You might have heard before that one person can make a difference and wondered why haven’t I stood up and created change? Though it is possible there is a lot of reasons why one person is able to make such a big change in society and one might not.
An individual such as Martin Luther King can change the system when there actions are influential due to luck of the time, place, and previous events.
This was the thesis that I created for this blog we also created a Learning Portfolio Pitch Form.
Martin Luther King and Emma González both were able to use there voices and experiences to move towards changing a corrupt system. Even though there situations were different how they acted apon it was very similar.
Civil Rights Movement
Throughout 1950s-60s the Civil rights movement was going on because African Americans people did not have equal rights. Even though the civil war abolished slavery, there was still massive discrimination and segregation.
The Jim Crow Laws made it so that in the south black people couldn’t use the same public facilities as whites, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools and most blacks couldn’t vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.
This was just some examples of the many ways the laws seperated black and white. There was also segregation on the buses which was very inconvenient because black passengers made up 75% of the bus riders. Not only did they have to give up there seat to a white person, but when the black section was full and the white was empty they could not sit there.
Many woman were being threatened by the bus drivers or thrown in jail, because they had authority to do so. Decided to exicute the plan of having a bus boycott Johannes Robinson got her students to pass out flyers and called a bunch of people to endorse the boycott and together they selected a newcomer named Martin Luther King to head up the Montgomery approval association.
Martin’s Impact
Martin Luther King without his notes, started speaking about Rosas story, and the long history of abuses and insults to black citizens on the buses. He used his voice to preach a message he truly believed people needed to hear.
“Standing beside love is always justice and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education but it is also a process of legislation.”
The people not only listened to his words but shouted praise for what heard what he was saying was so moving. It was obvious Martin was a great speaker but because of how Rosa a highly respected citizen was treated on the bus, which resulted in the boycott being a success, which made it so
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Emma’s impact
Emma Gonzalez was a high school senior when she survived the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. By then there had been 5 other school shootings in the US that year. Emma was always very passionate and strongly independent so when the tragity occurred at her school she didn’t attempt to censor her opinions and used her powerful voice.
Just three days later she delivered an impassioned speech at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, calling out President Trump, other politicians and the NRA for not tightening gun laws that could prevent “the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred.”
Her speech was broadcast nationally and that afternoon her name was trending all over social media platforms such as twitter. From then on she continued speaking for the movement and promoting stricter gun laws @Emma4Change. Along with other students from her school she founded March for Our Lives which many other young activists took part in.
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Martin and Emma was/are very influential to millions of people because of how they stood up in a time of feeling hopeless and scared. Martin started preaching right after everyone in the community were already on edge because of Rosa parks and Emma spoke out about needing stricter gun laws only three days after going through a horrible school shooting. If they didn’t speak out when they did, where and why, many would simply accept it and keep going with there life’s until another tragedy occurs.