Ethical challenges face by Martin Luther King Junior Essay

Martin Luther King’s legacy is that of a crusader for justice, equality and peace. He possessed the ability to cloak his causes in the highest of ethical standards. It is said that he could speak of ‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ and the ‘promised land’ and arouse the idealistic emotions of black and white, rich and poor. Even when he talked tough, he sought a higher level with phrases like ‘direct action’ and ‘conformation’ and ‘militant non-violence’. The main aim or the term paper is to find out the ethical challenges faced by King, and what he did to overcome them. The rise of Martin Luther At the time King started his role as an emancipator, the African Americans lived difficult lives. Despite the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War, many African Americans and other minorities continued to endure inequality for the next century, especially in the south. Local statutes known as Jim Crow laws were passed that effectively barred people such as African Americans from fully executing their constitutional rights, such as voting. Segregation was common in the South, and African Americans were not always guaranteed their rights in other parts of the country either. Many felt the congress needed to pass new laws to guarantee these privileges. Eventually, Africans Americans decided that they could not rely on whites to act on their behalf and choose a leader of their own movement to bring about this change, Martin Luther King Jr. Challenges faced by Martin Luther Martin Luther was a moral leader, who brought the country out of the dark time in American history. He always had a commitment to serve others, and this led him beyond the fight for racial and political equality, and in to the realm of economic equality. He was the most effective person in bringing hope to the black community, which had suffered in the hands of the whites. King faced many ethical challenges, but since he was a pastor, he was able to judge right and overcome them. At that time, groups like the Ku Klux Klan, terrorized and persecuted African Americans, carrying out lynching and other acts of violence. Being a pastor, he had to look for other ways to fight for the rights of the African Americans, which were non-violent. A lot of violent acts, including the bombing of his house and several assassination attempts, were some of the hardships he had to endure. However, the fact that he never replayed back in violent ways, and was instead able to pave way for his future advocacy of nonviolent means of conflict resolution prove that he was clearly a man of straight ethics. When he was stabbed in 1958, he traveled to India to meet with the followers of the Late Mahatma Gadhi, who was also an advocate of peaceful, nonviolent protests. This emphasizes the fact that he never advocated for violence. King was also arrested many times, but these arrests never stopped him from advocating for the rights of the African Americans. One of such incidents occurred in 1962, when he led demonstrations against segregation in Albany, Georgia. For his efforts, he was arrested and jailed, but the arrest did not yield any results. However, he learned form his experiences, and the following year, 1963, proved to be a watershed year for the civil rights movement largely due to his work. King’s belief in equality and justice Being the leader of a movement, for the black people, King believed in reconciliation, among the whites and the blacks. Reconciliation was a result of such unethical acts as discrimination of the black by the whites. He could have chosen not to fight for the freedom of the blacks, but he went to the extent of endangering his life for them, just because he wanted the blacks to be treated in the right ethical manner. As a leader and through his determination, he could see that it was not right that Americans be separated by the fact that they had different skin colors. He did a lot, to ensure that the blacks earned their right place in the society. Based on these efforts, it can be said that King demonstrated his characteristics as a good leader, who could make good ethical decisions. He argued that the role of the state was to provide the physical and material conditions required for full reconciliation to become a reality within society. From 1955-1963, King focused his efforts on the need for the state to act as an agent by sanctioning desegregation in the various forms of public accommodations. King focused his work on calling the state to effect reconciliation between its citizen and the economic and political systems that alienated them.