of power for violence has greatly increased. Thats why, in such a situation, King said that it is the time to move on and break the silence of the night. He gave seven major reasons for bringing the matter of war in to his speech: 1. The war is an enemy of the poor

Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on warm

and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. Dr. King here turns his reason to practical observation. Before America involved itself in the war in Vietnam, there was already a real promise of hope for the poor through the poverty program of the government. But now, it was obvious that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as the government continued to draw men and skills and money for the war. 2. Sending black young men to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they themselves have not found in their own country. And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. Dr. King noticed that the war was doing more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. And so he could not be silent in the act of sending their sons, brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in the war, especially the black men which according to him could hardly live on the same block in their own country. For him it was a cruel manipulation by the government to send black men to the war to die while they themselves were treated unfairly in their own homes, as if it was not enough for them to be discriminated and be horribly treated so they were sent to kill and die, and fight for the very nation who could not even accept them.

3-4.

For the sake of the government and the soul of America

They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the change it wanted. Dr. King knew that he could never again speak against the violence or for the oppressed without having to consider that his own government was the greatest purveyor of violence. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. According to Dr. King, anyone who has any concern for the integrity and life of America could not ignore the war. Furthermore, he said that when he formed the group of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, they chose the motto: to save the soul of America which he said was not to limit their vision to certain issues for black people,

but to affirm the conviction that America would never be free or saved unless its people were also loosed completely from the shackles they still wear, As long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men, America itself could not be free. In a way, he said that he was agreeing with Langston Hughes who had written: O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! Together with the people who were determined that America will be, they are led towards the path of protest for the health of their land. 5. For the people of Vietnam

I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. Dr. King thinks of the Vietnamese too, because according to him, there will be no meaningful solution to the war until somebody acknowledges and hears the broken cries of these people- the innocent who are oppressed, the people who were caught and fell victim to the war that was supposedly for the freedom of their land. And also, we must speak for the weak, voiceless and the victims of this war and those we call enemy because nothing could make them any less than our brothers. 6. Because of the commission on the Nobel Peace Prize given to him in 1954 and his calling as the son of the Living God. and I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was also a commission, a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of man. As if the weight of his commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, Dr. King also considered the Nobel Peace Prize given to him in 1954 as a burden of responsibility to speak against the war. I would have offered all that was most valid if I said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the Living God. For Dr. King, the calling to speak against the war takes him beyond his allegiance to his nation and even without the Nobel Peace Prize, he would still live with his commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ, that beyond the calling of his race or

nation, there is still his vocation of son-ship and brotherhood, and his belief that the father is deeply concerned in the suffering, helpless and outcast children brought about by the war. 7. Because war is not just

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make revolution inevitable. -John F. Kennedy Surprisingly, according to him, the role of America has taken the role of those that make the peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privilege and the pleasure that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. And it is not just for him because as a strong and powerful nation, America should lead the world through a radical revolution of values. This revolution of values must begin by shifting our society from a thing-oriented society to a person oriented society. Afterwards, this true revolution of values will soon cause the people to question the fairness and justice of many of the past and present policies of the world and they will also look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth and they will say that this is not just. The world will soon realize that the war which is the way of settling differences is not just. And this settling of differences according to Martin Luther King, Jr. should not be the business of burning human beings with napalm, filling nations homes with orphans and widows and injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples. War is not the answer, but rather, the positive revolution of values is the best defense against communism. There is no other way to right the wrongs that America did for the people and lad of Vietnam but to attune for the sins and errors done and take the initiative in stopping the tragic war according to Dr. King, so he suggested five concrete things that the government should do immediately to revolve the conflict: 1. 2. 3. 4. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam Declare a unilateral cease fire Prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia Accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam 5. Remove all foreign troops from Vietnam. And also, part of the commitment to resolve the war is to offer and grant an asylum to anyone who fears for his life and make what reparations could be done for the damage.