DRUM MAJOR INSTINCT

The Drum Major Instinct Inspiring People

The Drum Major Instinct Inspiring People

Introduction

Martin Luther King is most remembered for a speech given during one of the finest hours of the civil rights movement -- a sermon that set the moral tone for the movement. But while the Aug. 28, 1963, sermon "I Have A Dream," delivered during the March on Washington, framed much of Martin Luther King Jr's notions of a free America, it wasn't the speech that defined his legacy. Although Dr. King had many haters in his life, his words from his speech, "The Drum Major Instinct" inspired many people back then and to this very day. This study in this regard, will attempt to prove that Dr. King's speech has made other people, such as the civil rights leaders who followed him, realize the importance of giving back (Oates, 1982).

Discussion and Analysis

Life of Dr. King

A descendant of a long line of preachers, King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. King Sr. was a preacher at the Dexter Baptist Church in Atlanta. King Jr. grew up surrounded by love at home and his community. Given the power of positive influences in his formative years, King was able to lean more toward optimism regarding human nature. His subsequent education and religious development reinforced those views. King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1948. After Morehouse, King attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951; and later went on to Boston University where he received, in 1954, a doctorate in philosophy. At Crozer and at Boston University, King studied the works of major Western thinkers, including Reinhold Niebuhr, Plato, and Emmanuel Kant. He also became acquainted with the tactics and techniques of Mahatma Gandhi—skills of social reform, which would be pivotal to his career as a social activist and reformer (Carson, 1998).

Luther's mother, Margarete Luder, had to supply a large crowd of children and thus for Luther it was a harsh disciplinarian. He attended the Latin School in Mansfield, still prevalent in the medieval, barbaric teaching methods. Luther was described as quiet, reserved and intimidated by the strict order, but also very talented students. In 1497, Luther went to Magdeburg to the school of the Brothers of Common Life, and thence to Eisenach in 1498 to relatives of Luther. There he came into the town's parish school in Eisenach.

Following his education in Boston, King returned to Alabama in 1954, where he was hired as a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. The culture of segregation was deeply entrenched in Montgomery. Events in this city quickly forced King's life to move in a new direction. In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was arrested and charged with a violation of the city's segregation ...