Integrity

Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably one of the most well known humanitarians in history. He is most well known for civil rights movement against the segregation of whites and blacks. Because of this activism he was arrested, his home was bombed, and he and his family were subjected to personal abuse. King endured through all of this by following the nonviolent protest methods of Ghandi. He was elected the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to lead the civil rights movement in an even more progressive direction. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. When he learned this he announced that he would give all $54,123 to further the civil rights movement. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. This man of perserverance, strength, and integrity, had his life taken from him because he made the difference of life and death for all African Americans in the United States.

I believe a man of integrity can make the difference between life and death even though they are not required to. There have been many people in history who have made this difference. They made the choice to do something to change what they belived to be wrong instead of staying silent, for better or worse. All the people of integrity who didn’t make that difference aren’t mentioned in the history books because they didn’t alter history and make the difference between life or death. I agree with Elie Wiesel, “One person – a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King, Jr. – One person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death.” Yet just because they can make that difference doesn’t mean they will.