Week 4

            This week we're learning and reading about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in America's Civil Rights Movement and Nelson Mandela's role in ending the Apartheid system in South Africa.
MLK and Mandela are both people I really admire for their work. Both Mandela and MLK were well educated and earned a college degree. MLK received a doctorate in theology and Mandela received a law degree. I found it very interesting that Mandela's father was a tribe chief and had multiple wives. After Mandela's father died, another tribal chief acted as his guardian. Dr. King's father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a teacher. So in their early upbringing I think the two are quite different, but both were given access to an education.
          When their political careers started developing, both Dr. King and Mandela established organizations in which they could fight for universal freedom. Dr. King headed the South Christian Leadership Conference and Mandela lead the African National Congress. Both originally started their movements with non-violent ideology, but later Nelson Mandela followed a fact with a more radical and militant approach. Both were imprisoned for their work, but Mandela spent far more time in jail than Dr. King. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela both received Nobel Peace Prizes for their lifelong work.
            “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”
            I believe these words from Nelson Mandela capture his and Dr. King's extraordinary character. These two men both faced an opposition that was so strong and dream that was so large. They did not falter in their visions and regardless of being imprisoned, their houses bombed, or seeing continuous injustice to colleagues, these two let these kind of instances fuel their fire rather than allowing themselves to quit. The goals of these two leaders are truly amazing to me. The fact that these two took on these missions, never quit and continued fighting the good fight after winning a victory is why I think Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela are similar and incredibly inspiring individuals.


― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela