Comparing Section 26.7 to Section 27.6 from American Issues

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Stokely Carmichael had the same basic principal in mind: equality. The means of getting it, however, were much different in their philosophy and in obtaining their goal. Through much determination and dedication, equality has come a long way through both of these leaders, bringing people of all races closer, redefining the meaning of “American”.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who believed in protesting with peace in mind, believing that violence wasn’t a key factor in obtaining equal rights. His harmonic vision is not to be confused with weakness, as the road leading to this vision was clouded with obstacles. Police forces, racist white southerners, and other believers in the “old way of life” with slavery being a vivid justification of inferiority used methods to stop this movement, including attack dogs, using tear gas to break up peaceful protests, and launching counterattacks to try and sweep this issue under the rug. Even with this in mind, Dr. King still wanted equality, a way to peacefully get out from under the white society’s thumb and become equivalent to the oppressors. He was a firm believer in the law, and so he stressed that this issue could only be resolved by something set in stone; engraving this into America’s guiding principle.

Stokely Carmichael, on the other hand, had enough of the white’s power over the black society, calling them “white power structures”. He wrote a book with Charles V. Hamilton, showing his frustrations of lack of representation of African Americans and that society hadn’t really changed much, still influenced by views of inferiority, entitled The Politics of Liberation in America. This helps describe what African American citizens were going through, fueling a new phase of understanding and willingness for change, contrary to peaceful demonstrations, that would sometimes get overlooked. The white society had total control over everything the African Americans did. Examples from the text would be the reference to the sleazy, cheap landlord charging great expenses to the black tenants, without enforcement from federal housing authorities for general upkeep and the police officer who looks the other way when a white man is clearly at fault when in conflict with a black man. This, and representatives not informed of the majority opinion are specially selected to be a representative because they are black and not that they can represent the majority opinion, which angered many people. With this in mind, Black Power decided that if white America couldn’t provide this, they would create it, with an influx of black culture, new ambitions, and new ideals, instead of conforming to the controlling ways of the white Americans.

Black Power worked more towards educating blacks of the rights they should be entitled to, with or without the law, and Dr. King worked towards getting acceptance among the American people, especially in the law system. With both of these parties in participation, it was only a matter of time before someone broke this racial and moral barrier, which happened to come along with Dr. King and his methods of peaceful protest. In this case, the end was just as important as the means, as well as both parties having a significant effect on racial equality, as this struggle for freedom was awarded with equality.