Martin Luther King was an activist who was famous due to his involvement in the civil rights movement. He played a significant role in this movement by fighting for the civil rights especially those of the African-Americans through his beliefs in Christianity by using various means such as disobeying the civil laws and not using violence (Ling, 2015). The different core values that King had were as a result of the mentorship he received from his mentors. However, these mentors are not given the praise and gratitude that they deserve. Most of the mentors of Martin Luther were prominent people.
Howard Thurman acted as a leader of civil rights. During the twentieth century, he played a vital part in many movements that dealt with the social justice. Thurman worked as a lecturer at the University of Boston. Thurman traveled to many countries while steering various missions on Christianity. Thurman met with prominent persons such as Mahatma Gandhi. Thurman was able to change the perspective of Mahatma to one where no violence was to be used. Thurman wrote many books regarding philosophy, theology, and religion. One of Thurman's book called Jesus and the Disinherited had a great influence on King. Thurman was also the spiritual advisor to Martin Luther (Farrell, 2013).
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Another mentor to King was Bayard Rustin who was a civil rights leader. Rustin thought King the virtue of courage since he openly declared that he was gay and fought for equal rights even for the homosexuals. Rustin also began an organization to fight for civil rights with Martin Luther, referred to as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and yet though Rustin was kicked out, he still stood firm and supported King in the fight for equality. Since Rustin had mentored King, Rustin was chosen to lead in the demonstrations that occurred in 1963 (Rustin, 2012). The speech that is associated with King entitled I have a dream which has influenced many people changed the history of America and the world at large. However, most of the details in the speech were inspired by Rustin.
Benjamin Mays was another crucial mentor to King. Mays was the president of a college in Atlanta where King was learning. Both parents of Mays were slaves and tenant farmers. As the president of Morehouse college, when the second world war broke out, he was pressured to close the college since many of the youths were being recruited to go and fight in that war (Mays, 2011). However, he strongly opposed that idea and fought so hard to ensure that the school remained open so that those students who were not recruited to go and fight could continue with their studies. Mays improved the quality of education at the college and reformed the platform of knowledge.
While at the college, King used to listen to the preaching of Mays since they were inspiring (Rivers, 2016). Mays was also a close ally of the father of King and often advised King about career choice and having ambitions. When King was participating in rallies dealing with civil rights, Mays was instrumental since he aided King to solve various issues regarding civil rights. Mays also offered support spiritually to King when King was tasked with the role of carrying the dreams and hopes of the black Americans. Mays also advised King for fourteen years as Kings continuously fought for the rights of the blacks while receiving death threats. Most of the phrases that King used in the famous speech, were those of Mays but Mays never asked for any complement. Mays gladly allowed Kings to borrow various ideologies and principles. Even when King became very influential than Mays, Mays continued to provide support (Jackson, 2013). When King was assassinated, Mays gave an emotional eulogy (Mays, 2011). Mays referred to King as someone he viewed as a son. Mays declared that he was so close to Kings.
The life and experiences of Martin Luther King have a lot that people can learn from especially about mentoring. One lesson is that protégés are supposed to have various mentors to mentor them on different things and that a good protégé should always learn these things. This can be illustrated by the many mentors that King had. They included Benjamin Mays who mentored King in the aspect of leadership and career, Howard Thurman who mentored Kings about nonviolence and civil rights disobedience and Bayard Rustin who mentored King on the issue of courage through fighting for rights of the minority. King used the lessons that he learned from these mentors to lead the civil rights movements when he was burdened with the task fighting for the rights of the black Americans (King, 2017).
Another lesson that is derived out of King's life is that the good mentors are happy to see their protégé prosper and even become more famous than them and do not stop supporting them even after being surpassed by them regarding being famous. This is illustrated by the actions of all the listed three mentors of King. Benjamin Mays supported and mentored King from a young age, and this continued even when King became the spokesperson for the black Americans. Rustin continued to mentor King even after being sidelined from the organization but continued to offer the support for the rising King (Ling, 2015). Thurman was a renown professor at the University of Boston. Thurman mentored King about courage, and even when King became famous, Thurman continued to offer support to King who eventually used the teachings and philosophies of Thurman to compose his famous speech (Day, 2014).
Another lesson that can be learned from the life of King is that good mentors allow their protégé to borrow some of their words and they do not ask for any credit. Such a scenario is seen when King talks about the whites and Negros in his speech I have a dream, an idea that originated from Mays. Another instance is seen when King talks about hatred for each other and how it needed to be eliminated when he was delivering the speech. These were words that were echoed from Thurman's quotes. Rustin also spoke of the fact that men and women needed act in a brotherly manner to one another for the black people to acquire freedom (Baker, 2012). These words were echoed in the speech that King wrote.
It is evident that mentors play a major role in the life of many people. However, their efforts are usually not recognized, and all the praise goes to their protégé. Mentorship usually has a great impact on the current and future generations. Mentors should be ready to help and inspire their mentees towards greatness without expecting to receive praise in return. Mentees should also appreciate the work done by their mentors. People should have many mentors and use the advice that is offered by the mentors to better their lives and those of others. Mentors should never pull back when their mentees become more famous than them. The greatness of Martin Luther King is attributed to the mentors that mentored him throughout his life.
References
Baker, V. W. (2012). Evangelism and the Openness of God: The Implications of Relational Theism for Evangelism and Mission . Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Day, N. Y. S. (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12) .
Farrell, J. J. (2013). The spirit of the sixties: The making of postwar radicalism . Routledge.
Jackson, T. F. (2013). From civil rights to human rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the struggle for economic justice . University of Pennsylvania Press.
King Jr, M. L. (2017). The measure of a man . Pickle Partners Publishing.
Ling, P. J. (2015). Martin Luther King, Jr . Routledge.
Mays, B. E. (2011). Born to rebel: An autobiography . University of Georgia Press.
Rivers, L. O. (2016). The Morehouse College Scholar-Activist Pedagogy and Boston Personalism. Journal of African American History , 101 (4), 535-546.
Rustin, B. (2012). I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters . City Lights Publishers.
