Theories And Beliefs Of MLK

             had many significant influences on his life that shaped his beliefs and convictions. He was influenced in his early life by his parents and grandparents. His mother taught him that he was a "somebody". I believed she was crucial in instilling in him the belief that he was just as good as anyone else and should never allow himself to feel inferior. King states that he believes his gentleness came from his mother and his dynamic personality came from his father. .
             Martin Luther King came from a family steeped in the tradition of the Southern black ministry: both his father and his maternal grandfather were Baptist preachers. His father was a very strong man deeply committed to moral and ethical principles. The Senior King hated segregation and considered it morally unjustifiable. He also had a deep interest in the Civil Rights Movement. I believe this sparked MLK's own deep commitment to end inequality. .
             During King's years at college he had been inspired by the words of Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle to free India of British colonialism. Gandhi was probably the most important intellectual and emotional influence on King's life, what inspired him was how someone could fuse his own deprivations into a social movement to liberate a people. King developed a belief and a strong commitment to non-violence that became the basis of his approach to social justice in racial inequality. He believed that "nonviolent resistance was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice." (p.32) King's view of non-violence as a positive expression of force was a .
             revolutionary initiative as he moved to confronting the status quo while refusing to accept lawful injustice. King believed that if an individual passively cooperated with an evil and unjust system, such cooperation would make the oppressed as evil as the oppressor. In his letter from the Birmingham Jail, King states ".