In his 1963 speech at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King began by characterizing
black America as existing “on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material
prosperity.” Indeed, as we learned over the past two modules, a combination of a booming
economy and government programs helped elevate millions of Americans into the middle class,
but others, including many racial minorities, were left out of this national story of upward
mobility.
A year after MLK’s speech, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark
piece of legislation that prohibited discrimination in employment and in public accommodations
like restaurants, hotels, and stores.
In a paper of at least two pages, answer the following sets of questions about Martin Luther
King and James Farmer:
What do you think Martin Luther King thought about the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Did it
accomplish the goals he set out in his 1963 speech? Did the law fit his theory of how racial
justice might be achieved in the United States? What more might need to be done?
In 1965, James Farmer gave an address where he put forward a theory of black advance that
differed from that advanced by Martin Luther King. What do you think James Farmer thought
about the Civil Rights Act of 1964? How did Farmer think racial justice could be best be
achieved in the United States, and what role did federal action like the Civil Right Act play in
that? What else was required?
