This study analyzes five speeches delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. to determine the ways in which King used the elements of prophetic rhetoric. It examines the major Old Testament prophets, Amos and Ezekiel specifically, for parallels in the following areas: (1) the life, personality, and spiritual calling of the prophet, (2) the language, prophecies, and central themes of the prophet's message, and (3) the historical period in which the prophet lived and the events that created a need for the rhetoric of prophecy.

The aim of this thesis is to assess Martin Luther King Jr.’s theory, practice, and pragmatic function of Nonviolent Direct Action, and to propose that it must be understood as violent in a substantive way. The purpose of interpreting King’s Nonviolent Direct Action as violent is to show the efficacy of the theory, which is to fend off critiques of futility and to expose the psychological and philosophical depth of the seemingly simple tactic. Nonviolent Direct Action is commonly considered to be a method of civil disobedience that aims to motivate substantial social or political change without a physically violent clash. However, this thesis identifies more fundamentally the presence of an intention to inflict a harmful or painful psychological effect on those it is directed against, to affect a response from the conscience that motivates a change of behaviour. For that, there must be a strategic staging of events by the oppressed and their supporters who are unable and unwilling to overcome the oppressor on traditionally physically violent terms. The unviability of traditional violence for the oppressed group necessitates a reliance on a psychological tactic to invoke negative emotion in the oppressor. After an introductory chapter, this thesis will proceed to reconstruct King’s theory of nonviolence by examining a collection of his written works, written records of his sermons and speeches, and Jonathan Eig’s biography King: A Life. Next, a chapter is devoted to analyzing the novel categorization in this thesis of Nonviolent Direct Action as violent by considering what psychological violence means, and how other nonviolent tactics that exclude psychological violence are insufficient to effect social or political change in contexts of the oppression of Black Americans. The fourth chapter examines Richard Gregg’s book The Power of Nonviolence, which supports the case for the use of nonviolent tactics in the face of physically violent oppression. Maintaining, among other things, that nonviolent tactics promote the well-being of the oppressor and the oppressed and allow for good standing between the groups in the future. The fifth chapter contains an exposition of William James’s work including Principles of Psychology and other essays. Comparisons between James’s theory and King’s practice will be drawn, especially concerning their positions on innate moral feelings of harmony, dissonance, and the moral universe. The sixth chapter will make concluding remarks.

Den här uppsatsen är en kritisk analys av King och hans ickevåldsideologi. Uppsatsens syfte och avgränsning är att granska och redogöra för den ideologi som King genom sina tal, predikningar och övriga skrifter redogjorde för. Metoden jag använt mig av är att systematisera Kings ideologi för att därefter analysera den. Efter en kritisk granskning av Kings ickevåldsideologi står det klart att den är koherent, men att hans argumentation emellanåt är bristfällig. I synnerhet brister King vid en rimlighetsprövning.                       Kings ickevåldsideologi utgick från en teocentrisk världsbild med naturrättslig filosofi. Han menade att alla människor är skapade till Guds avbild och att alla människor har möjligheten att göra gott. Kings ickevåldsideologi grundar sig på aktivt motstånd där människan med kärleken som redskap och civil olydnad kan åstadkomma samhällsförändringar. Han tog tydligt avstånd från all typ av våldshandlingar och menade att våld aldrig medför en varaktig förändring, att våld är omoraliskt och ovärdigt en människa samt att ickevåld är det enda sättet att förändra samhällsproblem sett ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv. / The purpose of this Master thesis is to give an account of and review the ideology yhat King presented through his preaching, speeches and other sources. The metod I have chosen for this purpose is to systematize King’s ideology and the to critically analyze it. When doing so I have discoverd that King’s non-violent ideology is coherent, but that his argumentation is somewhat defective, especially when examing its plausibility.                      King’s non-violence ideology was based on a theocentric wordview and a natural law pholosophy. He tought that all men are created in the image of God and that all humans have the possibility to do good. King’s non-violence ideology is based on active resistance where people use love and civil disobedience as tools to enforce subversive changes. King was against all types of violent actions and stated that violence never leads to sustainable change, that violence is immoral and unworthy of any human. King also said that non-violence is the only way to combat societal problems in a long-term perspective.

The aim of this piece of research is to analyze how Martin Luther King Jr. was portrayed in three U.S newspapers based on framing theory. Through the use of qualitative frame analysis, ten newspaper articles are studied from the period 20/04/1967-11/05/1967. The dates were selected in relation to King’s public opposition to the Vietnam war. The results show that the articles are in most cases characterized by a focus on difference of opinion, polemic responses, and appeals to MLK to stop opposing the war. When understood from the lens of framing theory, this way of writing has been termed the conflict frame. Furthermore, three classroom tasks related to the newspaper articles are suggested. These activities are based on the Swedish curriculum for teaching English as a second language, schema theory, and framing theory.

<p>Up until the 19th century, religion was used as a way of legitimizing slavery in America. With the rise of the civil rights movement religion seems to have played a quite different role. This essay aims to explore the role of religion in the ideologies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The speeches, writings and actions of these two men have been analysed in hope that the result will contribute to the larger study of American civil rights history.</p><p>This essay proposes that both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X infused their political message with religious ideas and that they leaned on religion for support and inspiration. By analysing the discourse headed by King and X it becomes clear that in direct contrast to how religion was used during slavery, religion was used as a way of legitimizing equality (and in some cases black superiority) between races during the civil rights movement.</p>

Up until the 19th century, religion was used as a way of legitimizing slavery in America. With the rise of the civil rights movement religion seems to have played a quite different role. This essay aims to explore the role of religion in the ideologies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The speeches, writings and actions of these two men have been analysed in hope that the result will contribute to the larger study of American civil rights history. This essay proposes that both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X infused their political message with religious ideas and that they leaned on religion for support and inspiration. By analysing the discourse headed by King and X it becomes clear that in direct contrast to how religion was used during slavery, religion was used as a way of legitimizing equality (and in some cases black superiority) between races during the civil rights movement.

This thesis examines the crucial role of spirituals and freedom songs during the American Civil Rights movement from 1955-1968. Singing this music and speaking their lyrics affirmed African Americans' humanity, inspired hope for justice, and nurtured community development. When they sang, activists experienced "egalitarian resonance"-- spontaneous community among singers and listeners crossing race, age, gender, and class differences. These moments modeled the ideal American, multiracial community. In the absence of a 24/7 news cycle, freedom songs instantly provided a grassroots history of the movement. Both artistic expression and vocal protest, spirituals testified to the resilience of the human spirit. Created by African American slaves, spirituals expressed human psychological, emotional, and physical suffering. During twentieth-century segregation, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Howard Thurman wrote about spirituals and racial oppression. They understood spirituals expressed hope for justice despite despair. During the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted spirituals and freedom songs, linking past suffering with present persecution. Forming part of nonviolent protest, spirituals offered hope for an all-inclusive, "beloved community." Between 1955 and 1968, freedom songs chronicled events and persons, orally recording the movement as it happened. Protesters sang long-established spirituals and newly-created freedom songs composed while working to open public facilities and to expand the franchise to all persons. Singing together in mass meetings solidified the resolve of participants and community members. When the movement spread from a regional to national phenomenon, freedom songs began showing other music influences including blues, rock and roll, and folk rock.

This thesis examines the controversy surrounding the renaming of a street for Martin Luther King, Jr. in the city of Zephyrhills, Florida in 2003-2004. By paying close attention to the language deployed during a series of contentious city council meetings, the thesis traces how Zephyrhills' divisive history and neoliberal spatial order kept white residents from grappling with the city's legacy of racism, inequality, residential segregation, and the memory of the Civil Rights movement. Ultimately, it reveals Americans' limited capacity to recognize and discuss race in the post-Civil Rights era. / History

The seven-and-a-half-hour series of funeral rites that occurred in Atlanta on April 9, 1968 in honor of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. were broadcast live to 120 million U.S. television viewers and reported extensively in local and national newspapers and magazines. While King's April 4 assassination triggered deadly riots in more than 100 cities, Atlanta remained peaceful before and during the funeral. In this research thesis I explore how the funeral was leveraged by three disparate stakeholder group's King's family, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Atlanta's liberal white leadership- to stage image events. I create a historiography for each group that draws on primary sources and original interviews. Using an intertextual approach I conduct qualitative content analysis of the media coverage generated by each group's actions, identifying seven major messages that emerged.

”I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther Kings jrs. starka stämma ekade ut ur högtalarsystemet och de 250 000 medborgarrättsaktivisterna som var samlade vid George Washington monumentet i USA:s huvudstad  instämde i ett jublande bifall. Året var 1963 och Martin Luther King jr., hade i nio år varit känd som den amerikanska medborgarrättsrörelsens främste talesman, när han i sitt tal till det amerikanska folket yttrade sin vision för det amerikanska samhällets framtid.      Denna uppsats beskriver det afro-amerikanskafolkets historia, från slaveriets bojor i de Nordamerikanska kolonierna i slutet av 1600-talet, till kampen för fullständiga medborgerliga rättigheter i 1950- och 60-talets USA. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka religionens betydelse för det afro-amerikanska folket, samt studera Martin Luther King jrs. inflytande över den amerikanska medborgarrättsrörelsen och dess användande av icke-våldsmetoder som medel för att nå samhällsomvandling.