What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?

score:5

Martin Luther King Jr. is making the point that, while the United States had prospered and become the wealthiest nation on Earth, the overwhelming majority of black people in America were poor.

The racial divide in 1963 America was very much also a wealth divide:

Income divide

[Source: Colin Gordon - A Closer Look at Race and Inequality]

(Of course, one might argue that little has changed in that regard!) Segregation was, as I'm sure you are already aware, still very much the reality of life for millions of African Americans.

By using the analogy of lonely islands of poverty in a vast ocean of material prosperity, MLK was encouraging people to visualise that racial divide, and their segregated society, in those terms and to demand racial justice for mistreated African Americans.

sempaiscuba 77173

📝 German Government branches during World War 2
📝 Has any other book in history been as "prescriptive" as Mein Kampf?
📝 What was the average percentage of taxes in Europe during the Middle Ages?
📝 What is the history behind this English village well?
📝 Why is Killiniq island divided between Nunavut and Labrador?
📝 How much of what we know about ancient philosophers comes from oral literature?
📝 Is this quotation authentic (88mm versus Sherman)?
📝 Extent of Empire of Lalitaditya Muktapida?
📝 Has the US army ever fought an urban battle?
📝 How and when did the border regime change when the USSR broke up?
📝 To what extent is the independence of India a result of Indian Independence Movement?
📝 Why were the people from the Southeast in the US so different from the rest of the US?
📝 Has any country ever had 2 former presidents in jail simultaneously?
📝 Sources on common people history
📝 Has there ever been a massacre or genocidal act via people thrown off a cliff?
📝 Was PepsiCo really sixth largest military force?
📝 How deadly was the Wild West?
📝 What was the longest lasting economic bubble?
📝 Why are some amphoras pointed on the bottom?
📝 Which battle enabled Andrew Jackson to become the President of USA?
📝 Was there a dry dock available to pirate ships during the golden age of piracy?
📝 Where could I find detailed data on WWII Eastern Front casualties and territorial changes?
📝 Why didn't the discrepancy in the Kursk casualty ratio work against the Soviets?
📝 How did the Tutsis win the civil war in Rwanda after 70% of them had been killed?
📝 How did philosophical and scientific knowledge in Christian Europe in 1085 compare to the body of knowledge contained in the library of Toledo?
📝 The origin of symbols used for transferring information over large distances
📝 What was Mohenjo-Daro's "lower town"?
📝 Can historiography be thought of as "fractal"?
📝 What is the history of the university asylum law?
📝 Has Saudi Arabia ever been invaded?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Search Posts

📝 What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?
📝 What does this image symbolize or mean and who is in the image?
📝 What does "free and independent states" mean in the Declaration of Independence?
📝 What does the skull and crossbones on the Nazi uniform represent?
📝 A German immigrant ancestor has a "Registration Affidavit of Alien Enemy" on file. What does that mean exactly?
📝 What does it mean that the early supreme court "gave themselves" the power of judicial review?
📝 What does "setting up a trophy" mean in ancient Greece 5th century B.C.?
📝 What do historians mean when they talk about "supply side" and "demand side" explanations of the industrial revolution?
📝 What is this card, and why does it go "on the hat"?
📝 What does "Brown-Bread Eater" mean when used as an insult?
📝 What does "Depot Battalion" mean in Hart's Annual Army List?
📝 What language is this and what does it say?
📝 What does CONOB mean on ancient Roman coins?
📝 What does this acronym and the symbol in the middle represent?
📝 What does it mean to grant a church to a priory?
📝 What does the phrase "Vietnam, the mixture of up and down" mean?
📝 What does "two ells within the selvages" mean in the Magna Carta?
📝 What does it mean that Hamilton "made American credit competitive"?
📝 What does this Italian soldier's 1930’s uniform tell us about his job and rank?
📝 What does this Rx glyph mean in what looks like Latin?
📝 What does it mean to have a "proved son?"
📝 What does the abbreviation "adhib." mean in historiography or archival science?
📝 What does it mean to "take the Cross"
📝 What language is this artists signature written in and what does it say?
📝 What does a "wage" mean in the time of 'The Odyssey'?
📝 What does 'des' mean in ancient Egyptian?
📝 What does the Latin "prorex" mean in reference to Louis II de Bourbon?
📝 What does 'trade in' mean in this article on the Westway project?
📝 What does Spivak mean by "epistemic violence" in her paper "can the subaltern speak"?
📝 What does Tuchman mean by transition to a "money economy" in the Middle Ages?

What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?

More post

Search Posts

Related post