Plagiarism can be defined as passing off the ideas or writings of another as one’s own work. While it is important that people study the ideas of the past so we can continue to progress forward, an innovator must give credit to the source of their inspiration. Often times, if no comment is made, observers will assume the innovator created the ideas he uses by himself.
The borrowing of ideas can be seen as far back as the early days of exploration in which explorers brought back ideas and customs from other lands for use in their own country. This lead to technological advances because the best ideas were shared all over the world. This theory continues today as people take the work and ideas of others and convert them into something they can use to continue the advancement of society. Through the sharing of ideas, progress is made faster than if one person attempted to do the entire job himself.
However, the borrowing of ideas becomes a problem when credit is not given to the creator. Plagiarism led to the need for copyright laws and patents. College students can be expelled from school for including plagiarism in their papers. Inventors may find themselves involved in lawsuits when they try to market an idea for profit that does not belong to them. It is often easier for one to steal an idea from someone else and pass it off as their own rather than doing the work on their own. In writing, citing sources is a good way to prevent plagiarism, but when speaking it is important to tell the audience where the ideas originated. Borrowing crosses the line to plagiarism when a main idea is stolen without giving credit for it.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was remarkably open about the sources of his inspiration. In speeches, he compared his work to that of the creators of the ideas he used. He respected the men who thought up the ideas that he believed were good enough to put to use himself. King wanted everyone to know that Gandhi’s idea of nonviolence and Thoreau’s idea of Civil Disobedience were the basis of his work.
Martin Luther King, Jr. worked to convince Americans to join the civil rights cause, and in doing so, he became one of the principle leaders of the American Civil Rights movement (Keilbach 1). He encouraged people to violate unjust laws, and willingly accept punishment, in attempts to call attention to the unjust laws that African Americans faced in the United States during the 1950’s and 60’s. “Most of the moral and legal theory surrounding [Civil Disobedience], as well as most of the instances in the street, have been inspired by Thoreau, Gandhi, and King” (Suber 1). Martin Luther King, Jr. drew inspiration for his actions, which he explained in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, from Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau’s ideas of civil disobedience and nonviolence and from Christian religious influences.
King gained a strong background in religion from his grandfather and father, who were both pastors of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and through his college education. Even though he belonged to a widely known black family in the south and could have lead the “good life,” he chose to devote his attention to learning principles needed to lead the social reform movement in the south (Matthews 1). He displayed his intelligence at an early age by being allowed to pass over 9th and 12th grade and enter college at 15 where he earned a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a doctorate in theology from Boston University. King’s “magnificent speaking ability,” acquired through preaching as a minister, allowed him to clearly express the blacks’ desire for social justice (Garrow 1). Christian teachings became the basis of his program of nonviolence (Garrow 1). King’s idea that love was important not only in individual relationships but social reforms as well came from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthews 2). St. Augustine said, “An unjust law is no law at all” (Carson 193), which made King feel people have a moral responsibility not to obey unjust laws. In order for a law to be just, it needs to follow the law of God. St. Thomas said, “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law” (Carson 193). King studied the sermons of current white Protestant ministers who preached against racism (Keilbach 1). In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King admitted he came to Birmingham because of the injustice there because he felt “compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his own town.” (Carson 189).
The case of Brown v. Board of Education outlawed separate but equal schools for whites and blacks, which become the beginning of the end of segregation in the south (Matthews 1). This prompted King and some other black ministers to start the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to spread their ideas of nonviolence against discrimination and racism (Garrow 2). The SCLC held huge demonstrations in Birmingham, the most well known segregated city of the south, to protest racial discrimination (Letter 2). Many blacks feared that King would upset the balance between the races in the south (Matthews 2), but King felt he “set emotional maturity” instead of returning anger with anger (Nonviolence 2). He tried to find a “win-win” solution that everyone would agree upon so there would be lasting peace (Nonviolence 2). King said, ” Along the way of life, someone must have enough sense and morality to cut off the chain of hate by projecting the ethics of love into the center of our lives” (Nonviolence 2). His work paid off when The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination in public places and required that everyone have an equal opportunity in work and school (Letter 2). Civil Disobedience assisted him in setting the guidelines for his actions.
Henry David Thoreau’s ideas on civil disobedience influenced both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau (1817-62) was an American writer, philosopher, and naturalist who received his education from Harvard University (Civil Disobedience 1). He believed that if everyone made it known what kind of government they wanted, such as one with less influence over its people, they would be one step closer to obtaining it because “that government is best which governs least” (Thoreau 2). Thoreau was a strong opponent of slavery who desired that everyone who disapproved of slavery would act on those beliefs (Suber 1). He believed that if one “HONEST” man emancipated his slaves that would eventually lead to the demise of slavery in America (Thoreau 7). Thoreau’s six-year refusal to pay his poll tax, the tax funding the Mexican war, resulted in him being forced to spend a single night in jail (Thoreau 9). This acceptance of punishment for breaking a law considered unjust is later replicated by Gandhi and King who also followed the guidelines of civil disobedience. Thoreau and Gandhi both felt that anarchy, with no leaders or laws, would be an ideal form of society but they did not think they would receive much support on this opinion so they were willing to continue the struggle for improved laws (Suber 2).
Thoreau first set the principles of civil disobedience in his most famous essay titled Civil Disobedience, which he published as a magazine article (Civil Disobedience 1 and Thoreau 1). The essay defined his position about the Mexican War and discussed the idea of passive resistance that was later used by King (Civil Disobedience 1). Both men accepted jail sentences rather than obeying a law they felt was unfair. Willingness to accept any penalty is an important part of civil disobedience (Civil disobedience 1). Civil disobedience is a form of protest where the demonstrators purposely break the law they are protesting because they consider it unjust. There are many purposes of civil disobedience, such as: publicizing an unjust law; appealing to the conscience of the public; forcing negotiation with stubborn officials; getting into court where the constitutionality of a law can be challenged; clearings one’s self of blame; or any combination of these. Thoreau felt that the only bad consequences to civil disobedience were caused by the government’s reaction such as the time when whites disobeyed the desegregation laws without considering that they were legitimate (Suber 1).
In a democracy, the Constitution can be the problem rather than the solution because legal channels take too long and Thoreau felt he was “born to live, not to lobby” (Suber 1). Thoreau thought that everyone knew they had the right to resist the government in the case of unjust laws (Thoreau 3). He considered soldiers of an army to be machines that follow orders without using their judgment or moral sense and march against their will because all people are “peaceably inclined” (Thoreau 2). “A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority” (Thoreau 8).
In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King showed his faith in the power of civil disobedience by saying, “To a degree, academic freedom is a reality because Socrates practiced civil disobedience” (Carson 194), even though Socrates lived before Thoreau. “Two notable examples of progress were achieved through the practice of civil disobedience. The first, the independence of India was largely a result of […] programs of nonviolent resistance by Mahatma Gandhi. The second involved civil rights legislation […] in which the nonmilitant efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., played a primary role” (Civil Disobedience 1).
Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi is known as the most important religious, political, and social leader in the history of India. At a young age, Gandhi was “quite shy and socially awkward”(Ryan 1) so his religious studies became a comfort for him. While in South Africa, Gandhi experienced the racism and discrimination that Indians there were facing at the time. He was riding in a first class train compartment when a white passenger complained and asked him to relocate to third class. Gandhi refused and he was thrown off the train. This experience caused him to resolve to never use violence to solve a problem. His incident on the train is very similar to that of Rosa Parks who caused the bus boycott in which King used Gandhi’s program of nonviolence (Ryan 1). Gandhi felt it was his duty to help the Indian community being oppressed by India’s discriminatory laws so he began living his life according to Satyagraha (soul force) and ahimsa (nonviolence). Throughout his life, Gandhi spent a total of seven years in jail accepting the punishment for laws he chose to break using civil disobedience. After 20 years in South Africa, Gandhi decided to return home to India to put his new discoveries and ideas to work (Ryan 2). Gandhi inspired King to make his example difficult to imitate so that others would not see him getting away with wrongdoings and try to follow his example for profit. King always tried to negotiate before practicing disobedience; he underwent self-purification before each disobedient action; and he accepted arrest and punishment (Suber 3).
The British East India Company began trading in India in the 1600’s and fought for the next 200 years for trading dominance and political influence in the country. The Indian nationalist movement developed in an attempt to prevent the British from growing more powerful. Gandhi introduced the Indians to civil disobedience and they soon began using it against the British. When the Rowlett Acts were passed in 1919, the Indian citizens objected to the penalties they would face for political disagreement and continued martial law in India even though the war had ended. They wanted their freedom from Britain. Gandhi applied his concept of Satyagraha and ahimsa to aid in the struggle against British rule. He paid extra attention to workers and members of the lower caste because he believed that all people are equal in the eyes of God (Ryan 2). The Hartal, or closing of businesses nationwide, marked the official beginning of Gandhi’s Satyagraha in India. A few days after the start of the Hartal, British soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors in Punjab, killing several hundred Indians and wounding thousands. Gandhi gained millions of followers after this event known as the Jallianwallabagn Massacre. After the massacre, Gandhi fasted for 72 hours to demonstrate the power of morality over physical force. Gandhi continued his nonviolent protest in 1920 by starting the Non-cooperation Movement, which included the boycotts of British courts and cloth and protests against a visit by the Prince of Wales. Non-cooperation is a method of securing the cooperation of one’s opponent. Gandhi’s program called swadeshi, meaning one’s own country, encouraged Indian villages to become self-sufficient by making all the food, clothing, and other goods they need to survive on their own. Gandhi was arrested for sedition and sentenced to six years in jail that he accepted because willingness to accept punishment is part of following civil disobedience. When conditions refused to improve, another Satyagraha began in protests of the British Salt acts that outlawed buying salt from any place not controlled by the government. Gandhi and millions of his followers went on a 200-mile march to collect seawater to generate their own salt. Thousands were arrested in the salt march but the protest was successful. Gandhi was arrested once again when he had the All-India Congress Committee call for a nationwide Satyagraha in hopes of receiving a declaration of independence from Britain. In 1945, the Labor Party came into power in Britain, promising India its freedom. All the British forces left India by 1948, the same year as Gandhi’s assassination He was assassinated by Nathuran Godse because Godse believed Gandhi was wrong in making friends with Muslims (Ryan 3).
After studying Gandhi’s writings at Crozer, Gandhi’s faith in nonviolent protest and the doctrine of Satyagraha became King’s guiding force (Time 64). Satyagraha can mean soul or true force. The concept of Satyagraha taught King that there is a natural order of things and once one has seen the truth of the order they will never be the same. One is compelled to act on the truth they see, and for King, this truth was nonviolence (Matthews 1). Gandhi organized the local Indian community to rebel through civil disobedience and worked to convince them that it is better to accept imprisonment rather than to live with discriminatory laws (Ryan 2). His strategy for social change was the Satyagraha which used the art of mental self-defense (Anand 3). Satyagraha is a weapon of the strong because it does not allow violence and one practicing it must always follow the truth. Gandhi said, “Satyagraha is utter self-effacement, greatest humiliation, greatest patience, and brightest faith. It is its own reward […] Satyagraha is a relentless search for the truth and a determination to reach truth” (Anand 1). A Satyagrahi, or one who follows the Satyagraha, must obey the laws of society to be able to judge which laws are “good and just” and which are “unjust and iniquitous”(Anand 3). Gandhi agreed with Thoreau that one must voluntarily submit to arrest or removal of property when it is sought to be confiscated since civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen. However, they must be willing to accept the consequences. One needs to have patience and sympathy for the opponent instead of using violence because what seems right to one person might be wrong to another. Patience means self-suffering so Satyagraha came to mean justification of the truth through inflicting suffering on one’s own self. Accepting assaults of an opponent and never giving in to anger out of fear or punishment helps convince the opponent that their ideas are unjust (Anand 3).
King explored the legal channels that could be used in place of protest but they involved much waiting and he believed that “justice delayed is justice denied” (Suber 1). Legal channels are sometimes “open in theory, but unfairly obstructed in practice,” making civil disobedience necessary (Suber 1). Nonviolence involves a permanent attitude that is seen in word choice and body language. King defined the six principles of nonviolence by saying: nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people; it seeks to win friendship and understanding; it seeks to defeat injustice, not people; it holds that suffering can educate and transform; it chooses love instead of hate; and it believes that the universe is on the side of justice (Nonviolence 1). King uses his plan of direct action to create tension which forces the community to negotiate the issue. “Nonviolent tension […] is necessary for growth” (Carson 191). The four steps to a nonviolent campaign are: collection of facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. Demonstrators were prepared through a series of workshops on nonviolence focusing on self-purification. They asked themselves, “Are we able to accept blows without retaliating? Are we able to endure the ordeal of jail?” (Carson 190). The first test of King’s nonviolent strategy was a sit in of five people at a lunch counter where they were denied service and arrested when they refused to leave. Reporters lied, saying the protestors were from Ohio to convince people that the problems were not caused by locals. Next came a boycott of Montgomery’s segregated bus system. Marches were organized in the white sections of segregated communities, which angered the whites, causing them to throw bottles and rocks at the demonstrators. The marchers remained nonviolent (Letter 3). King was the president of the boycott so its success after 385 days brought him national fame. In the end, the Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to provide equal seating on public buses (Garrow 2). “First and foremost, we are American citizens […] we are not advocating violence. The only weapon we have […] is the weapon of protest. The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for rights” (Garrow 2). King thought it was important for blacks to be allowed to march, make prayer pilgrimages, and go on freedom riots because if they were not allowed to release their anger in nonviolent ways they might resort to violence. He was afraid that if his nonviolent direct actions did not work that blacks would, out of frustration, start a “frightening radical nightmare” (Carson 197). In 1966, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee thought they should be more aggressive toward the violence they faced and started using the slogan “Black Power.” King feared that this might make people think the nonviolent aspect of the civil rights movement was evolving into something worse (Letter 3). King remained strong, saying, “I plan to stand by nonviolence because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, with my own self” (Nonviolence 1).
King advocated the disobedience of unjust laws and wanted obedience to the just. He set up criteria to determine what made laws just or unjust. Many blacks felt that since they were not full members of American society that they should not be required to follow its laws (Suber 3). Thoreau and Gandhi agreed that people who are affected by unjust laws should give up any benefits they get from the state and live a life of poverty. Through this form of sacrifice, one regains their unspoken consent to follow the law (Suber 2). Thoreau said, “If a law is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say break the law” (Thoreau 6). Thoreau wanted people to attempt to change unjust laws even if the majority did not support them. He did not want them to wait until they gained full support just because the remedy would be worse than the unjust law (Thoreau 6). King knew that freedom is never given voluntarily so the oppressed must demand it (Carson 191).
The city of Birmingham had a widely known reputation for being the most segregated city in the south. Many bombings of Negro homes and churches were left unsolved. King chose this city as the place to continue his campaign of nonviolence and passive resistance because he felt it was unfortunate that Birmingham’s “white power structure” left the black community with no other choice than the demonstrations (Carson 189). The Public Safety Commissioner “Bull” Connor took blacks parading in the streets during the demonstration to jail. The police were armed with clubs and bulldozers against the nonviolent crowd. President Kennedy later said, “The civil rights movement owes Bull Connor as much as it owes Abraham Lincoln” because Conner brought more attention to the problem (Time 64). King decided to go to jail, where he was placed in solitary confinement, with the rest of the crowd rather than end the demonstrations in Birmingham (Letter 1). A group of eight white clergymen blamed King for starting the violence in Birmingham. These men asked King to rely on negotiations of the court rather than using demonstrations and called his work “unwise and untimely” (Letter 1). King usually did not respond to criticism of his work but he wrote a reply to these men on scraps of paper he found in the jail. His reply, the now famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail, explained King’s beliefs of civil disobedience and nonviolence and told the men why he would not rely on negotiation. The letter shows King’s despair and anxiety while explaining his moral concern for the oppressed blacks (Keilbach 1). In the letter, King shows that he considered segregation ordinances morally wrong by saying, ” Segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful” (Carson 193). King agrees with Gandhi in Letter from a Birmingham Jail by pointing out that universal truth has its own power and force. The truth forces people to act when there is a problem because they can do nothing else. It is harder to deny the truth once one knows it. In this case, the “truth” was the social system of racial segregation that had lost its moral legitimacy (Matthews 3). King does not believe in sitting back and doing nothing. “We will have to repent […] not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people” (Carson 195). The letter ends by saying, ” If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me” (Carson 203). King maintained respect for the people he fought against as part of the civil disobedience campaign.
Even though Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in nonviolence, racists threw rocks at him in Chicago and bombed his home in Montgomery (Garrow 1). Violence ended his life on April 4th, 1968 when he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray while supporting a strike of black garbage workers (Letter 3). King won Time’s Man of the Year award in 1963 and the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964. He was chosen for the Peace Prize because he dedicated his life to practicing the methods of civil disobedience, nonviolence, and Satyagraha he learned from the work of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi (Time 63). After his death, King became a symbol of protest in the struggle for racial justice (Keilbach 1) and only the second American whose birthday is observed as a national holiday (Garrow 1).
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inspirations from Thoreau, Gandhi, and Christianity helped him lead the civil rights movement. He transformed old ideas into a solution for the problem he faced. In his speeches, he always remembered to give credit to those who made it possible for him to make such an impact on civil rights in the United States.
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