Martin Luther King Jr & Some of his Philosophical Arguments

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day –

I want to bring a some of the brilliance that this man of God displayed in one of his speeches. This speech occurred after President Kennedy was assassinated.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a brilliant man.

I myself have a minor in philosophy from Delaware State University, “Go Hornets!”

So, when I was reading this speech it really highlighted to me how brilliant MLK Jr. was. He was not just the figure head of a movement.

There was some deep thinking that was involved in producing arguments for desegregation of this country.

This speech was given on February 5, 1964 at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. It was titled, “The American Dream”

“I would like to use as a subject from which to speak tonight, the American Dream. And I use this subject because America is essentially a dream, a dream yet unfulfilled. The substance of the dream is expressed in some very familiar words found in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is a dream.”

I love how MLK knew the words of the Declaration of Independence. He was an active participant in the processes of the nation.

“Several months ago, a great, intelligent, vigorous young man stood before the nation and he said, “The issue of Civil Rights is not merely a political issue, it is not merely an economic issue; it is at bottom a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and as modern as the Constitution. It is a question of whether you will treat your neighbors as you would like to be treated.” And on the heels of that great speech, he presented to the Congress of our nation, this comprehensive package of Civil Rights legislation, the most comprehensive and the strongest Civil Rights bill ever presented by any President. Since that time, a dark moment has come to our nation - - that young man has been assassinated. Now he belongs to the ages. But it is tragic indeed that the question of Civil Rights is still being debated. And it will be debated in the Senate to the point of a filibuster probably. This is tragic indeed, for I am convinced that one of the greatest tributes that a nation can pay to the late President Kennedy is to see that this bill, that he recommended to the Congress, will pass and pass without being watered down at any point. Also...(applause)...and I would also like to say that there is need for legislation not only on the Federal level but also on the local level or within cities and states."

”If the American Dream is to be a reality, secondly we must get rid of the notion once and for all that there are superior and inferior races. This idea still lingers around in some situations and in some circles. Certainly the intellectual disciplines, the anthropological sciences, have made it very clear that there is no truth in this. Great anthropologists like Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, the late Melvin Herskovitz and others have made it clear that as a result of their long years of study in these various areas, there is no truth in the idea of superior and inferior races. There may be superior and inferior individuals academically within all races. But there are no superior and inferior races. But in spite of this, the notion still lingers around. There was a time when people tried to justify this or tried to give some validity to this argument by turning to the Bible. And there again, it is a strange thing to see how individuals will use or misuse the Bible and religion to justify their prejudices and crystallize the status quo. And so from some pulpits around the nation it was argued that the Negro was inferior by nature because of Noah’s curse upon the children of Ham. The apostle Paul’s dictum became a watchword, “Servants, be obedient to your master.” Then one other brother had probably read the logic of the great philosopher Aristotle, and you know Aristotle did a great deal to bring into being what we now know in philosophy as formal logic. And in formal logic you have the syllogism with its major premise and minor premise and conclusion. And this brother decided to put his argument of the inferiority of the Negro in the framework of an Aristotelian syllogism. He could say as his major premise, all men are made in the image of God. Then came the minor premise: God, as everybody knows, is not a Negro. Therefore, the Negro is not a man. This was the type of reasoning that prevailed."

"Now on the whole I think people have gotten away from that; not altogether though because I heard the other day where someone in Mississippi said that God was a charter member of the White Citizen’s Council...(laughter)...But on the whole we’ve moved away from these arguments. Now it’s done on subtle...