Civil Rights Icons: Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy

Civil Rights Icons: Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Mahatma Gandhi: Architect of Nonviolent Resistance

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest political and spiritual leaders. Honored in India as the father of the nation, he pioneered and practiced the principle of Satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass nonviolent civil disobedience.

While leading nationwide campaigns, Gandhi supremely applied the principles of nonviolent civil disobedience, playing a key role in freeing India from foreign domination. His efforts focused on:

• Easing poverty
• Expanding women’s rights
• Building religious and ethnic harmony
• Eliminating the injustices of the caste system

He was often imprisoned for his actions, sometimes for years, but he accomplished his aim in 1947, when India gained its independence from Britain.

Due to his stature, he is now referred to as Mahatma, meaning “great soul.” World civil rights leaders—from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela—have credited Gandhi as a source of inspiration in their struggles to achieve equal rights for their people.

Martin Luther King Jr.: Champion of American Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the twentieth century’s best-known advocates for nonviolent social change. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, King’s exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage first attracted national attention in 1955. He and other civil rights activists were arrested after leading a boycott of a Montgomery, Alabama, transportation company that required non-whites to surrender their seats to whites and stand or sit at the back of the bus.

Over the following decade, King wrote, spoke, and organized nonviolent protests and mass demonstrations to draw attention to racial discrimination and to demand civil rights legislation to protect the rights of African Americans.

In 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, King guided peaceful mass demonstrations that the white police force countered with police dogs and fire hoses, creating a controversy that generated newspaper headlines throughout the world. Subsequent mass demonstrations in many communities culminated in a march that attracted more than 250,000 protestors to Washington, DC, where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, envisioning a world where people were no longer divided by race.

So powerful was the movement he inspired, that Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the same year King himself was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, King is an icon of the civil rights movement. His life and work symbolize the quest for equality and non-discrimination that lies at the heart of the American—and human—dream.