Martin Luther King Jr. (Admission Essay Sample)

Martin Luther King Jr. Name Institution Subject Date Martin Luther King Jr. Introduction Leaders act as the heads of the organizations they serve, regardless of the sizes of the organizations. Every person today can be a leader in their lifetime, though only a small percentage of the world's human population has the qualities that can influence others towards achieving a specific goal. After careful consideration of several recommended personalities, I have chosen Martin Luther King Jr. due to his well-known personality and influence (Livingston & Alexander 2020). Position King Jr. had Michael King Jr. has his initial names when he was born on the 15th of January, 1929. He served as a minister in a Baptist Church in America. He later became one of the most noticeable spokespeople, having led the famous civil rights movement till his death on the 4th April, 1968. He was one of the sons of Martin Luther King Sr., a minister too, and an early civil rights activist. Being an African-American church minister, Martin Luther King Jr. progressed the civic rights of Black Americans in America through peaceful civil disobedience. He was under the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful activism and Christian beliefs in leading target nonviolent resistance in contradiction to Jim Crow and other discrimination forms that were then active in America (Nygren et al 2018). Background and Career King Jr., a communal activist and a gospel minister was fundamental to the success of the civil constitutional rights movement leading to the segregation of African-Americans. His rising to prominence was while he headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, through which he prompted friendly tactics without violence, including the massive March on Washington. He came from a contented middle-class family setting, which was strongly founded on the Southern Black ministry, where both his father and grandfather worked as preachers (Martin & Lerone 2018). He had educated parents who attained college education levels of the time, after which his father took over the then high esteemed Ebenezer Baptist Church, where his father-in-law was pastoring. He also got firm education as he grew up in a loving and stable extended family. Background on Organization Being a Christian minister and a social activist, King Jr. sought after human rights and fairness for the African-Americans, who were then economically underprivileged through prejudice. He drove diverse watershed anti-injustice events, including the 1963 March on Washington, leading to momentous legislation such as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and an annual remembrance on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a US federal holiday (Martin & Lerone 2018). Major Accomplishments Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished a lot of things, such as: Leading the Montgomery bus boycott: King Jr. led this boycott, which E.D Nixon planned after Rosa Parks was detained for declining to give up her seat for a white person. The embargo went on for more than 380 days, during which King got arrested, got subjected to diverse threats and personal abuse, and lost his home, which was bombed (Tiwari et al. 2020). Becoming the first president of SCLC: King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) alongside other activists in 1957 after the bus boycott inspired them. He, King, was the president of the Conference until his assassination in 1968 (Livingston & Alexander 2020). Leading the Birmingham campaign: Birmingham was characterized by racial divisions until the 1960s, whereby Black Americans suffered discrimination culturally and legally. King Jr. started a movement, referred to as the Birmingham Campaign, which was contrary to that racial division (Nygren et al 2018). Organized the great march on Washington: King was among the planners of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, representing SCLC, which was among the Big Six civil rights organizations. This march, which took place on August 28, 1963, laid a foundation for passing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and led to other marches (Martin & Lerone 2018). Delivered a civil rights movement intensifying speech: King Jr.'s speech on the stepladders of the Lincoln Memorial 'I have a Dream’, which was delivered to more than 250,000 persons. This speech, which was top-ranked in the 1999's American speech survey of scholars, has been considered an outstanding achievement of America's Civil Rights Movements (Allen et al. 2018). Became Time Magazine's 1963 man of the year. In the beginning of the year 1964, Time Magazine titled Martin Luther King Jr. as its man of the year for his fearless leadership in fighting for equality in the United States of America. He saw that honor, which he was the first African American to receive, as an honor to the civil rights movements (Tiwari et al. 2020). Became the youngest Nobel peace prize recipient: King Jr. was thirty-five when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the 14th October 1964, for his successful leadership in resistance to racial discrimination and prejudices in America without the use of violence, becoming the then youngest recipient of the award (Livingston & Alexander 2020). Became a symbol of good leadership: having spoken more than twenty times and traveled more than five million miles addressing injustice-related matters, Martin Luther King Jr. became famous for his leadership. He wrote diverse books and articles, through which he reached the entire world and became a symbol of good leadership (Nygren et al 2018). Leadership Qualities 1 Intelligence Martin Luther King Jr. was a great example of an intelligent leader, having successfully led African Americans in conducting nonviolent protests, leading to the progression of civic rights in America. He used his intelligence made of high reasoning and perceptual ability, and solid verbal ability to influence believers to protest peacefully (Martin & Lerone 2018). 2 Self-confidence K...