King

KING

** Read the essay from [|**TIME 100 - Martin Luther King**]**. As you do, respond to the following questions **Why does the author feel that whites owe King the greatest debt?** King liberated them form the burden of America's old hypocrisy about race. It is only because of King and the movement he lead that the United States can call itself a "free world". If he and the other million Americans had not marched the the United States would have remained morally indistinguishable from South Africa under a policy of segregation. People like Rosa Parks would have been arrested and fined, Ruby Bridges would have been spit and be hectored upon for wanting to go to a white school, Emmett Till could be hunted down and eventually hanged for being "too kind" to a white woman, and African Americans would be denied the right to vote, eat a counters, stay at hotels, use white-only restrooms.


 * Was King "the right man at the right time"?** Being a minister put King in touch with the spirit of the black masses but also gave him a base within the black church. Moreover, King was a man of extraordinary physical courage whose belief in nonviolence stayed steady. He had a strong religion, which I think, gave him the courage most of the time to stand and protest.

** Would King be upset with the current use of his most often quoted line? Why or why not? ** His legendary quote has been taken in use for so many worthless things compared to its truthful meaning. For on example, it has become the slogan for opponents of affirmative action like California's Ward Connerly, who insist that if King were alive, he would be marching alongside them. I don't think King would be proud at all. However, in some cases, people have taken in effect its true meaning, but in others, it doesn't mean anything. A speech for racial equality couldn't compare to the slogan of a company.