Martin Luther King NotesFriday, November 05, 201012:22 PM

Martin Luther King's essays are both a narration of his experiences as well as the key topics:

Key topics Racial inequality and non-violence resistance.Context: What was happening in his life during the essayGaps and Silences

People who are silenced, to persuade readers of his view

Exaggeration MLK uses exaggeration and hyperbole to persuade readers, however the fact remains that there was a basis to this exaggeration which came from his own life experiences (his house was bombed, violence was inflicted)

Emotive Language

He has a strong use of emotive language

Perspective He arranges idea from the view of racial equality. You must take into consideration who is audience is, the first one being for a Christian audience. You have to make the connection between what he says and how it connects to his specific audience as well as how his essays change with each audience.His last audience is the SNCC (student nonviolent coordinating committee)

Sources Consider where his information is coming from, where his facts and statistics are coming from.

Tone The tone changes throughout his essays, especially with his I have a dream speech which begins negatively and ends on a hopeful and positive note.

** Make sure to get Martin Luther King's Achievements the trail is: Martin Luther King -> Background information - Author Terms

SNCC (student nonviolent coordinating committee) - one of Martin Luther King's audiences. He tried to involve everyone and this group was young, proactive.

Civil Right Act of 1964 : The protest that Martin led, resulted in this civil right act. Up until this point it was easy for people to be racist, but many innocent victimised joint forces with Martin in the protest.

Congress of Racial Equality : In 1957 King came with other negro Christian leaders and formed the Sothern Christian Leadership conference (which King is a president of) and they often cooperate with the Congress of Racial Equality.

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People : Ghandi who protested using non-violent direct tactics, which drew attention to this cause.

King used Ghandi's technique where the less they resisted, the more violent the police became and the more victimised they appeared by the wider public, highlighting their situation.

Personalism : Popular in Boston university when he was a student there, it highlights social engagement as part of a Christian morals.

Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee: This committee, while shared the views of other non-violent Christian focused committees (Southern Christian Leadership Committee who had a wider appeal), adopted military rather than non-violent tactics and appealed to younger negros. Christian Century 77: Monthly magazine, based in Chicago which was mainly Protestant (Church of England/Anglican). Contained cultural issues, and was about modern Christian liberation. The first two Martin Luther King essays came from this magazine [Nonviolence and Racial Justice and Suffering and Faith] Time Line

1955, King is a pastor and he is arrested and his house is bombed 1856, Our Struggle is written. Written for Liberation one, a liberation

magazine for the new left, a new student organisation. It has ideological ideas but is about social activism and is related to the Black Social movement and the Black Pantha movement. This was the most radical magazine that any of the essays we read was featured in. The audience was mostly young radical students, who didn't agree with his non-violent means of protest.

In a word now was written New York Times magazine, is the Saturday supplement to the NYT paper. The magazine was for a very educated audience who held liberal views. Many well known people wrote the articles featured.

1957, King organises the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Nonviolence and Racial Justice is written, after travelling overseas to do research and when he was beginning to become well known by a wider audience.

1960, Suffering and Faith was written. This was when King became very well known and powerful. King is arrested for protesting, charges are dropped but the is imprisoned for infringement of a driving probation. JF Kennedy intercedes and releases Martin Luther King and 8 days later wins the presidential election.

1966: King is losing power as his opinions are being criticised and for not making enough progress (progress criticised by black militants)

Gift of Love written for Macualls magazine that was read by many women. They often had many influential people write in the magazine, including Eleanor Roosevelt who wrote a magazine. The magazine had a readership of 8.4 million people, who were predominantly a female audience. Suffering and Faith

Purpose Talk about his own suffering. To be looked at through a religious perspective in respect to the Christian Audience of this essay