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Compare the activities of two civil rights activists, one from Australia and one from the US? The two civil rights activists, Martin Luther King from America and Pearl Gibbs from Australia, both hoped to achieve the same thing; racial equality. Martin Luther King and Pearl Gibbs both had similar experiences that motivated them to fight for what is right. They each took action to achieve their goals. Both Martin Luther King and Pearl Gibbs were recognized for how well they changed society and stopped the unfair treatment of black people and Aboriginals.
Martin Luther King ND Pearl Gibbs were both well-known civil rights activists who each had similar motivations to stop discrimination. Martin Luther Kings motivation to stop discrimination against black people came from him personally witnessing and experiencing discrimination towards his own race. Martin Luther King attended segregated schools for all of his schooling life. This made him notice the unfair treatment of black people in America. From his own personal experience he knew that Just because people had black skin they were treated like they were not intelligent and not worthy of becoming anything else but second classed citizens.
Martin Luther King believed that everyone had the right to be treated fairly and all given the same opportunities in life. Similarly to Martin Luther King, Pearl Gibbs grew up in a segregated school and was told, ‘Sorry, no blacks allowed,’ in one school. When she was 16 years old, she started working. While she worked she met some Aboriginal people who had been taken from their families and had been sent to work for white households. The Aboriginal people had been treated poorly.
Pearl Gibbs was forced to move and live in an Unemployed Workers Camp where she noticed that here were only Aboriginal people being forced to work. This was her first experience of racial discrimination and she wished to change the ways of society civil rights, as did Martin Luther King. The actions taken by Martin Luther King compared to Pearl Gibbs are in many ways similar with a few that were acknowledged more than others. Both Martin Luther King and Pearl Gibbs took action to achieve their goal of freedom for the black and Aboriginal people.
Martin Luther King made many speeches, as did Pearl Gibbs, to prove his point that African Americans are Just as important and rotor as white people. In his most well known speech, ‘l Have A Dream,’ August 28 1963, Martin Luther King said, ‘l have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be Judged by the color of their skin but by their character. ‘ Martin Luther King believed in equality for all human beings and made several non-violent protests and freedom rides to prove his point.
Pearl Gibbs did make speeches and non-violent protests, but instead of doing it the way Martin Luther King did, she went on the radio to do most of her speeches as opposed to in rent of large crowds. Unlike Martin Luther King, Pearl Gibbs wrote many articles that were published in magazines and newspapers. Pearl Gibbs made numerous attempts to introduce the fact to the white people that they were administrating against the Aboriginals. Pearl Gibbs helped organize the Day of Mourning Protest in 1938 with Jack Patten and William Ferguson.
The organizers of the Day of Mourning stated, ‘The 26th of January 1938 is not a day of rejoicing for Australia’s Aborigines; it is a day of mourning. This festival of 150 years of so-called ‘progress’ in Australia marmosets also 1 50 years of misery and degradation imposed upon the original native inhabitants by the white invaders of this country. ‘ The Day of Mourning was the most meaningful and successful Aboriginal civil rights protest in Australia. Pearl Gibbs also helped Aboriginals who were unemployed by running a camp in 1933.
She was one of the first members of the Aborigines Progressive Association (PAP) and attracted large crowds when she gave her speeches, as did Martin Luther King. What Martin Luther King and Pearl Gibbs did as civil rights activists impacted America and Australia positively in many ways. A few days after Martin Luther King died, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Fair Housing Act, prohibited discrimination in housing and housing-related transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. This law expanded to include sex, family status and any disability.
Black people are no longer treated like second classed citizens by law although discrimination is happening now all through America and schools are now desegregated. Pearl Gibbs helped to make Australia fair Just as Martin Luther King did in America, and allowing the Aboriginals to be treated without discrimination. Pearl Gibbs assisted in the ending of segregation, as did Martin Luther King. Schools in Australia are also desegregated Just like in America. Martin Luther Kings legacy was that all men and women should be equal no matter what race.
Pearl Gibbs’ legacy was on one hand, the same as Martin Luther Kings; everybody should be equal. But on the other hand, it was slightly different. Pearl Gibbs wanted Aboriginals to not be treated as lower class citizens, to be able to vote, to be able to own their own land and not have it taken away from them, to stop the Aboriginal children from being taken away from their families. Martin Luther King and Pearl Gibbs both lived with the dream to end discrimination against their race. They were each motivated by similar things to change the ways society thought of people who were different.