essays on mlk

Martin Luther King Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on martin luter king.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American leader in the U.S. He lost his life while performing a peaceful protest for the betterment of blacks in America. His real name was Michael King Jr. He completed his studies and attained a Ph.D. After that, he joined the American Civil Right Movement. He was among one of the great men who dedicated their life for the community.

Reason for Martin Luther King to be famous

There are two reasons for someone to be famous either he is a good man or a very bad person. Martin Luther King was among the good one who dedicated his life to the community. Martin Luther King was also known as MLK Jr. He gained popularity after he became the leader and spokesperson of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Martin Luther King was an American activist, minister, and humanitarian. Also, he had worked for several other causes and actively participated in many protests and boycotts. He was a peaceful man that has faith in Christian beliefs and non-violence. Also, his inspiration for them was the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. For his work in the field of civil rights, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was a great speaker that motivated the blacks to protest using non-violence. Also, he uses peaceful strategies like a boycott, protest march , and sit-ins, etc. for protests against the government.

Impact of King

King is one of the renowned leaders of the African-American who worked for the welfare of his community throughout his life. He was very famous among the community and is the strongest voice of the community. King and his fellow companies and peaceful protesters forced the government several times to bend their laws. Also, kings’ life made a seismic impact on life and thinking of the blacks. He was among one of the great leaders of the era.

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Humanitarian and civil rights work

As we know that King was a civic leader . Also, he has taken part in many civil right campaigns and boycotts like the Bus Boycott, Voting Rights and the most famous March on Washington. In this march along with more than 200,000 people, he marched towards Washington for human right. Also, it’s the largest human right campaign in U.S.A. history. During the protest, he gave a speech named “I Have a Dream” which is history’s one of the renowned speeches.

Death and memorial

During his life working as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement he makes many enemies. Also, the government and plans do everything to hurt his reputation. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Every year the US celebrates his anniversary as Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US. Also, they honored kings’ memory by naming school and building after him and a Memorial at Independence Mall.

Martin Luther King was a great man who dedicated his whole life for his community. Also, he was an active leader and a great spokesperson that not only served his people but also humanity. It was due to his contribution that the African-American got their civil rights.

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Cross Cultural Solidarity

MLK: Speeches, Sermons, Essays, & Interviews

Below are King’s most essential speeches, sermons, and short writings, with links to audio and video when available.  When dates are uncertain, a likely range of when a work was composed or performed is given. See also this collection of articles by MLK scholars about nearly every conceivable dimension of King’s life and thought, and this resource on books by and about King.

November, 1954: Transformed Nonconformist.

December 5, 1955: Address to the first mass meeting of the Montgomery bus boycott. Audio .

1956: The Violence of Desperate Men .

April 1956: Our Struggle.

March 18, 1956: When Peace Becomes Obnoxious.

May 7, 1956: The Death of Evil upon the Seashore .  

November 1956: Paul’s Letter to American Christians .    Audio.

January 1, 1957: Facing the Challenge of a New Age , Address Delivered at NAACP Emancipation Day Rally.

February 6, 1957: Nonviolence and Racial Justice.           

April 7, 1957: The Birth of a New Nation .  (On King’s travels to Ghana.) Audio .

May 17, 1957: Give Us the Ballot . Audio.

September 2, 1957: “A Look to the Future,” Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Meeting.

November, 1957: Loving Your Enemies .  Audio.

March 9, 1959: Farewell Statement for All India Radio. Audio.

March 22, 1959: Palm Sunday Sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi.   

July 1959: My Trip to the Land of Gandhi.   

October 1959: The Social Organization of Nonviolence .  (A response to Robert Williams call for Black people to take up arms.)

April, 1960: Pilgrimage to Nonviolence.  

March 1961: The Man Who Was a Fool .     

1961: Interview on BBC’s “Face to Face.”  Video.

September 1962: Can A Christian Be a Communist?          

July 1962 – March 1963: Shattered Dreams . 

July 1962 – March 1963: Love In Action .

July 1962  – March 31, 1963: A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart .

July 1962 – March 1963: On Being a Good Neighbor.

July 1962 – March 1963: Our God is Able .

July 1962 – March 1963: Antidotes for Fear .

July 1962 – March 1963: The Answer to a Perplexing Question .

June, 1963: A Knock at Midnight .  Audio .

June 23, 1963: Great March to Freedom Rally, Detroit. Audio .

August 28, 1963: I Have a Dream . Video .  Audio . 

September 18, 1963: Eulogy for the Martyred Children .  (Funeral service for the children killed in the Birmingham bombing.) Audio.

December 10, 1964: Acceptance Address for the Nobel Peace Prize . Video.

January, 1965: MLK Playboy interview . (The interviewer is Alex Hayley.)

March 25, 1965: Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March .  Audio.   

March 28, 1965:  Interview on Meet the Press , immediately following the Selma to Montgomery March. Video.

June, 1965: The Bravest Man I Ever Met .

July 4, 1965: The American Dream . Audio (different version.)

May 31, 1966: “Buddhists and Martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement”: Joint statement by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thich Nhat Hanh, International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam.

June 5, 1966: Guidelines for a Constructive Church .   Audio.

January 25, 1967: Letter from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominating Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 .

April 4, 1967: Beyond Vietnam .  Audio.  

April 9, 1967: The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.   Audio.

April 14, 1967: The Other America.   Video.

August 27, 1967: Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool.   Audio.

August 16, 1967: “Where Do We Go From Here?,” Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention . Audio.

September 1, 1967: The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement .

October 26, 1967: What is Your Life’s Blueprint? Video. (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: The Impasse in Race Relations. Audio . (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Conscience and the War in Vietnam. Audio.   (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Youth and Social Action. Audio.   (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Nonviolence and Social Change . Audio.

December 24, 1967: A Christmas Sermon on Peace (text incomplete.) Audio .

1967: Racism and the World House.             

1967: King interviewed on NBC.  Video.

1967: King interviewed on the Merv Griffin Show.  Video ( Part 1 on civil rights, part two on Vietnam and Communism.)

February 4, 1968: The Drum Major Instinct. Audio.

February 23, 1968: Honoring Dr. Du Bois .

March 3, 1968: Unfulfilled Dreams . Audio (incomplete.)

March 18, 1968: All Labor Has Dignity.

March 31, 1968: Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution .   Audio.

April 3, 1968 (the day before King’s assassination): “ I’ve Been to the Mountaintop .” Audio .

• HISTORY & CULTURE
• RACE IN AMERICA

How Martin Luther King, Jr.’s multifaceted view on human rights still inspires today

The legendary civil rights activist pushed to ban nuclear weapons, end the Vietnam War, and lift people out of poverty through labor unions and access to healthcare.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. towers over history as a civil rights legend—known for leading the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice against Black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, largely through peaceful protests. He helped pass landmark federal civil rights and voting rights legislation that outlawed segregation and enfranchised Americans who had been barred from the polls through intimidation and discriminatory state and local laws.  

( How the Voting Rights Act was won—and why it’s under fire today .)  

But King knew it would take more to achieve true equality. And so he also worked tirelessly for education, wage equity, peace, housing, and to lift people out of poverty. Some of King’s most iconic speeches and marches were devoted to ending war, dismantling nuclear weapons, and bringing economic justice. As King said after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 , he believed that any “spiritual and moral lag” in humanity was due to racial injustice, poverty, and war.  

His multifaceted view on human rights still inspires today, and on the third Monday in January every year, the United States honors King’s legacy of fighting for equal rights—and standing up for human rights everywhere.

During his lifetime, King’s views often made him unpopular and heralded harsh criticism. At the time of his assassination in 1968, a Harris poll revealed a low approval rating of only about 25 percent among white Americans and 52 percent among Black Americans. But in the decades after he was killed, more Americans came to recognize the enormity of King’s contributions. Communities across the country began to name streets and landmarks after him, and soon a push began to establish a federal holiday in his birth month of January.  

( Subscriber exclusive: Where the streets have MLK’s name .)

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In 1983 , over objections from Southern lawmakers, President Ronald Reagan finally signed a bill creating the holiday into law and the first celebrations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day took place in January 1986—although it would take another decade for states such as Arizona and South Carolina to follow suit.  

King’s work continues to influence and inspire activism—particularly in the realm of environmental justice, as studies indicate that climate change disproportionately harms marginalized communities. Here are the many layers of King’s work that the U.S. honors on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  

He advocated against the use of nuclear weapons

King was adamant that peace was inextricably linked to civil rights. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, major powers like the United States and the U.S.S.R. were aggressively developing and testing nuclear weapons, and several times crept to the brink of warfare that threatened to annihilate the world.  

King made clear the connection between the Black freedom struggle and the need for nuclear disarmament, writes nuclear studies and African American history expert Vincent Intondi in the book African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement . King argued that it would be “rather absurd” to integrate schools and lunch counters but not be concerned with world peace and survival.

King spoke out about nuclear warfare as early as 1957, when he signed onto a full-page advertisement in The New York Times that called for all nations to suspend nuclear tests immediately. When asked about his stance later that same year, King tied the weapons to the whole of war, and argued that they should be banned everywhere.

“It cannot be disputed that a full-scale nuclear war would be utterly catastrophic,” he told Ebony magazine in an interview. “The principal objective of all nations must be the total abolition of war.”

As part of King’s advocacy for peace and nuclear disarmament, he condemned the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the U.S. government had carried out more than a decade earlier to effectively end World War II. Today, Hiroshima is one of the only cities outside North America to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.  

King also used the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962—a 13-day stretch in which the U.S. and Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war over the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba—as an opportunity to connect nuclear disarmament to racial and economic justice. King called for the U.S. government to instead turn its attention and funds to education, Medicare, and civil rights, Intondi writes. He then voiced his support for a nuclear test ban treaty , which was signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.  

He was outspoken against the Vietnam War

King often linked nuclear disarmament with the Vietnam War as it escalated in the 1960s.

King was against the war but initially worried that making his stance public would derail his work to pass the Civil Rights Act and impair his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University .

But in 1965, the year the first U.S. ground troops were sent to Vietnam, King issued his first public statement, asserting the war was “accomplishing nothing” and calling for a peace treaty.

He tempered his criticism for the next two years to avoid diminishing the impact of his civil rights work, but by 1967, King was active in the anti-war sphere again, attending a march in Chicago before he went on to make his most notable speech on the matter a few days later on April 4.

It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. And the alternative to disarmament… may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation , and our earthly habitat would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On that day at the Riverside Church in New York City, King denounced the war for deepening the problems of Black Americans and people living in poverty. He condemned the “madness” of Vietnam as a “symptom of a far deeper malady” that put the U.S. at odds with the aspirations for social justice throughout the world. Just 11 days later, King led 125,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations headquarters in New York as one of the largest peace demonstrations in history.

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During the last year of his life , King continued his anti-war work by encouraging grassroots peace activism. On March 31, 1968, five days before he died, King denounced the Vietnam War in his final Sunday sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., saying that it was “one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world.”

King did not live to see the war end. U.S. troops officially pulled out of Vietnam in April 1975 .

He championed union representation and worker’s rights

King's passion for union representation and workers' rights is also an important part of his legacy. Much as he had done with his anti-war speeches, King often tied workers’ rights to the civil rights movement.

“I had also learned that the inseparable twin of racial injustice was economic injustice,” King said in a 1958 speech in New York . “Although I came from a home of economic security and relative comfort, I could never get out of my mind the economic insecurity of many of my playmates and the tragic poverty of those living around me.”

In a 1959 interview with Challenge magazine , King acknowledged that labor unions had historically left out Black Americans, but also could be a key to economic justice. He called for Black Americans to organize their economic and political power in the form of labor unions, and he championed ideas in the labor movement, including better working conditions, adequate housing, guaranteed annual income, and access to healthcare.

For years, King continued to call for economic justice, notably at the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Before a crowd of 250,000 people, he delivered the legendary “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he called for an end to poverty, especially targeted poverty and discrimination against Black Americans.

One of King’s last actions before his assassination was in support of the labor movement. King’s final days were spent supporting a group of Black sanitation workers striking in Memphis, Tennessee.  

After two workers had been crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck, 1,300 Black workers went on strike for 11 days, seeking an end to a long pattern of neglect and abuse from their management. The strike would’ve ended after the City Council voted to recognize their newly formed union, but the Memphis mayor rejected the vote. King traveled to Memphis to lead a protest march and, on April 3, he spoke to the striking sanitation workers.  

“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end,” King said . “Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.”

King was gunned down by an assassin on the balcony of his Memphis hotel the next day. On April 16, the sanitation workers’ union was finally recognized and a better wage was promised—the first of many examples of how King’s legacy would continue to reverberate in the work of those whom he inspired.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He’s inspiring a new generation of environmental activists

Although King’s last act supporting the Black sanitation workers in Memphis was not explicitly an act of environmental justice , it has inspired a generation of activists. The working conditions the sanitation workers had endured were polluted and hazardous—much like the conditions many Black Americans endured in their communities and jobs at the time.

Modern environmental activists have drawn on King’s message: Much as segregation and discrimination were inseparable from poverty, they point out that poor communities of color disproportionately face environmental hazards such as pollution. They also bear the brunt of the harmful effects of climate change, including extreme weather events.

( The origins of environmental justice—and why it’s finally getting the attention it deserves .)

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the use of federal funds , even gave marginalized people a means to address racial discrimination in environmental matters.   As the environmental justice movement grew, King’s work also inspired the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

His advocacy for people of color to have a voice and power has inspired many communities impacted most by climate change to speak up—and take action. Now, the holiday honoring King is typically observed as a national day of service. Organizations and individuals alike volunteer for their communities, often cleaning up roads or river banks in the name of a man who many believe would be on the forefront of the climate fight if he were still alive today.

Related Topics

• CIVIL RIGHTS
• HUMAN RIGHTS
• ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
• NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• VIETNAM WAR

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Professors Brandon Terry (left) and Tommie Shelby discuss a new book they co-edited on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s political thought.

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Beyond ‘I Have a Dream’

Harvard Staff Writer

Essay collection co-edited by Harvard scholars amplifies Martin Luther King’s political and economic philosophy

Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy as a political thinker has long been overshadowed by a romantic view of the Civil Rights Movement he led until his assassination on April 4, 1968, say Harvard scholars Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry , co-editors of the new book “To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.”

Fifty years after King’s death, Shelby, the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy, and Terry, an assistant professor of African and African American studies and social studies, discussed King’s contributions as a political philosopher and his relevance in the era of Black Lives Matter.  

Tommie Shelby & Brandon Terry

GAZETTE: You say that a romantic view surrounding the Civil Rights Movement and King hinders our understanding of both the movement and of King’s legacy. Can you explain? TERRY: We tend to tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement through romantic tropes, in which it becomes a story about unity built from the heroic sacrifice of great men. It’s a nationally bounded story. It’s a story that is heavily moralized about the transcendence of good over evil, in which all we were waiting for as a nation was to hear someone like Martin Luther King and the scales would fall from our eyes and we would see the errors of the past 300 years. It also tends to be a story about “becoming who we already were” — distilling our most deeply held values and bringing them up to be fully realized. The resonance with the sacrifice and redemptive suffering of the Christ story is really important as well. This can become problematic because we lose many of the movement’s radical ideas about economic justice, democratic experimentation, and overhauling the constitutional order. None of those things are on the table. They don’t even become questions we ask because we’re already telling ourselves a story where they don’t fit; even the geopolitics of the civil rights struggle fall out. We don’t understand that King always saw the Civil Rights Movement as part of a global struggle in a Cold War and anticolonial context. King was a global figure. He was traveling to India to meet with Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s, and attended the presidential inauguration of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana. That all falls out of our conventional narrative.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in an undated photo.

GAZETTE: Can you give examples of King’s ideas that have been obscured by the dominant narrative of the Civil Rights Movement? TERRY: One example is the “I Have a Dream” speech. Often people would listen to the speech and fixate on a powerful image of children holding hands as a way of thinking about the project of racial integration and racial justice without taking measure of where that kind of image fits in the broader architecture of King thought. For King, to have real integration meant sharing political power, uprooting metropolitan boundaries, rethinking how American federalism works, and rethinking school districting — not just busing programs. There is also King’s argument of using radical forms of political disobedience and direct-action protests to push the movement’s agenda. And that kind of experimentation with political coercion, even in Northern cities, to achieve justice is not the Martin Luther King people really know that well. SHELBY: Another aspect that is not well known is that King is part of a broader tradition of black political thought that is grounded in a commitment to political ethics and to thinking about the values that should guide the response of the oppressed to injustice. King is in a tradition that goes back to slavery that focuses on values of self-respect and solidarity, avoiding hate and a whole set of principles that is supposed to guide a dignified response to unjust conditions. GAZETTE: What were King’s views on war and racial injustice and economic injustice? TERRY: King thought that Vietnam was an unjust war, and that it was a continuation of the French imperial project that America took up for retrograde reasons. King thought that our nation’s military conflicts reflect on us as citizens and that we’re accountable in part for the kinds of injustices our nation might conduct in the course of militaristic adventure if we don’t stand up in dissent. King also thought that having an imperial militaristic culture would have consequences that deepen other forms of structural injustice; it would take away from the commitment to a war on poverty and increase racial hatred by training people to kill people of color on the other side of the world. SHELBY: It’s also important to remember that King pretty early on thought of the fight for racial justice and the fight for economic justice as deeply linked. King thought of the first phase of the Civil Rights Movement as focused on questions of racial justice that had to do with the fight against Jim Crow, humiliation, segregation, discrimination, and the denial of voting rights. But he thought it was important after securing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to begin to develop a movement focused more deeply on economic injustices, particularly those that beset urbanized blacks in the Northeast, Midwest, and the West. That struggle was going to be partly about jobs and fair wages, but also about how we share the gains of our economic cooperation and technological advancement. A lot of the problems we see in ghettos, such as crime, unstable families, and juvenile delinquency, King thought were rooted ultimately in economic injustice.

Professor Terry carries a framed piece of art depicting a King sermon into his office.

GAZETTE: If he were alive, what would King think of the Black Lives Matter movement? SHELBY: King was very much aware of, and obviously condemned, police brutality and wrongful convictions, which are well-known aspects of the black experience in America. There have been some developments since he died, though, such as the dramatic growth in the number of people incarcerated. Drawing on his insights, I would emphasize the importance of the economic marginalization of many black and brown people and why that makes them vulnerable to aggressive police action and to being drawn into the underground economy and be incarcerated as a result. So, there is an issue of civil rights that needs to be connected to broader questions of economic justice. On the question of how to prosecute that struggle, King would always emphasize the importance of working in alliances or coalitions that cut across civil rights advocacy and labor movement advocacy to win over people who could be won. GAZETTE: It has been 50 years since the assassination. How do you think King will be remembered 50 years from now? SHELBY: Some of what we want to achieve is to bring King into both political philosophy and political theory as a subject of academic study and to put him in conversation with canonical classical figures who are wrestling with the same questions King was wrestling with, such as the justification of political authority and the distribution of economic goods, resources, and services. If we’re successful, we’d find King’s writings on syllabi across the curriculum in political philosophy and theory years from now.

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When King came to Harvard

TERRY: Amen to all of that. I’d add two things. First, it’s important to treat black thinkers’ ideas as ideas and avoid thinking that their arguments can be reduced to tactics, or some other explanation about their class or group identity. We have to wrestle with the fact that they’re living with weighty questions of “What do we owe to each other?,” “How do we live?,” “What’s worth fighting and dying for?” The other thing is that we’d like to see King’s legacy among activists live on in an increased commitment to serious critical thinking, and in justifying one’s actions in public. Arguing about ideas in good faith with sympathy and charity to your opponents and those you disagree with is part of good political practice, and good as in virtuous, and King was an extraordinary exemplar of this commitment. If our collection of essays can help achieve that, we’d be thrilled.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

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The Political Philosophy Of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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• Meghna Chakrabarti
• Zoë Mitchell

Dr. King's intellect and the specifics of his radical politics often go unexamined when celebrating his legacy.  A new essay collection — " To Shape A New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. " — presents a full analysis of King’s work and recasts him as the radical thinker that he was.

His political and economic ideas are clear in his speeches against the Vietnam War and his  call  to work toward economic equality. But his radicalism can also be found in some of his most well-known writings, like the "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" (listen to a full recording of King reading the letter  here ).

"To Shape A New World: The Essays on the Political Philosphy of Martin Luther King, Jr." is available for preorder here .

Tommie Shelby , Caldwell Titcomb Professor at Harvard University and editor of "To Shape A New World." He tweets @tommie_shelby .

Brandon Terry , assistant professor at Harvard University and editor of "To Shape A New World." He tweets  @brandonmterry .

This segment aired on January 15, 2018.

• Boston Review: MLK Now
• The Harvard Gazette: Beyond 'I Have A Dream'

Meghna Chakrabarti Host, On Point Meghna Chakrabarti is the host of On Point.

Zoë Mitchell Producer and Studio Director Zoë Mitchell was a Radio Boston producer and studio director.

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128 Martin Luther King Topics & Essay Examples

Looking for Martin Luther King topics to research? Being one of the most prominent human rights activists in the 20th century, MLK is definitely worth writing about!

🔝 Top Martin Luther King topics to Write about

🏆 best martin luther king essay examples, 👨🏿 martin luther king essay titles, 🎓 creative titles for mlk essay, ❓ research questions about martin luther king.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and a civil rights defender who rose to fame in 1955. In his iconic “I have a dream” speech, he talked about civil and economic rights for people of color in the US.

In your Martin Luther King essay, you might want to focus on his ideas and philosophy. Why is MLK considered a hero? How did he change the world? In your paper, you can answer these questions. Another option is to look at the main themes Martin Luther King touched upon in his speeches. One more idea is to analyze the key quotes of MLK. Whether you are assigned an argumentative essay or a research paper, this article will be helpful. It contains a list of catchy MLK essay titles, best Martin Luther King topics, and research questions. Martin Luther King essay examples are added to inspire you even more.

• Martin Luther King: ideas and philosophy
• Why is MLK considered a hero?
• The Montgomery bus boycott: the significance
• I have a dream: rhetorical analysis
• MLK and the idea of peaceful protest
• Assassination of Martin Luther King
• Martin Luther King Jr. and Christian ideas
• Martin Luther King and his views on the Vietnam war
• MLK: the role in popular culture
• MLK assassination: conspiracy theories
• Essay on Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination…….
• The Comparison of the Speeches by Martin Luther King and Alicia Garza Both speeches address the same issue that concerns the inequality that exists in the US society when it comes to the rights of black and white people.
• I Have a Dream Speech Analysis The speech has become a symbol of a new era of freedom and symbol of the American civil rights movement.”I Have a Dream” is a representation of the “America Dream” about a free and equal […]
• Martin Luther King’s Speech: A Summary King noted that the constitution and the Declaration of Independence guaranteed the freedom and equality of all the citizens of the country.
• “Letter From Birmingham Jail” Rhetorical Analysis Essay He supports his argument in the next paragraph, where he puts it across that they have been governed by a combination of unjust and just law whereby there is a need to separate the two.
• How could King be more upset with moderate whites than violent extremists like clansmen? In his letter, King is trying to persuade and win the authority of the white man who in the real sense had acted as a hindrance to the attainment of the various goals of the […]
• Use of Pathos: Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” During his lifetime, Martin Luther King Junior had the privilege of giving several speeches whose main theme in almost all was on the freedom of the black Americans.’I have a dream’ was among the many […]
• Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Nelson Mandela Letter from Birmingham jail was directed to the people and the eight white clergy members in Birmingham who condemned the actions of Martin Luther in public.
• Ethical Leadership: Martin Luther King All individuals were expected to consider his actions and embrace the idea of morality. Through the use of a positive community culture and empowerment tactics, King managed to model such desirable behaviors.
• Analysis of “I Have a Dream “, by Martin Luther King, Jr. They are used in the speech to capture the attention of the audience. Repetition is used throughout the speech to put an emphasis on the main idea of the message.
• Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” Speech Critique The purpose of the king’s speech was to motivate the endorsement of change within the Americans, and the state, in relation to Americans’ inappropriate views towards unlike races or tribal groups in America.
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Alicia Garza’s Speeches Comparison He demonstrates inspiration and magnetism, explaining the history of the issues affecting the audience. Garza is passionate about leaving her home and joining the movements on the streets to pass the message of freedom.
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Malcolm X’s Leadership Styles Thesis: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both charismatic leaders, but the latter was more of a transformational leader as well because of his idealistic views and his ability to inspire his followers to […]
• Martin Luther King Jr. as a Born Leader King was a trait leader, as he was able to translate his vision or his dream to others and make them enthusiastic about it.
• Speech Evaluation: Martin Luther King, Jr. The analysis of the speech helps to understand various tools and techniques, which he implemented to find the way to reach the audience.
• Comparing the Oratory Styles and Impact of Martin Luther King Jr. and Alicia Garza On the other hand, Alicia Garza also displays a level of passion and charisma that captures the attention of her audience.
• Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King’s Shared Dream The similarities between the song and the speech concern both the form and content of the test, with the key message being the desire for a better world in which everyone can exist in harmony […]
• Rhetorical Techniques in “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King His flawless use of metaphors and parallelism allows the reader or the audience to empathize with King and support him in his fight against racial injustice.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Steve Jobs: Comparison In the case of Martin Luther King Jr, his commitment to non-violent resistance as a way of effecting social change was informed by his Christian upbringing and study of Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy.
• Analyzing Martin Luther Speech “I Have a Dream” It is also imperative to note that Luther is addressing all Americans, both white and black, and hence the use of words “we” and “our”.
• Rousseau’s the Social Contract vs. Martin Luther King His “Social Contract” is one of the most intriguing writings of Rousseau because he defends man, though being part of the society has its own right in terms of privacy.
• Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill’s Leadership Styles This move that paved the way for his growth in the military career later led to his emergence as a renowned leader in Britain and across the world.
• “The Quest for Peace and Justice” by Martin Luther King King states that poverty is one of the main problems for the global community, both in developing and economically developed countries.
• Martin Luther King and His Impact on Society The ability of people to refuse to follow the regime is a major way how Martin Luther King accomplished change and respect towards the African American population.
• Analysis of the Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail From the biblical stand, the king was justified to move in the hope that his contributions would bring change in the destined world.
• Martin Luther King Junior Other clauses repeated in the speech include; ‘Now is the time’ found in the sixth paragraph of the speech, where Martin was emphasizing that the time of freedom had come.’Let freedom ring’ is another clause […]
• Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Although Malcolm X did not favor violence, he had a strong objection on the subject of nonviolence philosophy on the blacks.
• The Speech “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King It could be said that the primary goal of the paper is to examine the effectiveness of the speech while evaluating the impact on the audience, occasion, speaker, and the lines of the speech.
• The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial of Honor The design of the memorial refers to the line about a stone of hope in Dr. The creative expression in the monument thoroughly captures the people’s perception of Dr.King.
• “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. King that supports his position is that protests began after multiple attempts by the representatives of the Black community to regulate disagreements peacefully and attract White authorities’ attention to the inappropriateness of segregation. Thus, the […]
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy and Modern-Day Criticism King was linked to the development of the civil rights movement as it was considered to cause a lot of revolution in the country through the use of peaceful demonstrations, which succeeded in the attainment […]
• Martin Luther King’s and Alicia Garza’s Speeches A master of words, a preacher, and a fighter for the equality of people before God and the law, King speaks with hope for a better future for the world and the nation.
• Martin Luther King’s Leadership Approach Moreover, King was part of the change and provided a good example to the people making the crowd trust the idea of equality in the country.
• The Impact of Martin Luther King’s Death Luther King’s personality, his life, and his death caused more significant changes in expanding the rights of the African American people.
• The Speeches by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X I want to thank you for this interesting and properly built discussion about how justice and the law are combined in the speeches by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The indefatigable aggressiveness of the […]
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.dealt a blow to the ideology of nonviolence and love that underpinned King’s philosophy and which he sought to make basic ideas for the civil rights movement.
• Analysis of “I Have a Dream” Speech of Martin Luther King He could explain what was happening to the African Americans of that times and how its was affecting the lives of millions of people in the country.
• Martin Luther King Jr. as an Equality Activist At one time, Martin doubted which profession to give preference to medicine or law, everything was decided in favor of the ministry of the church, which influenced the education and literacy of the future leader.
• Martin Luther King Jr: American Civil Rights Leader This was an act of defiance against the laws which segregated the buses based on the color of the people.Dr. King led to the abolishment of the laws which were oppressive to the African-Americans.
• Martin Luther King’s Speech “I Have a Dream” In conclusion, it is necessary to note that King’s speech is still relevant as nowadays, African Americans, immigrants, and females do not have opportunities that they would have in the world of justice.
• John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln: Principles of Leadership In this regard, John Kennedy stated in general that, “We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last”.
• Martin Luther King and His Trace in Chicago History The campaign targeted to improve the situation in the black neighborhoods and make stress the discrimination practices of realtors and housing officials of the city.
• Martin Luther King Jr.: A Great Pastor King’s life was a continuation of the commitment his family had made to advance the ministry and mission of the Christian church.
• The Martin Luther King Assassination Martin Luther King is often regarded as one of the most courageous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in the history of the USA.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, whom the activists chose as their representative and leader, they protested the arrest with a bus boycott that put a strain on the town’s economy.
• Historical Figures: Martin Luther King Jr. In his speeches, he also addressed controversial and urgent topics like the war in Vietnam and poverty opposing the policies that instigated it.’Freedom’ the word that he often used had the central place in his […]
• Life of Martin Luther King and Modern Life Martin Luther King lived in the middle of the 20th century facing the problems of the American society of that time.
• Martin Luther King Junior, Great American Leader I have always been aware of the fact that if I were to succeed in my life and become a great person, then I would have to develop a solid personality and character.
• Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King’s Assassination in 1960’s The American history of assassinations in the 1960’s left an indelible mark in the minds of many people. Similar to the assassination of John F.
• “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King: What Has Changed The constitution was drafted by the framers in such a manner that only White men who owned acres of land and property would be given the right to voice their opinion and decide the functioning […]
• Martin Luther King Argument From Birmingham Jail King provides a clear background of the real reasons of his arrestment and his desire to grab attention of the Christian society of Birmingham’s clergymen in Alabama.Dr.
• A Short Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr The aim of the proposed study is to explore the factors between the occurrence of King’s principles in a world of racial discrimination and the impact of non-violence and civil disobedience in the world of […]
• Social Ethics. Letter from Martin Luther King Jr. The Letter that Martin Luther King wrote to eight ministers in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 was in response to their published appeal to their congregations to stop demonstrating against the unjust segregation laws that had […]
• Martin Luther King, Jr.: Leadership Analysis By studying the activity of prominent activists of the past and the key prerequisites to their success, it is possible to learn more about the art of leading others.
• Leadership Lessons From Martin Luther King Jr. Born in 1929, Luther King Jr.lived during World War I and in the post-war era of the United States, which was characterized by the severe oppression and segregation of African-Americans within the country. Lessons to […]
• Martin Luther King’s Public Speech In terms of strength and persuasive characteristics, the part of the speech, where King, makes an appeal to the Declaration of Independence is the most effective because he uses all three modes of appeal and […]
• Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: Who Is Closer to Success? Martin Luther King Jr.and Malcolm X are remembered for their outstanding fight for civil rights in the United States at a time when the black community faced oppression and inequality in different ways.
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Social and Political Philosophy C: “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law”. C: “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law”.
• Martin Luther King’s Psychological Portrait Martin Luther King is one of the most prominent figures in the history of the United States who had a profound impact on the development of the country.
• “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King: What We Already Achieved Martin Luther King is a figure of world significance whose famous speech influenced millions of people and led to significant reforms in the U.S. Yet, there are still certain areas in which the U.S.and would […]
• “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King The fact that the word segregation was used in the second half of the 20th century is astonishing. In 1963, the city of Birmingham was considered a fortress of segregation.
• The Civil Rights Movement: Martin King and Malcolm X’s Views King also stressed that the major concepts he adopted were taken from the “Sermon on the Mount and the Gandhian method of nonviolent resistance”.
• Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech I Have a Dream For example, at the beginning of the speech where he began by lamenting on the precarious justice system in the United States that was tilted against the Negros, he figuratively used the terms “promissory note,” […]
• Martin Luther King’s Leadership in Historical Context The ideological commitment, articulation of the values, and the goals of the civil rights movements made King one of the leaders of all time.
• “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Luther King Throughout, however, he refers back to the notion of time, the moment, and in this, he is addressing the concept of Kairos.
• “I Have a Dream” Speech by Martin Luther King Jr Unlike previous presentations, the speech had an influence on the overall realization and implementation of statutory provisions that were critical to the sustenance of equality and justice in society.
• Martin Luther King and Thomas Hobbes on the Subject of Justice This paper discusses the subject of justice and specifically holds the view that justice is to follow one’s consciousness, and not to obey the unjust law.
• Martin Luther King Theory: Issue of Power The letter teaches people of faith that they should use peaceful means in demanding for their rights. In conclusion, them letter by Martin Luther advocated for the respect of human rights.
• Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Comparison In the entire history of the United States, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were the greatest advocators of freedom and civil rights. He believed that the whites were not to be allowed to misbehave […]
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail He raises the stakes in his letter by pointing out “…the intent of our peaceful, active action is to generate a crisis-filled situation that will certainly necessitate commencement of negotiations”. King’s letter reveal a man […]
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King noticed the negative trend and he took his stand to make people see the devastating effects of the war.
• Loury, Douglass, and King Jr. Loury addressed the challenge to liberals and conservatives that was in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. Loury found it difficult to sell the idea of self help and reliance among the black because […]
• The Life and Work of Martin Luther King Jr. In this case, he can be boldly referred to as one of the best orators that the country has ever had. As a matter of fact, this march was done to demand for freedom and […]
• Martin Luther King’s Last Speech He says that just like the biblical Jews who suffered in the wilderness, but their descendants finally reached the Promised Land, so will the descendants of the black people in the United States.
• Obtaining Objective Truth in Regards to Martin Luther King’s Role in the Fight for Equality in the United States Historians and Scholar’s View of Martin Luther King’s Role in the Fight for Equality in the United States Historians and scholars have made a lot of contributions to discovering the life of Martin Luther King […]
• Martin Luther King, Jr. He observed that the Whites had continually segregated and oppressed the Negroes despite the fact that, the latter had tried to emancipate themselves from the demeaning chains of racial prejudice and segregation that clouded the […]
• Why the Philosophy of King is More Effective in Fighting Racism than Malcolm’s? The idea of harmony and respect of all human beings is a result of his Christian foundation as well as the philosophy of Gandhi that he encountered later on in his life.
• Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream“ Martin Luther King is optimistic that African Americans will have basic rights including voting and other social rights in the future.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation The Memorial is located in the South West region of the National Mall. It is believed that Martin Luther King, Jr.influenced and continues to influence every visitor in the museum.
• Martin Luther King and The March on Washington To elaborate his point of view he refers to the Constitution which stated that people were equal in terms of their political rights, and shows how African-Americans were disfranchised by the government.
• Forgiveness in Martin Luther’s Movement for Rights Blacks The bible teachings tell us that God exists in the holy trinity and the only way to forgive others is for us to be able to forgive our own transgressions.
• The Fight for Equality in Martin Luther King’s Life and Writings The south was defeated and as such one of the effects of the war was to help reconstruct this region by putting in democratic laws.
• Changing the Unjust Laws: “Letter From Birmingham Jail” Therefore, the main aim of the letter was to push for the changing of the unjust laws as well as upholding the Supreme Court ruling of the year 1954.
• The Dangers of Dogmatism With Approaches Adopted by Martin Luther King Jr and Plato Moreover, King justified his pursuit of justice on the streets from the fact that the protests he organized were essentially peaceful and nonviolent; meaning that all he was trying to do was get his message […]
• Reliability of King’s arguments The major conclusion of the part of Martin Luther King’s speech touching upon the issue of Ho Chi Min’s land reform is that this reform was benevolent for the peasants, and can be categorized as […]
• Comparing Views on the Feminism of Wollstonecraft and Martin Luther King This means that if women are given and encouraged to have the same level of education as the men than the society would be a much better place as both the female and male genders […]
• “Why We can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King (Jr) He was quick to emphasize confidently that the reason for writing the letter was not in response to criticism but to the injustice, which was persistent in Birmingham. The letter is a strong response in […]
• The Black Arts Era: Contributions of Malcolm X & Martin Luther King Jr. The era was heralded by the establishment of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the decade of the 1960s. Many historians view this movement as the artistic arm of the Black Power movement, representing […]
• Motivation Evaluation: Martin Luther King Jr. This enables us to understand the humanistic and diversity views of motivation in King. A diversity view of motivation points out the fact that King was a realist and pragmatic in his approaches.
• Separate but Equal: “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. In particular, it is necessary to analyze this work in terms of ethos, pathos, and logos and the way in which King balances these three appeals in order to convince the readers.
• Political Theories of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. The struggle reached a climax in the mid 1960s, and in the midst of it all were two charismatic and articulate leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr.and Malcolm X.
• Martin Luther King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” This letter from Birmingham Jail analysis essay shall highlight some of the issues discussed in the historic letter including King’s reason for being in Birmingham and why he felt compelled to break the law.
• “Why We Can’t Wait” a Historical Document by Martin Luther King Jr. Many of the exceptional leaders in the past have spent some time in detention centers due to their aspiration to transform the society.
• Was Martin Luther King Vital to the Gaining of Civil Rights for African Americans?
• Does Martin Luther King Junior’s Life Affect His Children’s Lives?
• Has Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream Become Reality?
• How Did Gandhi Influence Martin Luther King?
• Why the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Should Be Repealed?
• How Did Martin Luther King Affect the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Did Religion Influence Martin Luther King?
• How Far Did Martin Luther King Further the Cause of Civil Rights?
• How Important Was Martin Luther King Compared to Malcolm X?
• How Martin Luther King Predicted the Decline of the Mainline Church?
• How Martin Luther King Would Have Viewed Comments about Hurricane Katrina?
• How Much Impact Did Martin Luther King Have in Black Rights?
• Why Does Martin Luther King Have a Public Holiday but Not Malcolm X?
• Why Martin Luther King Jr Is a Machiavellian Leader?
• Why Some Activists Rejected the Approach of Martin Luther King to Civil Rights?
• What Are the Three Important Facts about Martin Luther King?
• How Did Martin Luther King Change the World?
• What Are the Five Accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr?
• How Racism Experience Shaped Martin Luther King?
• Do All States Recognize Martin Luther King Day?
• What Did Martin Luther King Speak Out Against?
• What Is the Main Purpose of Martin Luther King’s Speeches?
• For What Was Martin Luther King Imprisoned?
• Who Inspired Martin Luther King on Nonviolence Fight?
• How Martin Luther King’s Ideas Represented in “Conscience for Change”?
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Rhetorical Analysis of Martin Luther King's Historic Speech

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Guest Essay

What Martin Luther King Jr. Knew About Crime and Mental Illness

By Alvin L. Bragg Jr.

Mr. Bragg Jr. is the Manhattan district attorney.

In September 1958, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed with a seven-inch steel letter opener. He had been autographing copies of his first book in Blumstein’s department store in Harlem. The woman who stabbed him was named Izola Ware Curry .

When Dr. King found out she was schizophrenic, he harbored no ill will toward her , saying instead, “I know that we want her to receive the necessary treatment so that she may become a constructive citizen in an integrated society where a disorganized personality need not become a menace to any man.”

Dated description aside, King recognized that people in crisis need mental health care to be healthy and safe. The many Izola Ware Currys in New York today are far more likely to find themselves in jail, or relegated to street corners and subway stations, than they are to receive comprehensive treatment. This disconnect can set the stage for people with mental illness to be both victims and perpetrators of real violence.

Mental illness isn’t a crime, and jail isn’t the answer for those experiencing it. We must meet the needs of people in crisis with treatment and support. In order to do so, we need more funding.

Lawmakers in Albany right now are in the final stages of negotiating our state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly must make good on their earlier support for significant investments in mental health care — especially for New Yorkers who have been struggling, posing potential dangers to themselves and others. Doing so now can reduce assaults in our city by people experiencing mental health crises. They can also ensure that when those people do commit crimes, they are held accountable in a manner that reduces recidivism.

Around half of people in New York City jails — some 3,000 men and women — have been diagnosed with some degree of mental illness. On any given day, hundreds await evaluations or beds at dwindling and overwhelmed state psychiatric hospitals . On a typical day at Manhattan Criminal Court, you’ll witness the churn of people struggling with mental illness, caught up in a cycle of recidivism and incarceration instead of receiving the therapy, medication and other services that would help them lead healthy, productive lives.

And it’s not only New York. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, in the United States, people with serious mental illness are more likely to encounter law enforcement than they are to receive treatment . Since the 1950s, around the time King barely dodged death, the number of state hospital psychiatric beds has decreased by around 94 percent. In many cases, jails and prisons filled the void. While large-scale psychiatric institutionalization was far from perfect — to say the very least — meaningful community-based alternatives never materialized.

Today, corrections facilities double as de facto mental health hospitals across the nation — and about 63 percent of those with a history of mental illness do not receive treatment while incarcerated in state and federal prison.

But it is in New York City where the failed mental health system seems to be on starkest display.

Desperate scenes of people in clear distress on subway platforms, in city parks and on bustling street corners, are commonplace. And although overall crime is down , the city has witnessed terrifying acts of violence and alarming incidents of disorder. Innocent people shoved in front of oncoming trains is a citywide nightmare. Women fear being randomly punched while walking down the street. This is a humanitarian disaster, and a public health and safety crisis.

We must do better — for those with real and complex mental health needs, and for all New Yorkers who currently fear for their safety. But attaining a comprehensive mental health system won’t happen overnight.

In the past few years, I’ve committed $9 million to two programs, Neighborhood Navigators and Court Navigators . In both programs, individuals with lived experience — designated “navigators”— help guide our struggling neighbors through the complex landscape of social services. It’s a start, but so much more is needed.

This year’s state budget is another opportunity to continue to build New York’s mental health infrastructure. My office submitted a detailed proposal to Albany leaders outlining mental health investments that are urgently needed this year. If we fail to take systemic action, New Yorkers will continue to confront daily scenes of desperation, and risk falling victim to shocking — but not surprising — acts of arbitrary violence.

Most directly related to the work of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, I’ve asked Albany to invest at least $25 million to expand and strengthen New York’s problem-solving courts. Such courts provide precisely the kind of treatment options that King may have wanted for his attacker, but that did not exist then. In exchange for pleading guilty, participants are offered court-supervised treatment instead of incarceration.

If they comply with their treatment plan and avoid rearrest (typically for 18 to 24 months), their felony plea can be reduced to a misdemeanor or dismissed. One mental health court found that it reduced the likelihood of rearrest by 46 percent.

I also urged Albany leaders to fund community-based mental health treatment, investing $16.3 million to fund 20 new teams to provide support to justice-involved individuals with serious mental illness. Similar initiatives have been shown to reduce overall recidivism .

For those who cannot be safely diverted from incarceration to treatment in the community, Hope House , which recently broke ground in the Bronx, will soon offer a safe and humane alternative to the Rikers Island jail complex, with 24-hour security and therapeutic treatment. The state should commit $30 million in capital funding to scale up the Hope House model.

Supportive housing provides essential stability to those with mental illness who have been justice-involved. Thousands of individuals returning to New York City from state prison go straight to shelters. Homelessness increases the risk of incarceration, which in turn increases the risk of homelessness. To break this vicious cycle, Albany should invest in building 500 new re-entry apartments over the next three years, and should expand an existing housing program for people leaving city jails.

Since I took office, we have made substantial progress in driving down murders and shootings in Manhattan, but the rise in felony assaults remains a persistent challenge. To reverse the post-Covid rise in random assaults of and by people with untreated mental illness, prevention-oriented investments are critical; enforcement has little deterrence value for crimes committed by those experiencing a mental health crisis.

Following his brush with death at the hands of Izola Ware Curry, King recognized treatment as the best path to keep those with mental illness, and those around them, safe. With assaults like the one King suffered becoming more common, our leaders in Albany must heed his call today and invest in a comprehensive mental health network.

Now is the time for action to address our mental health emergency.

Alvin L. Bragg Jr. is the Manhattan district attorney.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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America has failed MLK and his dream, but not the way some think | Opinion

 A professor of Pan-African studies at the University of Louisville named Ricky L. Jones recently took to these pages to proclaim that America has “failed” Martin Luther King and his dream for a society where people are judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character ("America has failed MLK since his 1968 assassination," April 4).  Professor Jones is correct but not in the way he thinks.

Jones’ piece appeared on the anniversary of Rev. King’s death, at the hands of assassin James Earl Ray. "King,” Jones writes, "did not live to see racist anti-Black politicians and pundits misuse his words arguing that people should 'not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character' to oppose Black progress."

Jones apparently believes that the way to "Black progress" in this country is to judge people less on the content of their character and more by the color of their skin. Pretty much the exact opposite of what King wished for in his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

Jones had especially harsh words for prominent Black citizens today who have questioned the wisdom of legal and social programs − like affirmative action − that seem to have done little in the past 50 years to erase economic and other disparities between the races. Among them he names Ward Connerly, Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. All these people, according to Jones, are guilty of opposing "Black progress."

One person left off Jones’ list of deplorables, is a young Black intellectual named Coleman Hughes. Hughes is a graduate of Columbia University and recently appeared on the chat TV show "The View" to promote his new book: "The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Color-Blind Society." If you are not familiar with that show, it is hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and a team of mostly far-left-of-center female panelists.

Color-blindness, Hughes says, does not mean being literally blind to race because, of course, we notice it. What he means is that we should all do our best to treat others, no matter what color they are, as individuals and not part of a group based on the hue of their skin. We should put aside, as best we can, any assumptions about anyone based on such a minor attribute that tells us nothing about who that person is; whether they are smart, funny, generous or mean.

He says the best approach is to do our best to look past race not only in our personal lives but in our public programs and policies. He argues that race-based approaches are divisive and often counter-productive. He says class-based programs, (which incidentally would have the effect of disproportionally helping Black people) garner much more support from the public across all racial lines. 

So on "The View," he calmly and succinctly made his case. And when he was done the audience applauded enthusiastically. 

But not so fast. 

Sunny Hostin, a regular panelist on the show, challenged not only Hughes approach to improving race relations but questioned the content of his character as well. She suggested that his message had been "co-opted" by people on "the right," and she concluded that he was "something of a charlatan."

Such is the intellectual fire-power of Hostin.

For his part, Hughes took Hostin’s hostility in stride, he gently and calmly corrected her assertions that he was a "conservative," and explained he had voted only twice for president and both times for Democrats. He pointed out that ad hominem attacks did nothing to advance a reasonable discussion of the subject at hand. 

But Hostin's message was clear. If you don’t agree with her views about race, your character is suspect. If you are Black, you may be a race-traitor. If you are white and vote Republican, well, we all know what you are.

As for Professor Jones, he advocates the Hostin approach. If you take Dr. King at his word and you believe someone’s character is more important than their race, you "oppose Black progress." What a bizarre way to think. 

It's true Dr. King did not live to see his dream come true in America. In the past few years a cult of "Anti-Racists" have taken over universities, the media and more than a few board rooms, the effect being that attitudes concerning race are at their lowest point in decades.

Coleman Hughes is only 28. Thanks to talented, clear-thinking people like him, maybe our children will live long enough to see King’s dream become the reality we all deserve.

Gil Spencer lives in Hyde Park.

MLK Jr.’s family reflects on assassination of civil rights icon, says America in a ‘dark moment’

O n Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King III was sitting at home in Atlanta with his siblings, watching the news, when a news bulletin flashed across their TV screen: Their father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., had just been assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.

It was this memory King shared as he and his wife issued an urgent call to action to protect democracy on the 56th anniversary of his father’s murder. 

“At that moment, obviously, our hearts started beating very fast and our lives would change forever,” King said Thursday. He and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, spoke to a room full of reporters at the National Civil Rights Museum — the same site where his father was shot.

But 56 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Waters King said the nation has still not fought the three evils he preached against: racism, poverty and war.

She added that as painful as it was for the family to be at the site where the Civil Rights Movement icon was killed, there was no place more important to be as they urged Americans to dedicate themselves to achieving King’s mission. 

“We as a society are really at not only a pivotal moment, but a very, very dark moment,” Waters King said Thursday. “We’re here today to say that it’s time that we as a nation be the wolf of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. That we feed the wolf of peace and justice and equity; that we make real the promises of democracy.”

“We’re here in that spirit to remind America of not only a dream, but a man,” she continued. “And we are asking for us all to stand together, to walk together, to continue his work together to make real his dream of the beloved community.”

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke often of his vision for a “beloved community,” a new world that would be absent of poverty, hunger and hate.

He spoke of this community both at home and abroad. 

In 1956, the civil rights leader addressed graduates at the University of the West Indies, painting a picture of what this community would be.

“But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community,” he said. “It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.”

In a grave warning Thursday, Martin Luther King III said American democracy is at risk if the nation does not address its history — and the repeal of rights that his father fought to obtain. 

“We live in a nation that is complicated, where history is being written out and excluded. That’s not what democracy is supposed to be about,” King said. “It’s about inclusion. It’s about understanding that everyone has a story that needs to be told. It’s about understanding that when we work together, we are stronger and better.”

He added that while there have been successes toward achieving equity in the last several years, they have been stymied by other forces. King also pointed to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent rise in calls for legislation centering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) investments and dismantling racism. 

But as those changes were made, the nation saw a gunman kill three Black Americans in Jacksonville. Now, he said, the nation is seeing a rollback to policies promoting DEI. 

“My father used to say that whenever you have a victory, there’s always the inevitable pushback,” King said. “We have to create a different climate and use everything at our disposal, every piece of technology, and we have to figure out how do we transform these evil acts into positive energy that can change our communities and our nation and really make it better for all.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

"The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity"

Author:  King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Crozer Theological Seminary)

Date:  November 29, 1949 to February 15, 1950 ?

Location: Chester, Pa. ?

Genre:  Essay

Topic:  Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

King wrote this paper for the course Development of Christian Ideas, taught by Davis. The essay examines how Christianity developed as a distinct religion with a set of central tenets and how it was influenced by those pagan religions it assimilated. King repeats material from an earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” but he extends the discussion here to the influence of other mystery religions. 1  Davis gave the essay an A, stating: “This is very good and I am glad to have your conclusion. It is not so much that Christianity was influenced by the Mystery Cults, or borrowed from them, but that in the long process of history this religion developed. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security.

“That is, with this study you have made, we see the philosophy both of Religion and History. Underneath all expression, whether words, creeds, cults, ceremonies is the spiritual order—the ever living search of men for higher life—a fuller life, more abundant, satisfying life.

“That is essential. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. The inner spiritual, continues ever.”

The Greco-Roman world in which the early church developed was one of diverse religions. The conditions of that era made it possible for these religions to sweep like a tidal wave over the ancient world. The people of that age were eager and zealous in their search for religious experience. The existence of this atmosphere was vitally important in the development and eventual triumph of Christianity.

These many religions, known as Mystery-Religions, were not alike in every respect: to draw this conclusion would lead to a gratuitous and erroneous supposition. They covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, “from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabira to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative.”\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. vii.\ 2  However it is to be noticed that these Mysteries possessed many fundamental likenesses; (1) All held that the initiate shared in symbolic (sacramental) fashion the experiences of the god. (2) All had secret rites for the initiated. (3) All offered mystical cleansing from sin. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. 187, 188.\

It is not at all surprising in view of the wide and growing influence of these religions that when the disciples in Antioch and elsewhere preached a crucified and risen Jesus they should be regarded as the heralds of another mystery religion, and that Jesus himself should be taken for the divine Lord of the cult through whose death and resurrection salvation was to be had. 3  That there were striking similarities between the developing church and these religions cannot be denied. Even Christian apologist had to admit that fact.

Christianity triumphed over these mystery religions after long conflict. This triumph may be attributed in part to the fact that Christianity took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them: the better elements of the mystery religions were transferred to the new religion. “As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely,” writes Cumont, “the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weakness, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.”\[Footnote:] Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. xxiv.\ 4  The victory of Christianity in the Roman empire is another example of that universal historical law, viz., that that culture which conquers is in turn conquered. This universal law is expecially true of religion. It is inevitable when a new religion comes to exist side by side with a group of religions, from which it is continually detaching members, introducing them into its own midst with the practices of their original religions impressed upon their minds, that this new religion should tend to assimilate with the assimilation of their members, some of the elements of these existing religions. “The more crusading a religion is, the more it absorbs.” Certainly Christianity has been a crusading religion from the beginning. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianity  ahs  {has} been able to survive.

It is at this point that we are able to see why knowledge of the Mystery religions is important for any serious study of the history of Christianity. It is well-nigh impossible to grasp Christianity through and through without knowledge of these cults. 5  It must be remembered, as implied above, that Christianity was not a sudden and miraculous transformation, springing, forth full grown as Athene sprang from the head of Zeus, but it is a composite of slow and laborious growth. Therefore it is necessary to study the historical and social factors that contributed to the growth of Christianity. In speaking of the indispensability of knowledge of these cults as requisite for any serious study of Christianity, Dr. Angus says: “As an important background to early Christianity and as the chief medium of sacramentarianism to the West they cannot be neglected; for to fail to recognize the moral and spiritual values of Hellenistic-Oriental paganism is to misunderstand the early Christian centuries and to do injustice to the victory of Christianity. Moreover, much from the Mysteries has persisted in various modern phases of thought and practice.”\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. viii.\

This is not to say that the early Christians sat down and copied these views verbatim. But after being in contact with these surrounding religions and hearing certain doctrines expressed, it was only natural for some of these views to become a part of their subconscious minds. When they sat down to write they were expressing consciously that which had dwelled in their subconscious minds. It is also significant to know that Roman tolerance had favoured this great syncretism of religious ideas. Borrowing was not only natural but inevitable. 6

The present study represents an attempt to provide a survey of the influence of the mystery religions on Christianity. In order to give a comprehensive picture of this subject, I will discuss  Four  {Five} of the most popular of these religions separately, rather than to view them en masse as a single great religious system. The latter method is apt to neglect the distinctive contribution of each cult to the religious life of the age and, at the same time, to attribute to a given cult phases of some other system. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity.

The Influence Of The Cult Of Cybele and Attis

The first Oriental religion to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods. The divine personage in whom this cult centered was the Magna Mater Deum who was conceived as the source of all life as well as the personification of all the powers of nature.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114.\ 7  She was the “Great Mother” not only “of all the gods,” but of all men” as well. 8  “The winds, the sea, the earth, and the snowy seat of Olympus are hers, and when from her mountains she ascends into the great heavens, the son of Cronus himself gives way before her, and in like manner do also the other immortal blest honor the dread goddess.”\[Footnote:] Quoted in Willoughby’s, Pagan Regeneration, p. 115. 9 \

At an early date there was associated with Cybele, the Great Mother, a hero-divinity called Attic who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly. Around these two divinities there grew up a “confused tangle of myths” in explanation of their cult rites. Various writers gave different Versions of the Cybele-Attis myth. However these specific differences need not concern us, for the most significant aspects are common in all the various versions. 10  We are concerned at this point with showing how this religion influenced the thought of early Christians.

Attis was the Good Shepard, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, who gave birth to him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the virgin Mary. 11  According to the myth, Attis died, either slain by another or by his own hand. At the death of Attis, Cybele mourned vehemently until he arose to life again in the springtime. The central theme of the myth was the triumph of Attis over death, and the participant in the rites of the cult undoubtedly believed that his attachment to the victorious deity would insure a similar triumph in his life.

It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. This celebration was held annually from March 22nd to 25th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 166.\ The influence of this religion on Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adapted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lord’s passion.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 199\ 12

Again we may notice that at this same Attis festival on March 22nd, an effigy of the god was fastened to the trunk of a pine tree, Attis thus being “slain and hanged on a tree.” This effigy was later buried in a tomb. On March 24th, known as the Day of Blood, the High Priest, impersonating Attic, drew blood from him arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself. It is this fact that immediately brings to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “But Christ being come an High Priest … neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood … obtained eternal redemption for us.”\[Footnote:] Heb. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. That night the priests went back to the tomb and found it empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicing. During this great celebration a sacramental meal of some kind was taken, and initiates were baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be “born again.”\[Footnote:] Weigall, The Paganism In Our Christianity, pp. 116, 117.\ 13

There can hardly be any doubt of the fact that these ceremonies and beliefs strongly coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the life and death of the historic Jesus. 14  Moreover, “the merging of the worship of Attis into that of Jesus was effected without interruption, for these pagan ceremonies were enacted in a sanctuary on the Vatican Hill, which was afterwards taken over by the Christians, and the mother church of St. Peter now stands upon the very spot.”\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 117.\

The Influence of Adonis

Another popular religion which influenced the thought of early Christians was the worship of Adonis. As is commonly known Antioch was one of the earliest seats of Christianity. It was in this city that there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Adonis. This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, so much so that the prophet Ezekiel\[Footnote:] Ezekiel 8:14.\ found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz (Adonis) at the very gate of the temple. When we come to Christian thought the influence seems even greater, for even the place at Bethleham selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god—a fact that led many to confuse Adonis with Jesus Christ.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 110\ 15

It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, “The Lord is risen,” were probable used. The festival ended with the celebration of his ascention in the sight of his worshippers. 16  Needless to say that this story of the death and resurrection of Adonis is quite similar to the Christian story of the death and resurrection of Christ. This coincidence had led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion. 17  Whether these critics are right in their interpretation or not still remains a moot question.

However when we come to the idea of Jesus’ decent into hell it seems that we have a direct borrow from the Adonis religion, and in fact from other religions also. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. Now this idea has no scriptural foundation except in those difficult passages in the First Epistle of Peter\[Footnote:] I Peter 3:19–4:6.\ which many scholars have designated as the most ambiguous passages of the New Testament. In fact the idea did not appear in the church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 113.\ 18  Such facts led almost inevitably to the view that this idea had a pagan origin, since it appears not only in the legend of Adonis, but also in those of Herakles, Dionyses, Orpheus, Osiris, Hermes, Balder, and other deities.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 114.\

The Influence of Osiris and Isis

The Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris exerted considerable influence upon early Christianity. These two great Egyptian deities, whose worship passed into Europe, were revered not only in Rome but in many other centers where Christian communities were growing up. Osiris and Isis, so the legend runs, were at one and the same time, brother and sister, husband and wife; but Osiris was murdered, his coffined body being thrown into the Nile, and shortly afterwards the widowed and exiled Isis gave birth to a son, Horus. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. This tree afterwards chanced to be cut down and made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, and there Isis at length found it. After recovering Osiris’ dismembered body, Isis restored him to life and installed him as King in the nether world; meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 119.\ 19

In the records of both Herodotus and Plutarch we find that there was a festival held each year in Egypt celebrating the resurrection of Osiris. While Herodotus fails to give a date for this festival, Plutarch says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian claendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, op. cit., p. 257.\ Other Egyptian records speak of another feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, which was held about November 8th.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 258.\ 20

It is interesting to note that the Christian feast of all Souls, in honor of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burned all night on that occassion. There seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. The festival of all Saints, which is held one day before that of all Souls is also probably identical with it in origin.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 121.\ This still stands as a festival in the Christian calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris in modern times. 21

However this is not the only point at which the Religion of Osiris and Isis exerted influence on Christianity. There can hardly be any doubt that the myths of Isis had a direct bearing on the elevation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to the lofty position that she holds in Roman Catholic theology. As is commonly known Isis had two capacities which her worshippers warmly commended her for. Firstly, she was pictured as the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and secondly she was commended as the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. In the former capacity she was identified with the great mother-goddess, Demeter, whose mourning for Persephone was the main feature in the Eleusinian mysteries. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. Now when Christianity triumphed we find that these same paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and child with little or no difference.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 123\ In fact archaeologists are often left in confusion in attempting to distinguish the one from the other. 22

It is also interesting to note that in the second century a story began to spread stating that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels.\[Footnote:] The spreading of this story has been attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis.\ In the sixth century a festival came to be celebrated around this event known as the festival of Assumption, and it is now one of the greatest feasts of Roman Catholicism. It is celebrated annually on August 13th. But it was this very date that the festival of Dianna or Artemis was celebrated, with whom Isis was identified. Here we see how Mary gradually came to take the place of the goddess.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 125.\ 23

The Influence Of The Greater Mysteries At Eleusis

In the first century of the Christian era the Eleusinian mystery cult was more favorable known than any of the cults of Greece. 24  Its fame and popularity was largely due to the connexion of Eleusis with Athens. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Some writers traced its origin to Egypt while others upheld Eleusis in Greece as the place of its birth.

In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, we must turn to the myth of the rape of Demeter’s daughter by Pluto. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. In this myth, Persephone is depicted playing in the meadows of Mysia in Asia with the daughters of Oceanus and Tithys. While playing she was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride. The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days in search for her lost daughter, 25  As a result of her wandering, she came to Eleusis where she was seen, although not recognized, by the four daughters of Kekeas sitting near a public well called the Fountain of Maidenhood. After telling a fictitious tale of her escape from pirates, she won the sympathy of the girls who took her home and at her own request was given a job to nurse their infant brother, Demophon. After making herself known, she commanded the people of Eleusis to build her a temple. In connection with the temple, she established certain ceremonies and rites for her worship.

During her short stay at the temple of Eleusis, the whole earth grew barren. Men began to die for the lack of food while the sacrifices to the gods decreased in number because the animals were dying out. The other gods pleaded with her to relent but she refused to do so until Persephone was restored to her. Pluto, (also called Hades) therefore, at the request of Zeus released her but not before he had caused her to eat a pomegranate seed which magically required her return after a period of time. Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and institute in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life. 26

The significance of this story is immediately clear. It was a nature myth portraying a vivid and realistic picture of the action of life in the vegetable world in regards to the changing seasons. Every year nature passes through a cycle of apparent death and resurrection. In winter, all plants die, this represents the period of Demeter’s grief over her daughter. Spring, the time when all plants come back to life, indicates the return of plenty when the goddess maintains all life until autumn when her daughter returns to Hades and the earth becomes once more desolated.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, op. cit., p. 42.\ 27

The myth is also an example of poignant human experience, reflecting the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in the face of death. The mysteries of human life and death are vividly enacted by Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. Hades, the god of death, stole the beloved daughter, Persephone, from Demeter, the life giver, who refused to admit defeat until she secured her daughter’s resurrection. In this legend, human beings, who are always loved and lost, are depicted as never or seldom loosing hope for reunion with their God. These fundamental human experiences and the life of nature are the main substances of the Eleusinian Mysteries. 28  To the searchers of salvation, the Eleusinian cult offered not only the promise of a happy future, but also a definite assurance of it.\[Footnote:] Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion, p. 54.\

Now when we observe the modern Greek Easter festival it seems certain that it preserves the spirit if not the form of the old Eleusinian worship. In the spring, those who had shared Demeter’s grief for the loss of her daugher welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. And today similar experiences are represented by Greek Christians. After mourning over the dead Christ, represented most conspicuously by a wax image carried through the streets, there comes an announcement by the priest, on the midnight before Easter Sunday, that Christ is risen. At this moment the light from the candle of the priest is passed on to light the candles of his companions; guns and firecrackers are discharged as they prepare to break the Lenten fast.\[Footnote:] Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 288.\ 29  As in the Eleusinian mysteries the modern Greek Christian finds this a moment of supreme joy. So we might say that Eleusinianism was not blotted out by Christianity. On the contrary many of its forms and some of its old content has been perpetuated in Christianity. 30

The Influence of Mithraism

Mithraism is perhaps the greatest example of paganism’s last effort to reconcile itself to the great spiritual movement which was gaining such sturdy influence with its purer conception of God.\[Footnote:] Dill, Roman Society From Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 585.\ Ernest Renan, the French philosopher and Orientalist, expressed the opinion that Mithraism would have been the religion of the modern world if anything had occured to halt or destroy the growth of Christianity in the early centuries of its existence. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. It was suppressed by the Christians sometime in the latter part of the fourth century a.d.; but its collapse seems to have been due to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and practices had been adopted by the church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival. 31

Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but at the time of Christ he had come to be co-equal with Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Being. 32  He possessed many attributes, the most important being his office of defender of truth and all good things. In the Avesta,\[Footnote:] This is the sacred book of the religion of Iran.\ Mithra is represented as the genius of celestial light. He emerges from the rocky summits of eastern mountains at dawn, and goes through heaven with a team of four white horses; when the night falls he still illumines the surface of the earth, “ever walking, ever watchful.” He is not sun or moon or any star, but a spirit of light, ever wakeful, watching with a hundred eyes. He hears all and sees all: none can deceive him.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. 2, 3.\ 33  Tarsus, the home of Saint Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship; and there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Such designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, The Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions seem to come directly from Mithraic influence.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 129.\ 34

Again tradition has it that Mithra was born from a rock, “the god out of the rock.” It must also be noticed that his worship was always conducted in a cave. Now it seems that the general belief of the early church that Jesus was born in a cave grows directly out of Mithraic ideas. The words of St. Paul, “They drank of that spiritual rock … and that rock was Christ” also seem to be {a} direct borrow from the Mithraic scriptures. 35

The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of resurrection. But when we observe a little further we find that as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; it is also interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Lord, Sunday must have been “the Lord’s Day” long before Christian use.\[Footnote:] Ibid., p. 137.\ It is also to be noticed that our Christmas, December 25th, was the birthday of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus. 36

To make the picture a little more clear, we may list a few of the similarities between these two religions: (1) Both regard Sunday as a holy day. (2) December 25 came to be considered as the anniversary of the birth of Mithra and Christ also. (3) Baptism and a communion meal were important parts of the ritual of both groups. (4) The rebirth of converts was a fundamental idea in the two cults. (5) The struggle with evil and the eventual triumph of good were essential ideas in both religions. 37  (6) In summary we may say that the belief in immortality, a mediator between god and man, the observance of certain sacramental rites, the rebirth of converts, and (in most cases) the support of high ethical ideas were common to Mithraism as well as Christianity. In fact, the comparison became so evident that many believed the Christian movement itself became a mystery cult. “Jesus was the divine Lord. He too had found the road to heaven by his suffering and resurrection. He too had God for his father. He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.”\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. cit., p. 190.\

Although the above paragraph makes it obvious that there are many similarities between these two religions, we must guard against the fallacy of seeing all similarity as direct borrowing. For an instance, the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist have been mentioned as rites, which were  preactice  {practiced} by both Christians and pagans. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. The baptismal ceremony in both cases (Christian and Pagan) was supposed to have the effect of identifying the initiate with his savior. But although baptism did not originate with the Christians, still it was not copied from the pagans. It seems instead to have been carried over from Jewish background and modified by the new ideas and beliefs of the Christians. The eucharist, likewise through similar in some respects to the communion meal of Mithraism, was not a rite borrowed from it. There are several explanations regarding the beginning of the observance of the Lord’s Supper. Some held that the sacrament was instituted by Jesus himself. Others saw it as an out-growth from Jewish precedents. Still others felt that, after the death of Jesus, the disciples saw in their common meal an opportunity to hold a kind of memorial service for him.

On the whole, early Christians were not greatly concerned about the likenesses between the Mithraic cult and their own. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. When Mithraism became widespread and powerful, it attracted so much attention that certain Christian apologists felt the need to present an explanation for the similarities in their respective characteristics. The only one they could offer was quite naive, but it was in keeping with the trends of thought in that age. They maintained that it was the work of the devil who helped to confuse men by creating a pagan imitation of the true religion. 38

There can hardly be any gainsaying of the fact that Christianity was greatly influenced by the Mystery religions, both from a ritual and a doctrinal angle. This does not mean that there was a deliberate copying on the part of Christianity. On the contrary it was generally a natural and unconscious process rather than a deliberate plan of action. Christianity was subject to the same influences from the environment as were the other cults, and it sometimes produced the same reaction. The people were conditioned by the contact with the older religions and the background and general trend of the time. 39  Dr. Shirley Jackson Case has written some words that are quite apt at this point. He says: “Following the lead of the apostle Paul, the Christian missionaries on gentile soil finally made of Christianity a more appealing religion than any of the other mystery cults. This was accomplished, not by any slavish process of imitation, but by {a} serious attempt to meet better the specific religious needs that the mysteries had awakened and nourished, and by phrasing religious assurances more convincingly in similar terminology.”\[Footnote:] Case, “The Mystery Religions,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, Edited by Vergilius Ferm, pp. 511–513\

The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. It lies in the fact that the mystery religions paved the way for the presentation of Christianity to the world of that time. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. They were themselves, in verying degrees, imperfect examples of the Galilean cult which was to replace them. They encouraged the movement away from the state religions and the philosophical systems and toward the desire for personal salvation and promise of immortality. Christianity was truly indebted to the mystery religions for this contribution, for they had done this part of the groundwork and thus opened the way for Christian missionary work. Many views, while passing out of paganism into Christianity were given a more profound and spiritual meaning by Christians, yet we must be indebted to the source. To discuss Christianity without mentioning other religions would be like discussing the greatness of the Atlantic Ocean without the slightest mention of the many tributaries that keep it flowing. 40

Christianity, however, [ strikeout illegible ] survived because it appeared to be the result of a trend in the social order or in the historical cycle of the human race. Forces have been known to delay trends but very few have stopped them. The staggering question that now arises is, what will be the next stage of man’s religious progress? Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Angus, S., The Mystery Religions and Christianity, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1925),
• Cumont, Franz, The Mysteries of Mithra, (The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago: 1910).
• Cumont, Franz, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, (The Open House Publishing Co., Chicago: 1911).
• Dill, Samuel, Roman Society From Nero To Marcus Aurelius, (Macmillan and Co., New York: 1905), pp. 585–626.
• Enslin Morton S., Christian Beginnings, (Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York: 1938), pp. 186–200.
• Frazer, J. E., Adonis, Attis, Osiris, (London, 1922), Vol. I.
• Fairbanks, Arthur, Greek Religion, (American Book Co, New York: 1910).
• Halliday, W. R., The Pagan Background of Early Christianity, (The University Press of Liverpool, London: N.D.), pp. 281–311.
• Hyde, Walter, W, Paganism To Christianity in the Roman Empire, (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia: 1946).
• Moore, George F., History of Religions, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1913), Vol. I, pp. 375–405.
• Nilsson, Martin P., Greek Popular Religion, (Columbia University Press, New York: 1940), pp. 42–64.
• Weigall Arthur, The Paganism in Our Christianity, (Hutchinson and Co. London: N.D.).
• Willoughby, Harold R., Pagan Regeneration, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1929).

1.  See “A Study of Mithraism,” 13 September–23 November 1949, pp. 211–225 in this volume.

2.  S. Angus,  The Mystery-Religions and Christianity  (London: John Murray, 1925), p. vii: “These Mysteries covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabiri to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative.”

3.  The preceding three paragraphs are similar to a passage in King’s earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 211 in this volume.

4.  Grant Showerman, introduction to Franz Cumont,  Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism  (Chicago: Open House Publishing Company, 1911), pp. xi–xii: “Christianity triumphed after long conflict … It took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them; the better elements of paganism were transferred to the new religion. ‘As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely,’ writes M. Cumont, ‘the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.’”

5.  The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 211 in this volume.

6.  The preceding paragraph is similar to passages in two of King’s earlier papers: “Light on the Old Testament from the Ancient Near East,” 14 September–24 November 1948, p. 163 in this volume; “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 212 in this volume.

7.  Harold R. Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929), p. 114: “Of these Oriental mystery religions the first to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods,… The divine personage in whom this cult centered was the  Magna Mater Deum  who was conceived as the source of all life as well as the personification of all the powers of nature.”

8.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , p. 114: “She was the ‘Great Mother’ not only ‘of all the gods,’ but ‘of all men’ as well.”

9.  Willoughby quoted from Apollonius  Argonautica  1.1098 ff. ( Pagan Regeneration , p. 115).

10.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , pp. 116–117: “With [the Great Mother] was associated a hero-divinity called Attis who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly.… Around these two divinities, the Great Mother and the god of vegetation, there grew up a confused tangle of myths in explanation of their cult rites. Various writers, pagan and Christian, gave different versions of the Cybele-Attis myth.… The specific variations in all these diverse statements do not concern us, for certain significant elements were common to all the various versions.”

11.  Arthur E. Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity  (n.p.: Putnam, 1928), p. 121: “Attis was the Good Shepherd, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, or, alternatively, of the Virgin Nana, who conceived him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the Virgin Mary.”

12.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 121–122: “In Rome the festival of his death and resurrection was annually held from March 22nd to 25th; and the connection of this religion with Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adopted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lord’s passion.”

13.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 122–123: “At this Attis festival a pine-tree was felled on March 22nd, and to its trunk an effigy of the god was fastened, Attis thus being ‘slain and hanged on a tree,’ in the Biblical phrase. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. March 24th was the Day of Blood, whereon the High Priest, who himself impersonated Attis, drew blood from his arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself, a fact which recalls to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: ‘Christ being come an High Priest … neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood … obtained eternal redemption for us.’ That night the priests went to the tomb and found it illuminated from within, and it was then discovered to be empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicings, a sacramental meal of some kind being taken, and initiates being baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be ‘born again.’”

14.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 123: “There can be no doubt that these ceremonies and beliefs deeply coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the historic facts of the Crucifixion, burial, and coming again to life of Jesus.”

15.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 115–116: “Now one of the earliest seats of Christianity was Antioch; but in that city there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Tammuz or Adonis,… This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, and, indeed, the prophet Ezekiel had found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz at the very gate of the Temple; while, in the end, the place at Bethlehem selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus (for want to [ sic ] any knowledge as to where the event had really occurred) was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god, as St. Jerome was horrified to discover—a fact which shows that Tammuz or Adonis ultimately became confused in men’s minds with Jesus Christ.”

16.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 116: “This god was believed to have suffered a cruel death, to have descended into Hell or Hades, to have risen again, and to have ascended into Heaven; and at his festival, as held in various lands, his death was bewailed, an effigy of his dead body was prepared for burial by being washed with water and anointed, and, on the next day, his resurrection was commemorated with great rejoicing, the very words ‘The Lord is risen’ probably being used. The celebration of his ascension in the sight of his worshippers was the final act of the festival.”

17.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 117: “This coincidence has, of course, led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion.”

18.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 118–119: “But there is one feature of the Gospel story which seems really to have been borrowed from the Adonis religion, and, in fact, from other pagan religions also, namely, the descent into Hell. The Apostles Creed and Athanasian Creed say that between the Friday night and the Sunday morning Jesus was in Hell or Hades;… It has no scriptural foundation except in the ambiguous words of the First Epistle of Peter; it did not appear in the Church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.”

19.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 124–125: “The popular and widespread religion of Osiris and Isis exercised considerable influence upon early Christianity, for these two great Egyptian deities, whose worship had passed into Europe, were revered in Rome and in several other centres where Christian communities were growing up. Osiris and Isis, so runs the legend, were brother and sister and also husband and wife; but Osiris was murdered, his coffined body being thrown into the Nile, and shortly afterwards the widowed and exiled Isis gave birth to a son, Horus. The coffin, meanwhile, was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree,… This tree afterwards chanced to be cut down and made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, and there Isis at length found it.… Afterwards, however, he returned to the other world to reign for ever as King of the Dead; and meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on Earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity.”

20.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 125–126: “Herodotus states that the festival of the death and resurrection of Osiris was held in Egypt each year, though he does not give the date;… Plutarch also records the annual Osirian festival, and says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian calendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th. Now we know from old Egyptian records that a feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, was held … about November 8th.”

21.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 126–127: “But the Christian feast of All Souls, in honour of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burnt all night on that occasion.… there seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival.… the festival of All Saints, which is held one day before that of All Souls and which was first recognised by the Church in a.d. 835, is undoubtedly identical with it in origin. This still stands as a festival in the ecclesiastical calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris and the commemoration of all his subjects in the Kingdom of the Dead.”

22.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 129–130: “There were two aspects of Isis which commended themselves particularly to her worshippers: firstly, that of the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and, secondly, that of the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. In the former capacity she was identified with the great mother-goddess, Demeter, whose mourning for Persephone was the main feature in the Eleusinian mysteries;… In her aspect as the mother of Horus, Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms; and when Christianity triumphed these paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and Child without any break in continuity: no archaeologist, in fact, can now tell whether some of these objects represent the one or the other.”

23.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 131–132: “At about this time a story, attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis in the Second Century, but probably of much later origin, began to spread that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels; and in the Sixth Century the festival of the Assumption, which celebrates this event, was acknowledged by the Church, and is now one of the great feasts of Roman Catholicism,… It is celebrated on August 13th; but that was the date of the great festival of Diana or Artemis, with whom Isis was identified, and one can see, thus, how Mary had gradually taken the place of the goddess.”

24.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , p. 36: “Among the cults of Greece none was more favorably known in the first century of the Christian era than the Eleusinian mysteries.”

25.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , p. 41: “In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, it is necessary clearly to keep in mind the main points of the Eleusinian myth which was developed to explain and justify the cult rites. These are stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter,… According to the story, Persephone,… was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride.… The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days.”

26.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , p. 42: “Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and instituted in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life.”

27.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , p. 42: “The experiential basis for this story is quite clear. It was a nature myth, a vivid depiction of the action of life in the vegetable world with the changing of the seasons. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. In winter vegetable life was dead while Demeter, the giver of life, grieved for the loss of her daughter. But with the coming of spring the life of nature revived again, for the sorrowing mother had received her daughter back with rejoicing. Through the summer the mother abundantly maintained the life of nature until autumn, when again her daughter returned to the underworld and earth became desolate once more.”

28.  Willoughby,  Pagan Regeneration , pp. 42–43: “It was also a reflection of poignant human experiences, mirroring the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in face of inevitable death. The three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy,… enacted the mystery of human life and death. The god of death himself stole the beloved daughter away from the life-giver; but the divine mother would not give up her loved one, and in the end she accomplished her daughter’s resurrection. Here was human experience made heroic and divine; for man has ever loved and lost, but rarely has he ceased to hope for reunion with the loved one. The Eleusinian myth told of these fundamental human experiences as well as of the life of nature.”

29.  Arthur Fairbanks,  A Handbook of Greek Religion  (New York: American Book Company, 1910), p. 288: “Certainly the Greek Easter festival seems to preserve the spirit if not the forms of the old Eleusinian worship. In the spring, those who had shared Demeter’s grief for the loss of her daughter welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. And today the Greeks mourn over the dead Christ, represented most realistically by a wax image borne through the streets on a bier; then at midnight before Easter Sunday the Metropolitan at Athens, the priest in smaller towns, comes out of the church announcing that Christ is risen; the light from his candle is passed to the candles of his companions and on to candles throughout the crowd, guns and firecrackers are discharged, and as they prepare to break their Lenten fast the multitude drop all restraint in the expression of wild joy.”

30.  Fairbanks,  Greek Religion , p. 293: “This religion was not blotted out by Christianity. On the contrary, whatever real life it had was perpetuated in Christianity, since the conquering religion had adopted many of its forms and some of the old content in these forms.”

31.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 135: “It was suppressed by the Christians in a.d. 376 and 377; but its collapse seems to have been due rather to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and ceremonies had been adopted by the Church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival.”

32.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 135–136: “Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but … already in the time of Christ he had risen to be co-equal with, though created by, Ormuzd (Ahura-Mazda), the Supreme Being.”

33.  The previous five sentences are similar to a passage in King’s earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 213–214 in this volume. Franz Cumont,  The Mysteries of Mithra  (Chicago: Open Court, 1910), pp. 2–3: “In the Avesta, Mithra is the genius of the celestial light. He appears before sunrise on the rocky summits of the mountains; during the day he traverses the wide firmament in his chariot drawn by four white horses, and when night falls he still illumines with flickering glow the surface of the earth, ‘ever waking, ever watchful.’ He is neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, but with ‘his hundred ears and his hundred eyes’ watches constantly the world. Mithra hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him.”

34.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 136–137: “Tarsus, the home of St. Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship, being the chief city of the Cilicians; and, as will presently appear, there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Thus the designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, the Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions, are borrowed from or related to Mithraic phraseology.”

35.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 137: “Mithra was born from a rock, as shown in Mithraic sculptures, being sometimes termed ‘the god out of the rock,’ and his worship was always conducted in a cave; and the general belief in the early Church that Jesus was born in a cave is a direct instance of the taking over of Mithraic ideas. The words of St. Paul, ‘They drank of that spiritual rock … and that rock was Christ’ are borrowed from the Mithraic scriptures.”

36.  Weigall,  Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 145: “The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of the resurrection, but largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance. But, as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; and it is interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as  Dominus , ‘Lord,’ Sunday must have been ‘the Lord’s Day’ long before Christian times.… December 25th was the birthday of the sun-god, and particularly of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.”

37.  The preceding five sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 222–223 in this volume.

38.  The preceding two paragraphs are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 223–224 in this volume.

39.  The preceding four sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 224 in this volume.

40.  The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 224 in this volume.

Source:  MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.

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Martin Luther King Jr’s family to visit Memphis on anniversary of his murder

The relatives of slain civil rights leader will visit Tennessee city to bring attention to erosion of civil rights in US

Relatives of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr are making a rare trip to Memphis on Thursday on the anniversary of his assassination, to speak on the rising threat of political violence, especially in an election year.

Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late King, will pay tribute to his father’s legacy, 56 years after the assassination in the Tennessee city.

King was shot and killed in 1968 as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis.

On Thursday, King III will host a public celebration of of his father’s life and activism at the historic National Civil Rights Museum, which is located near the Lorraine motel, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported .

The event will end with a moment of silence, marking the time when King was killed.

Relatives of King do not generally make the pilgrimage to Memphis, and certainly not as a family unit, but have said they felt it was necessary to do so during a presidential election year in which the US is so divided and violent rhetoric is becoming routine, chiefly from the far right.

“This is the first year that we actually are going back as a family to Memphis, and we felt that it was extraordinarily important to be there in that spot this year,” King III’s wife, Arndrea Waters King, said to Axios .

King III told Axios that his family was growing concerned at the lack of civility in politics.

“We believe we have to go into difficult areas, to use our platform, to use our voice to lift up what we believe is good, just and right. And so we’re willing to make a sacrifice,” King III said, adding that the family was determined to visit Memphis in spite of its painful associations.

Arndrea Waters King added that the latest commemoration of King’s legacy and untimely death comes as civil rights in the US are eroding .

“We feel that in some ways there’s a backward movement from the dream,” she said to Memphis Magazine .

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“Laws are being passed where our daughter – Dr King’s only grandchild – has fewer rights now at 16 than the day that she was born,” she added, referring to her daughter, 15-year-old Yolanda Renee King.

In recent years, the supreme court has rolled back federal abortion protections and affirmative action , which promoted greater student diversity at US colleges and universities.

King III has also spoken out against attacks on voting rights, especially as the US Senate failed to pass meaningful voting rights legislation in 2022 and the supreme court further eroded protections.

“We’re gonna continue to push to get something done. Because to me, it’s fundamental to the foundation of our democracy. It’s those on the other side who seem to have lost the perception of what democracy is,” King III said of voting rights in a 2022 interview.

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