Martin Luther King

He was a civil rights activist who struggled fiercely against racial segregation.

On December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested because she broke the segregationist laws by refusing to give up her bus seat to a White passenger. This injustice drove Martin Luther King to lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He encouraged the black community to support him. The boycott was a success.

He also struggled against racial segregation and fought for the Afro-American’s rights through non-violence actions in particular in the southern American States : Georgia (Albany) and Alabama (Birmingham and Montgomery). He was arrested several times but he was freed thanks to president J-F Kennedy’s support .

On august 28th 1963, he led the March on Washington during which he pronounced his famous speech « I have a dream …» in which he claimed his wish to know a fraternal America.

His fight found an answer in 1964. The « Civil Rights Act » and the « Voting Rights Act », signed as Lyndon Baines Johnson was the US president. These two acts granted blackpeople the same rights as white people. Moreover, Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace.

In his last speech “I’ve been to the mountain top”, MLK appealed to unity and non-violence. The expression “mountain top” refers to the Civil Rights Movement at its heydays.

But when you reach the top of a mountain, you are able to look down over the whole valley and to see very far away. You are at the highest peak and nobody can hurt you. Besides you can stand back. By using this expression MLK meant that he was able to rule the world and be a sensible and wise leader.

He wanted to lead the American society: “A king who [...]pointed the way to Promised Land” just like Moses who lead the Hebrews to Canaan. MLK dreamt of a society ruled by equality and brotherhood. MLK himself used a sentence pronounced by President Roosevelt “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” when he intended to help American people regain hope by reforming and changing the American society.

In conclusion, owing to his allusion to MLK and Roosevelt, Barack Obama evokes the tradition of great American leaders and proclaims his leadership while emphazising the need to struggle, to fight for black people’s rights and equality. In other words, voting for him would amount to fulfill MLK’s dream, to continue and finish his work and to remember his legacy.

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