Martin Luther king Jr was a big advocate for education, quality of education, and how education was meant to shape the way a person thinks in order to make them free thinkers. With the recent actions of government in America, who would King write an essay to in order to change their stance regarding one of the most vital programs in the United States?
Frederick McFadden
Eng. 112-20W
20 Jan. 2025
Martin Luther King Jr “Culture Day” assignment
Martin Luther king junior was born on January 15th, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia. Martin Luther king Sr was a Baptist minister at Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. Being born in the midst of Jim crow laws in the United States king experiences much racial prejudice from a young age. One of Kings first experiences with racial prejudice came at the age of 6, when of his white friends told him that his parents did not want him to play with king anymore, entirely on the basis that he was black, and that segregation was in effect.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." This quote from Martin Luther King Jr, came from an article written during his time at Morehouse college in 1947 for the school paper. This article was written in direct response the Georgia state governor Ernest Vandiver who was a prolific white supremacist during the Jim crow era of the United States. King wrote this article to say to everyone who would listen that education was failing students. King proposed the idea that education was supposed to prepare people for later life in every situation. Education should prepare people for critical and effective thinking. “Intelligence plus character is the goal,” said King.
I believe in our current modern day setting that King would name the major politicians in government that are calling to dismantle the department of education. While I don’t agree with much of how our current education system works, I don’t believe getting rid of it entirely is the correct answer, and I believe king would share that sentiment. King would most likely push for improvements to the current system of education that we have in place, because while he introduced his revolutionary ideas in the 1940’s it doesn’t seem like his words had much effect.