Humanities Homework Help

For this assignment we’ll be listening to 3 speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These speeches were given in late 1967 just a few months before his assassination. They were published as ‘The Trumpet of Conscience’. By this point the Civil Rights Movement had successfully begun the dismantling of de jure, Jim Crow discrimination and pivoted to fighting the three evils,identified by King, of racism, poverty and militarism. King argued that fighting these interrelated structures of oppression would be even harder than Jim Crow.

Listen to all three speeches then respond to the corresponding questions. Each response should be no more than 250 words.

The Impasse in Race Relations (Links to an external site.)

Do you agree with King’s assessment of white society and the privileges it is trying to hold onto? Do you agree with his contention that rioting, while inexcusable, still communicates a message that must be heard and is less of a sin than the inequality and deprivation that led to them?

Youth and Social Action (Links to an external site.)

King separates young people into three main categories. Strugglers, radicals and hippies. Which group do you feel like you fall into and why? If you don’t feel a part of one of those groups is there another you feel like you’re a part of? What defines that group and how does it relate to society?

Nonviolence and Social Change (Links to an external site.)

King argues that ‘massive civil disobedience’ create ‘drama’ and ‘creative tension’ capable of making ‘a great deal of history’. Do you agree with King’s position? Reflect on the ongoing uprisings against police brutality and economic injustice in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Andres Guardado in your answer.