MLK & Bobby Kennedy

Question 1

Clayborne Carson

Answer 1

scholarship understates the extent to which MLK’s AfAm religious routes were inextricably intertwined with Eu-Am intellectual influences of his college years

Question 2

Bimingham, Alabama (1963)

Answer 2

1. SCLC instigated non-violent campaign against racial injustice
2. Children’s Crusade: recruited children and young adults in order to provoke more dramatic reaction
3. Bull Connor used pressure jets and police dogs against demonstrators, image captured and broadcast on television causing national outrage

Question 3

Impact of Birmingham?

Answer 3

1. Bull Connor fired
2. Jim Crown signs taken down
3. public places opened to blacks

Question 4

Context of Letter from Birmingham Jail

Answer 4

1. Good Friday: arrested for participating in civil rights march and held in jail for 8 days
2. responded public letter from 8 wight Alabama religious leaders that urged blacks in Birmingham to withdraw support from King and civil rights activists

Question 5

Textual Context of Letter from Birmingham Jail

Answer 5

1. establishes tone of cordiality and rational dialogue
2. aim of protestors: “to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”
3. “wait” equates “never” in context of civil rights
4. lists injustices: humanises exp of AfAm by emphasising emotional and psychological pain of segregation and racial discrimination
5. justifies breaking laws: solid legal argument while still focussing on morality in Christian context
6. disappointment in white church.
7. desire to meet white clergymen not as AfAm or as protestor but as fellow clergyman; re-positions himself for his critics as, like them, religious leader looking to spread the gospel of peace and community, but unlike them as been imprisoned for his attempts

Question 6

Key Message of Letter from Birmingham Jail

Answer 6

1. all great political questions are fundamentally moral questions to which churches must address
2. marshalled black churches in cause of justice, and reached out to men and women of good will in white churches and synagogues
3. made civil rights movement a religious crusade as much as a social and political campaign

Question 7

Context of “Remarks on the Assassination of MLK”

Answer 7

1. heartfelt and impromptu speech delivered at inner city of Indianapolis (many people had not yet heard of MLK;s passing)
2. first time Kennedy spoke publicly about his brother’s assassination
3. riots broke out in 60 cities but not in Indianapolis, many attribute to effect of Kennedy’s speech

Question 8

Influence of Greek Philosophy on Kennedy

Answer 8

1. final years of his life found great solace in playwrights and poets of ancient Greece
2. slightly misquoted lines from Aeschylus during speech in tribute to MLK

Question 9

Key ideas of Kennedy’s tribute

Answer 9

1. although blacks filled with bitterness and hatred, would lead to greater polarisation
2. make effort to replace violence with compassion and love in tribute MLK
3. poem of Aeschylus: pain leads to wisdom through grace of God
4. US needs love and wisdom and compassion towards one another, rather than violence and lawlessness
5. tame savageness of man and make gentle life of this world

Question 10

Kennedy as US Senator from NY

Answer 10

1. undertook most energetic and persistent desegregation of administration
2. demanded every area of government begin recruiting realistic levels of black and other ethnic workers