Mlk Research Paper

A View from Above: MLK's Judgment of America in 2012

During the 1950's to 1960's, Martin Luther King Jr. fought non-stop to establish equality throughout America during the Civil Rights Movement. During King's, I have a dream speech, he stated, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Based on the current state of Black America today, MLK would be moderately satisfied to the extent that he would be pleased with some and discouraged by others.

Percentage of Voters by race/ethnicity from 1972-2008

(Source A)

There were several things that the Martin Luther King Jr. worked to accomplish one including the right to vote for everyone, no matter their race. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which stopped discrimination against African American voters, was passed and the 68' election came around many Blacks participated in the election. Just in 1968, 66.2% of blacks voted compared to the 75.4% of the whites (Source B). The chart above represents the number of voters by race in the next 10 elections. According to these numbers it seems that MLK would be very satisfied with the percentages of different races voting.

(Source C)

After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education King also focused on bettering the educational opportunities for all races. The chart above shows the progress of the different races that achieved a 4-year degree. As seen in the chart the numbers have escalated for each race during this period of time. Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts seem to have paid of seeing as Blacks and Hispanics numbers are both rising, although not as high as the white race.

Exit level TAKS Percentages by race/ethnicity 2010

(Source D)

Another thing that he wanted was everyone to have the same chances at higher education throughout the races. The chart above shows the differentiation between each race of passing scores for each of the TAKS test subjects. Although African Americans are the smallest percentage of the three, the fact that so many passed and were close to the number of white students would have pleased Martin Luther King Jr.

Percentage of Welfare Recipients by Race 2011

(Source E)

Equality is the main thing MLK wanted and as shown with the charts and graphs so far in this paper. Even with a difficult economy in 2011 the percentage of welfare recipients by race was pretty close for White's