A Life of Martin Luther King`s Junior - Essay Example

?Arguably, Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the greatest, and perhaps the most famous Black American. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Noted for his contribution in the religious field, Martin Luther is credited for his protests against bus segregation, an action he organized with other friends. His grandfather and father were both church ministers at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta. They inspired Martin, who later engaged extensively in preaching. His mother was a tutor, a distinctive advantage to Martin. His mother academic inspiration made him learn how to read long before he attended school. Biographers document that King succeeded in the medicine and law careers. He read several motivational books, especially Gadhi ideas, which ultimately convinced him that blacks had a place in America. In his long academic and religious journey, Luther made outstanding contributions in fighting for civil rights for the blacks in America. Martin had two siblings, his elder sister Willie Christine King, and his younger brother Alfred Daniel King. As from 1960 until his father’s death, he acted as a co-pastor at Ebenezer Church. He was ordained in 1947. As a young student exhibiting excellence in class, he skipped two grades: one in elementary school and another in high school. His hobbies were reading books, bicycle riding, and singing. He also played baseball and football. Having attended segregated schools in Georgia, he graduated at an early age of 15 years from high school and successfully received his B. A. degree from Morehouse College in 1948. The Racism he experienced at his early age and his life experience made him make a conviction of making the world a better and fair place for coming generations. After graduating, he got married to Coretta Scott in 1953, became a minister at a Baptist church in Montgomery in 1954, and later moved to Alabama. He earned his doctoral degree in 1955. In his 1950’s, Dr. King began active movements for civil and equal rights. He protested against unfair treatment of people of African-American decency. This is evident in peaceful demonstrations that took place in Montgomery and Alabama. In the same years, he led the black boycott in 1955 that segregated city passenger bus. He received major victory in 1956 as civil-rights leader when those buses started operating on desegregated basis. Later, he formed an organization Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that acted as a strong hold for him to continue pursuing civil-rights activities further. His nonviolent resistance philosophy landed him into numerous arrests at different and separate occasions in 1950’s and in 1960’s. He also suffered a major setback when his house was bombed in 1956. As an author, he published his first book “Stride towards Freedom” in 1958. In the steps of Washington D. C. at the Lincoln Memorial, Rev. Dr. King, delivered his speech for the first time where he stressed termination of whites’ racial discrimination against African-Americans in August 28, 1963. Although his protests received mixed reactions, leaders for Alabama and Birmingham brought him at a center stage worldwide. In August the same year, he brought together over 200,000 people of all lifestyles for “March on Washington”, purposefully for jobs and freedom. He was rewarded the Nobel peace prize in 1964 due to his explicit actions. He met his death on April, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee after he was short dead as he stood at the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, which has since then been turned into a civil-rights museum. Martin Luther’s distinct and admirable character makes his life relates to several psycho stages. Of these psycho stages, birth order complex can closely be linked to his life. Birth order complex is a psycho stage developed by Alfred Adler, a medical doctor from Australia. According to the psychotherapist, the ranking of children within in a family influence the child’s personality and behavior. Although controversy exists among psychologists and child development experts in coming to an agreement of whether or not the psycho stage impacts the personality and behavior of children, from King’s biography, the impact is evident. As an individual’s rank by age within other siblings, birth order has a great influence to personality. Just as Alfred Adler describes order of birth complex, siblings are different from one another despite sharing a common background or heritage. From order of birth complex, three levels exist. First is the oldest children believed to bear the greatest responsibility in the family. Responsible for the care of other siblings, first born children later become more responsible with their lives. They control situations and other people around them. The second level is the middle children, a level where Martin lies. Although most of the responsibility within the family is directed to the firstborn, the second born children have a role to play in protecting younger siblings. Further, they work tirelessly to compete with older siblings and gain positive traits as well. Through this, they do things that draw the attention of the parents and the world at large. Eventually, they develop unique and outgoing characteristics that make them garner the required attention. The stated attention could be realized through academic achievement or special talents of leadership within and without the family. This is typical in Martin’s life in that, out of the three children, only Martin emerged superior. More facts on birth order complex are evident in Martin’s life in that he was the second born in the family of three. Through this psycho stage, he earned enormous attention to his name through his deeds. Although Martin’s traits developed right from the family through birth order complex, his traits were developed to a point that they were realized globally. It is arguable that King focused on gaining more confidence in the family than his sister. From his family, martin worked to change what seemed to dominate the American life. For instance, the growing political militants opposed his massive support that he enjoyed for quite a long period in his mission. The outcome for such opposition to disrupt and subsequently stop him saw some of his protesting attempts interrupted and consequently murdered later on in his endeavors. All the activities that Martin worked tirelessly to achieve were aimed at changing the life of the coming generation thus leave a legacy. First, he was a leader. It is from birth order that this talent was polished. Being a second born, he fought from his background and latter emerged a leader not only in the family but globally. His leadership personality polished his job as a preacher. Further, he instigated change, a change that was realized in the entire country. His fight for change is a personality that started as he fought to draw attention more than his sister did. This is a personality common with second born as they try to draw attention from the public. His ranking in the family gave him a personality that changed the world and made life better for the blacks in America. In conclusion, a lot has been done in commemoration of King’s hard work. This paper has brought a close connection between the psycho stage, birth order complex, and the personality and behavior of Martin Luther Jr. evidently, the success achieved by King, both in academics and later in his efforts to fight for civil rights an be linked to his ranking by age. This proves that birth order plays a significant role in impacting the personality of a child. Works cited Marshsll, Frady. Martin Luther King, Jr. A Life. New York: Penguin Group, 2005. Print. Weiten, Wayne and Lloyd, Margaret. Psychology applied to modern life: adjustment in the 21st century. New York: Cengage Learing, 2006. Print. Read More