Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from inside Birmingham jail provided a great insight to what injustices non-white Americans faced on a day to day basis. The struggles that MLK Jr. describes are heart wrenching, like trying to explain to your children why all the white people are treating them so cruelly. Something that I found very intereasting was that he believed that the white churches would do the right thing and support his movement, but turned out that many of the churches were either against him outright, or even if they did agree with his views, they didn't do anything about it and just kept quiet.
Barack Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech has given me a much better idea on where he comes from and what he is all about. Obama has stated that he has relatives of many different races and colors, and says that the United States is the only place that this could have ever been possible. At the same time, he is says that Dr. King's dream is not yet completed because there is still racial discrimination in America. Another part that I found intereasting in his speech was his conclusion, where he told a story about a woman named Ashley who had a very inspiring story on why she was supporting Barack, and when she went around the room asking everyone else why they were there supporting, she got to a man who said that he was there because of Ashley. That story really proves that if you have great faith, and are willing to do something truley good to benefit someone else, people will see through to that and follow your greatness.
There are many things that MLK and Obama have in common, but one of the biggest similarities between the two is their Christian faith. That faith has done wonders for MLK, by helping him take a nonviolent approach to ending segregation. It helped him not fight back when the police would imprison him for bogus charges, and when people would criticize and even physically hurt him. That faith has also been great for Obama by helping him gain the strength to take a stand and keep him on track.
Another stance that they both shared was trying to totally equalize the black and white communities. Obviously, MLK Jr's equality was much harder to gain, because he was at the center of the civil rights movement, and at the time America was much more narrow minded than it is today. Obama stated that even though we have made great strides since MLK, we still are not done yet, being that still to this day, some formerly segregated schools that relmain predominately black/white and the black schools have been, and will continue to be infirior to the facilities in the white schools.
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