Civil Rights and Social Justice Activists

Student’s name

Institutional Affiliation

If I were given an opportunity to meet one of the social justice leaders, I would choose Martin Luther King because I would want to understand where his drive for an equal and just world came from. The fact that he was a Reverend turned social activist makes his journey interesting because, in most cases, religious leaders shy away from being caught up in political scenarios. King was a great advocate of non-violence, and his only dream was a nation where his four little children could live freely without being judged by the color of their skin.

I would ask King why he chose to serve and save humanity rather than lead a normal life as an ordinary citizen. I would also ask him why he decided to donate all the money he received after winning the Nobel Peace Prize towards the cause of advancing human rights.

Freedom fighters must exude unique qualities, including bravery, leadership, determination, and resilience. A freedom fighter is a challenging calling that requires a person to be strong and stand their ground in advocating for an agenda. They should be prepared to go through the most challenging conditions in their cause; otherwise, they will relent easily.

People that are more likely to devote themselves to fighting justice are the people who have undergone or witnessed a particular violation in their life. In most cases, the encounter likely hurt them to the extent that they decided to act upon it to prevent other people from undergoing the same fate. For instance, if a person was sexually assaulted, the victims are likely to start up an initiative to call out the vice as wrong within a community.

In most cases, fear prevents people from fighting for social justice. This is because most people are afraid of actions such as strikes and boycotts might have on them. People would rather be on the right side of the law than fight with law enforcement officers or have law suits. As such, they suffer in silence even when their rights have been violated. Individual inaction does not lead to positive social change within the community. In any case, when individuals turn a deaf year to social wrongs, this only exacerbates the wrong, and it affects even more people.

All the social changes that I have experience take place in my life result from individual and collective efforts of the people affected by the problem. For change to happen, it must come from within and the people must want that change to happen first. In essence, to sustain change, the initiators must be the people that are affected by the situation. For instance, if people are fed up with systemic racism and unequal treatment of people of color, particularly by the police, for change to happen, they must stand up and condemn the vice. They must call out racists and hold demonstrations and even boycott services if they want to be heard. Social justice only happens when individuals devote themselves and make a choice to fight for justice.