Given the current controversies surrounding racial justice in our society, make an argument supporting your opinion on whether or not Martin Luther King would support the actions and philosophies of today's Black Lives Matter movement. Explain in detail how you think King would view particular events that have occurred (i.e. protests, riots, destruction of statues) and how he would view them.

 Martin Luther King would not support today's black lives matter movement because he spoke powerfully from the great tradition of the black church. Today, his preacher-led movement seems somewhat out of step with the more secular approach of the activists leading the way 50 years later. So much so that it's easy to overlook the powerful links between them. King understood that  political life must be governed by something larger than politics. When a black church in Georgia was firebombed, King and his associates rushed to the scene. In his white shirt and dark suit, Bible tucked under his arm, he strode into the smoldering remains and preach from the ashes which is not seen today. Today's protests lack the element of God in them, the riots, and protests are likely to end in people getting hurt.

Step-by-step explanation

Martin Luther King would not support today's black lives matter movement because he spoke powerfully from the great tradition of the black church. Today, his preacher-led movement seems somewhat out of step with the more secular approach of the activists leading the way 50 years later. So much so that it's easy to overlook the powerful links between them. King understood that  political life must be governed by something larger than politics. When a black church in Georgia was firebombed, King and his associates rushed to the scene. In his white shirt and dark suit, Bible tucked under his arm, he strode into the smoldering remains and preach from the ashes which is not seen today. Today's protests lack the element of God in them, the riots, and protests are likely to end in people getting hurt.

 King's activism ran on meaning — rife with symbolism in its marches, hymns and public prayers. It was a metaphoric movement that achieved tangible legislative results, where a march, lunch counter and even a jail stood for other, transcendent realities. Civil rights protests in the '60s were dramatic interruptions of regularly scheduled programming, and their principal actors were stars. Most of today's civil rights leaders do not make speeches for the ages. They have not had a dream or been to the mountaintop. The founders of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, are not household names like King, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young. Like Ella Baker before them, they work hard and mostly anonymously.

In contrast to the civil rights movement decades before, Black Lives Matter is marked by a spare integrity of language. Like the Puritans' plain speech, leaders express the facts of black existence apart from the distractions of rhetoric or religion. Even the phrase "black lives matter" uses understatement to make a claim so inarguably true that it should be obvious to all.