On the surface, Martin Luther King, Jr. seems like the prototypical Charismatic leader. He was an extremely skilled public speaker who motivated millions of people during a time of oppression. However, I was surprised after reading these two articles that this was not necessarily the case. It was shocking to read about MLK’s flaws; it always seemed like he was this untouchable idol, but learning that he was unfaithful to his wife and struggled with self-confidence, he became more human. Carson also points out that King’s prestige was more of a force than the power he actually had, which goes along with the idea that appearance is more important than reality in the case of a Charismatic leader.
Regardless of his flaws, King possessed many of the traits of a Charismatic leader that we discussed in class, the two most important being style of communication and emotional intelligence. Carson explains that King’s delivery method when he was speaking was like a pastor in church, but the ideas he was communicating were rebellious and non-traditional. This provided King’s audience with a sense a comfort, allowing King to pass along his message without immediately being met with resistance. Carson also describes how King was able to reach both black and white audiences effectively. Obviously, this was a difficult task given the social climate at the time, and it shows how emotionally aware King was of who was listening to him.
I really agree with the point you made about MLK jr’s flaws and how this made him more human. It is easy to put people up on a pedestal and not question their character when they are so infamous and helped achieve such great things! I also thought it was interesting how King was emotionally aware enough to reach all types of groups of people in one of the harshest social climates in history.
I agree with you in the sense that his flaws shouldn’t affect his standing as an all-time leader, but many during the era weren’t exposed to his shortcomings. His flaws did show his humanity, but most people weren’t aware of them at the time. It would be interesting to see if people would have been as responsive to his message if his flaws were publicly known at the time.
I really enjoyed reading this post and thought you did a great job summarizing the main points in the article. I also thought it was very interesting how the article talked about how even with out MLK many of the social movements that called for equality between blacks and whites still would have occured.