Martin Luther King, Jr was an American activist, pastor, leader and humanitarian involved in the African American Civil Rights movement. Martin was a Christian and led his movements based on his Christian beliefs. He advanced civil rights without using any violent means or civil disobedience. King was opposed racial segregation, and in 1962, he led a struggle in Albany, Georgia, using nonviolent protests to ensure that the cries of the black people were heard. This protest attracted many people including the news coverage, and it was at this point, where he delivered his speech “I Have a Dream”. The speech made him a target for the government, which consequently led to an investigation by the FBI on his ties with communist. He was threatened in many ways, but this did not tone down his passion to combat racial segregation (Echols, 2004). For that reason, he won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for combating racial inequality without using any form of violence. Martin Luther had many achievements before he met his death, where he was assassinated by being shot in the head.
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, mathematician, nobleman, historian and a social critic. Unlike king, he was an atheist and did not believe in religion or Christianity for that matter. However, even though he was not a Christian he was an ideal man as he led the British revolt against idealism in the twentieth century. His greatest achievement was that he was the founder of analytic philosophy and the 20th century premier logicians. Russell was an anti-war activist and was jailed for his pacifism in World War 1. After his release from prison, he fought against Adolf Hitler and further criticized Stalinist totalitarianism (Russell, 1996). Russell disliked what the United States was doing to the Vietnam and condemned the Vietnam War, where he was a proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1950, he was given a Nobel Prize in literature, where he campaigned on humanitarian ideal as well as the freedom of thought.
King was brought up in an environment, which had Christian values, and this contributed very much to his interest in the church. His father was a preacher, and as he finished his studies, he became a pastor himself. He led his activist group into realizing that they were equal to the white people, and simply because they had a different color, did not mean that they should be treated as if they were just nobodies. When he went to protest in the streets, he had a mass of followers because his way of finding fair treatment did not involve violence. After a while, he gathered support from political leaders in the government, and this was an advantage to him because they issues would be addressed.
Russell, on the other hand, was an atheist, but this did not stop him from supporting what he believed was right or wrong. His family was a prominent one considering that his grandfather was the prime minister. Although he had all influence and power that ran in the family, he found time to idealize and come up with solutions to the humanitarian issues that people faced. His social environment gave him a platform to come up with ideas to help people who were in need.
Both thinkers had almost the same vision, but in a different perspective as they, both wanted to solve problems people were facing including poverty. For instance, King wanted equality on behalf of the black people and wanted their ideas to be heard, and to be treated as white people (Ramdin, 2004). He further discussed issues in the Vietnam War on the issue of nuclear disarmament. This was the same case as Russell, who fought for freedom of thought and humanitarianism.
Solutions were sought to the problems and in the Constitution amendment were made to ensure that people were treated equally regardless of their creed, tribe, color, social background among others. Therefore, discrimination of any kind was abolished by the Constitution (Singh, 1987). Further, freedom of thought, conscience and religion were added into the constitution, and people were allowed to say what they felt free without fear of being prosecuted.
The creative process of Martin was based on the issues that he found uncomfortable within the community he was living in, and for that reason, he sought for solutions. Russell, on the other hand, had many ideas, and through idealizing, he came up with the creative process to ensure that what he idealized was put into practice. The two thinkers were the same as they wanted the best for the people and they did it for the people and not for personal interest.
The ideas of the two thinkers were demanding to the government and the administrative bodies as they expected to bring change immediately. For that reason, instead of protesting in the streets they would have presented them to the relevant officials to handle them. They would have provided them with recommendations on how to deal with the issue and ideas they had presented. This would have prevented the deaths that were caused during the protests.
References
Echols, J. (2004). I have a dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the future of multicultural America. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Ramdin, R. (2004). Martin Luther King, Jr. London: Haus.
Russell, B. (1996). Why I am not a Christian and other essays on religion and related subjects. London: Routledge.
Singh, A. (1987). The political philosophy of Bertrand Russell. Delhi, India: Mittal Publications.
