Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the biggest leaders for the civil rights movement in 1967. His overall message about civil rights is very clear in "The World House".  MLK believed in a nonviolent movement and an end to war everywhere. He wanted the wealthier countries to give money to the poor, and overall for all humans across the globe to come together as one. His message came also from many events going on in the time that he wrote it. This impacted the way he approached his message and what he was trying to fix. However, there was a man at the same time named Stokely Carmichael that released a piece in the same year called "Black Power". Many of the ideas in "Black Power" are contradictory to "The World House", but it helps further create meaning for MLK's piece. Through the different events going on during this time, looking at Carmichael's "Black Power", and the different ideas that can be seen in "The World House", it can be seen that MLK is conveying a global message of equality and peace. 

At the time MLK wrote this in 1967, there was a lot going on in the world. There were multiple wars going on and the US had bad relations with a handful of countries. The Cold War was starting, and Korea and Vietnam tensions were starting to worsen. Hippies were becoming a trend in the United States in order to protest these wars. MLK responds to the wars going on with the discussion of a different method to wars. He talks about how Vietnam was a very gruesome act by the United States to even get involved, and cause an incredible amount of damage to their country. He claims it will take everyone realizing how much greater the world would be with peace as opposed to scrambling to gain weapons to annihilate another country. MLK is saying that wars lead to way too much destruction, and an incredible amount of human loss. Peace among humans would cut out an incredible amount of death and suffering, and he sees that. At the time there were a few wars/bad relations among other countries going on, and MLK understood that this leads to nothing but suffering and death. The wars going on during this time period directly influenced MLK's piece. 

The space race was going on as well, and the Russian Satellite Sputnik had been launched into orbit, and the amount of poverty worldwide was dropping. MLK knew this was a turning point in society, and wanted to take advantage of it and attempt to introduce reform. Another one of the most important events in this time period that influenced MLK's writing of the World House was Apartheid in South Africa. The segregation was so strong in South Africa that black people and white people could not even talk to each other. MLK saw that the United States was not the only country going through these issues, and actually probably had it better than many other places. He figured that if you can fix the issue in the United States you can fix the issue globally.  These global events influenced MLK's writing and what message he was trying to convey in the "World House".

MLK talks about a few different things in the world house, but the overall message is one of global equality. He talks about how the wealthier countries should give two percent of their GDP to the weaker countries in South America, and Asia. His idea was that if every country could give just a little bit, it would give the world more equality globally. MLK had a vision of a world with global peace and that is why he wrote this essay. 

Something written during the same time was "Black Power" by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. "Black Power" had a much different meaning than "The World House". Black Power sent a message of black people being proud of their heritage and building a community for themselves. It meant separating themselves from white people and supporting themselves in order to achieve equality. The Black Power movement stood for the independence of African American's and the individuality of their culture. Carmichael believed in embracing the African American background. He speaks of a lot of involvement with institutions of the country and believed that getting involved in the higher powers of the country would generate the greatest impact. He places a lot of the blame of poor living conditions on the white people involved in institutions in the country. He states that they don't pay attention to the struggle black people are going though. He also discusses the fact that many citizens always talk about white people granting black people their freedom.

 However, he states black people are born free among everyone else, and do not need the permission of white people to gain their freedom. Carmichael is seen as establishing the fact that black people have freedom just like white people do, and need to start embracing that. Through many strong, controversial protests the Black Power movement got its message across. One of these protests was at the 1968 Summer Olympics when two black American athletes on the podium held up their hands in the black power salute. They were stripped of their medals, but this protest was an example of the impact that the ideology of Black Power. It was a bold protest that represented the "Black Power" movement very well. It was about embracing what black people were born with and creating independence for themselves through institutions. Carmichael started this movement through the writing of his piece, and it took off after he wrote it. He had the vision of black people living on their own through their own communities and customs. 

This was much different than MLK's philosophy of everyone living together in global harmony. Carmichael focused on the nation as a whole as opposed to the world. He put the nation's issue before the global issues, and wanted African American's rights before anything else.  However, they both support each other because although one calls for being completely separate and one calls for complete equality, they both are calling for a change for the rights of black people. And both pieces complement each other while "The World House" is a very global representation of equal rights, "Black Power" is a representation of equal rights among black people in the United States only. Also, "The World House" has the tone of calling for peace and happiness among the entire world. Although "Black Power" calls for equality as well, there is a tone of urgency throughout the entire work. Carmichael is pushing for the advancement of black people and knows that the time was now for improving rights for African Americans. The civil rights movement would not have worked if the leaders only used one method alone. It took riots, sit ins, violent and non violent protests to finally call for change for good, and Black Power is just another example of one of those methods. 

In conclusion MLK's, "The World House" pushed for global equality and world peace. MLK wanted to not only see African Americans gain equal rights but he also wanted to see events like Apartheid end as well. Looking at the real world events going on at the time MLK wrote this, like Apartheid, gives the piece deeper meaning and context. He had a vision of global peace through the ending of wars world wide through the realization of peace being more powerful than destroying other nations. Through the breakdown of Carmichael's "Black Power" piece as well, one can see two messages that are similar, but very different, and this helps the viewer determine the meaning of the piece. All of the different historical events going on at the time play the biggest role. The reason MLK was pushed to write this was because of what was going on around him, and without events like the Vietnam war, the low poverty level, and Apartheid, he may or may not have been influenced to write this piece. But because of the events taking place around him, MLK was motivated to write "The World House" and spread his message of global equality to everyone. 

