Barack Obama And Martin Luther King Jr

Barack Obama And Martin Luther King Jr

Running Head Barack Obama And Martin Luther King Jr

BARACK OBAMA AND MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 2 BARACK OBAMA AND MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Comment by Tracy: [Can you think of a more effective title? A title should summarize the main idea of the paper, and the recommended length for a title is 10-12 words.] Review proper format for essay titles on an APA title page. 201511 Two times in American History, actually three, are endlessly significant and will always remain timeless. The first is the civil Rights Movement and its era especially towards the end of segregation in the sixties.

The other moment is the election of the first black American president in Americas History. Martin Luther King Jr. is a defining figure of the civil Rights Movement. The movement fought for equality and an end to racial segregation and discrimination against the blacks. As a matter of fact, King’s struggles ended with him being assassinated despite the numerous achievements towards equality (Burrows, 2013). By having Barack Obama elected as the first Black American president in the US, the very dream that Martin Luther had so much fought for was more than just realized.

Obama was a realization of Martin Luther King’s dream. Comment by Tracy: [You seem to be wrestling with quite complex concepts, and consequently, it is easy for your meaning to become muddled. Aim for clarity and exact simplicity.] Comment by Tracy: [Eliminate unnecessary capitalization] Comment by Tracy: [Capitalize] Review proper use of capital letters and correct all. Comment by Tracy: How so? Comment by Tracy: this contradicts your previous sentence.

Figure out what you want to say and be explicit in your thesis. Otherwise, good introduction! You do a good job of introducing your topic and focus, and transition between ideas very well. Good work! Despite this obvious relationship, the two leaders are extremely different but of course there are a number of similarities.

Obama is born of a Kenyan Father, Barack Obama Sr. and a white mother, Ann Dunham (Zeitler, 2012), while both of King’s, Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams parents were black. The families of the two had a great impact on their lives. The father to junior king was a Baptist minister and this resulted to the son becoming a minister too. His mother too had close links to the Baptist work having been a daughter and eventually a wife to, a minister. The equality that God see humans as having had a huge impact on King’s decision to fight for equality.

On the other hand, Barack senior was an educationist and so was Barack junior’s mother, Ann Dunham. At a point in time, Obama Barack shared this for a while when in 1991 he accepted to be a Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School after which he lectured at constitutional law at the university of Chicago for twelve years. This implied that the parents had, either directly or indirectly, a partial influence over their sons’ early careers. Comment by Tracy: This doesn’t really say anything. Be clear and precise in your writing.

Say exactly what you are arguing in this paragraph (a topic sentence). Comment by Tracy: Where are your sources? Failure to cite your sources in each sentence is plagiarism. The penalty for plagiarism at UOP is a zero on the assignment, an F in the class, and / or expulsion from the university. See UOP policy on plagiarism and academic honesty.

What’s more important though of the two is in the roles that they had in the society especially for the blacks. Martin Luther fought for inclusion of the blacks in the right to vote. It is just but one of the several rights that the black people had been denied for ages despite. Barack Obama on his part had a role to register black voters. Starting 1992, Obama directed the ‘Project Vote’ in Illinois which aimed at registering unregistered black American voters who had not been registered.

Alongside his crew, he managed to have voters – of the unregistered voters - registered within the state. This led to Crain's Chicago Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be (Pederson, 2011). This wasn’t the only act for the public that made Obama so similar to Martin Luther King and especially in his efforts for racial injustices. Although not very well known to the public domain, in 2003 Obama sponsored and led to a unanimous and bipartisan passage of legislation that monitored racial profiling that required drivers to record the race of drivers they detained. While he was campaigning in 2004, police credited Obama for his active engagement with the police in enacting of reforms regarding the death penalty.

Obama also engaged in community service. Between 1985 and 1988, he was hired as the director of the Developing Communities Project which was a church based community organization where he helped in setting up of job training programs and college preparatory tutoring programs. Comment by Tracy: [Avoid the use of contractions in formal writing (e.g., Don't = do not)] Comment by Tracy: Okay. You can use this a topic sentence for two paragraphs; one on Dr. King, one on President Obama.

You are trying to cram too much into paragraphs and aren’t covering either very well as a result. Please review my post on TRIAC to help you write solid supporting paragraphs. Use that formula for each of your body paragraphs to help you develop a clear argument. Comment by Tracy: correct all. Comment by Tracy: One way to check for paragraph unity is to read the first and last sentences of a paragraph. Are they on the same point? Or has something shifted in the body of the paragraph? On the other hand, Luther King Jr. was a church minister who championed for equality without following any structural employment. His work was devotional. This is a contrast difference with Obama who served as an employee in most of his works.

Unlike Obama, he was defiant and boycotted legislation – while Obama has championed for various legislations although not targeting any racial group. His ‘I have a dream’ speech placed him among Historical figures such as Booker T. Washington and W. E Dubois if not even bigger. Even when Obama was a senator and even before, he was very subtle and unspoken on racism (Obama, 2004).

His approach on the subject has always been extremely cautious. This has been increased by his election to presidency whereby he represents a multiethnic, multicultural country being a focal point where all the groups of people demand equal attention. His condemnation of racial injustices happened once in a while especially with regards to racial shootings of Charlestown Gun shootings. Instead of just condoning racism, he called for more gun control. Even his very words were extremely cautious.

Comment by Tracy: This won’t work because the previous paragraph was also about King. See how this is all jumbled together? Try to pull these points out and use paragraphing to your (and your reader’s) benefit. “The fact that this took place in a black church obviously also raises questions about a dark part of our history. This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked. And we know that hatred across races and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals.” (Roberts, 2015). Comment by Tracy: [Direct quotations greater than 40 words must be blocked and indented. Block quotations do not have quotation marks (except those already included in the source material).] This statement is different from those made by King who was an obvious radical filled with disapproval for white supremacy. In what highly connects the two leaders, Obama quoted King’s Words when in 1963, a church was bombed in Alabama, with him as the obvious target: “We must be concerned not just with who murdered them, but the way of life, the philosophy that produced the murderers.” (Roberts, 2015).

Finally, while Obama openly calls for equal rights for gays, lesbians and transsexuals, King was against these. Apparently, as a church minister, there was no place for ‘ungodly acts’ even for his own assistant. Bayard Rustin was a close friend of Kings and despite him helping Martin with organizing ‘March on Washington’ he still ejected Rustin out for being gay and a socialist (Burrows, 2013). Although for different reasons, both Obama and Martin are Nobel peace Laureates. All in all, the two leaders are great milestones with regards to the history of the United States of America as well as its making.

While Luther King looked forward to what he called a ‘promised land’ that he had seen while on a ‘mountain top’ – a proclamation he made among the last words before his assassination following bombing of a church in Alabama with him as the target – Barack Obama is a symbol of that ‘Promised Land’ that Luther has once famously talked of in his ‘I have a dream’ speech. Although he referred to a situation where ‘his children’ would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, he referred to every black person. By Obama being elected president, this dream was effectively realized. It is bot the color of his skin that took him to the white house but the content of his character.

References

• Burrows, C. (2013). Martin Luther King. Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets.
• Obama, B. (2004). Dreams from my father: A story of race and inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press.
• Pederson, W. (2011). Rise of Obama. The Barack Obama Presidency.
• Roberts, D. (2015, June 18). Charleston church shooting: Obama calls for gun control in wake of tragedy. The Guardian.
• Zeidler, M. (2012). Race and identity in Barack Obama's Dreams from my father: A collection of critical essays. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.