King, Welty, Douglass

Michelle Smith1

6 November 20092

Professor Fishman3

King, Welty, and Douglass essay4

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There have been many times in the past where racism has gone too far and the opressed have paid a great price. However, they didn't go down without a fight. Three specific voices stood out in the crowd of the opressed, Eudora Welty, Martin Luther King Jr., and Frederick Douglass. Although the three took different approaches, they all had the same idea: when people feel threatened, they turn into demons. Welty wrote a short story in the 60's called "Where is the Voice Coming From?" This story is about a man justifying murdering a Civil Rights leader. King wrote a memoir called "Letter's from a Birmingham Jail" about how segregation is a sin. Frederick Douglass wrote a piece about how his slave owner, whom he referred to as his mistress, became a demon very suddenly.6

Eudora Welty potrays her main character as a demonic, indifferent man whom wishes to kill a Civil Rights leader and actually does. He says "never seen him before, never seen him since, never seen anything of his black face but his picture, never seen his face alive any time at all or anywheres and didn't want to, need to, never hope to see that face and never will." You can picture his indifferent face and hear his chilling voice in this statement. He doesn't care about the fact that he's taking a human beings life, just that he wants to kill. 7

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an excerpt from Birmingham Jail about the injustice he served and how he wanted to make a difference without bringing violence into play. He spoke about how segregation is unjust and "degrades human personality"(pg.229). He takes what Paul Tillich said about segregation, "sin is seperation" (pg.229). 8

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Frederick Douglass was taken into the Auld's home and described his experience to be like he was treated like a child, not a slave.  His mistress would treat him with the utmost kindness and she even taught him how to spell. He described his mistress as "a woman of the kindest heart and the finest feelings"(pg159). However when her husband ordered her to stop, Douglass' kind mistress became a demon, acting cruel to him just for the sake of being cruel.  He explained her transition as "the angelic face gave place to that of a demon" (pg. 160). 10

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The three writers strived to inspire with their approaches on the injustices served in this country. They all imply in their own words that the evil-doers had a demon in them if they can commit such unjust acts and thinks it's alright. They all speak in such a respectful way even though their opressors were ruthless and cruel. Douglass spoke about his memory of a small period of time when he was really treated like a child and how it was taken away from him too soon. Welty spoke about a man commiting an unspeakable crime against someone he didn't even know and felt no remorse for the murder of an innocent man. King used religion toreach to his people and his oppressors and stating that they were sinning for treating people the way they were. However, they all managed to tell their readers the demonic ways of people when they feel threatened.12


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