Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Cesar Chavez And Martin Luther King

Throughout history, there have been many changes. A famous quote reads, “actions speak louder than words,” but words are also a huge part of inspiring changes. How can words inspire change? Words can inspire changes in many ways, like through literature and through speeches.

Cesar Chavez’s piece, Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, is full of many examples on how words inspire change. In the Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez stated, “We must learn his lessons and put his views into practice, so that we may truly be free at last.” (Chavez 323). This quote from Chavez is a very good example of how words can inspire change. When Chavez said, “learn his lessons,” Chavez was talking about the way that Martin Luther King Jr. used words to inspire change, rather than trying to use violence to solve problems. This tactic of using words rather than actions of violence is visible with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a boycott primarily led by Mr. King. The boycott was against the policy of racial segregation on buses, which was forcing the blacks to sit in the back while the whites got to sit in the front. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous speech, I Have a Dream (Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. 261), which was delivered to over 250,000 people. People really paid attention to what was being said, his message was filled with truths from the Bible. This didn’t only mark Mr. King as an amazing public speaker, but it also put a lot of pressure onto the administration of the current President, Lyndon B. Johnson, which led them to push civil rights laws through Congress.

In 1963, while Martin Luther King Jr. was standing up for his beliefs in Birmingham, he was arrested because the court had ordered that he was not to hold any protests in the city. While in jail, Mr. King wrote another one of his more known pieces, A Letter From Birmingham Jail (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 271). In this letter, he talked a lot about the need for change and what he believed needed to happen. He said, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.' Martin Luther King Jr. realized that he didn’t need to use violence at all to create tension which led to laws being changed and made, but rather, he could use his words, and his incredible ability to speak in front of large crowds. On April 4th, in 1968, a little after 6:00 P.M, Martin Luther King Jr., was shot while he was standing on the balcony of his second story room at the Lorraine Motel located in Memphis, Tennessee. A few hours later, Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech on Martin Luther King Jr.’s passing, the Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. In this he said, “Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.”. He was trying to get across the point that Martin Luther King Jr. used words and had a lot of success with making changes to the world.