Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most powerful, influential, and inspiring leaders of his time and for the civil rights movement.  The issues that Martin Luther King Jr addressed and spoke passionately about changed the course of history in the United States and even impacted people on a global scale.  The world as we know it would not be the same if he did not step up to be the voice for such an important revolution in our nation's history.  A chapter titled "The World House" in Martin Luther King's last novel Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, sums up all of his viewpoints on racism, poverty, militarism, and nonviolence.  Although Martin Luther King Jr is most famously known for his efforts in ending segregation, he also had a strong impact on other national and global issues that he thought needed to be fixed in order for everyone to come together and to live peacefully in the world house.

Martin Luther King Jr begins this chapter by explaining what the world house means to him.  He explains that "we have inherited a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together  because we can never again live apart" (King). King believes that there are many issues that need to be resolved in order for everybody to live together in peace.  At the time his novel was written, race inequality was the most pressing issue in the United States.  Martin Luther King Jr spoke out against segregation with the hopes that people of all races, religions, and cultures would be able to accept their differences and live together in a single world-wide community.  

After speaking against the issues that people were so afraid to mention, Martin Luther King Jr quickly gained followers, eventually becoming the leader of the revolution to end segregation.  A key point in King's revolution that attracted so many followers, black and white, was the "determination to make freedom and equality a reality 'here' and 'now'" (King).  King, along with his many followers, knew that a change had to be made immediately.  There was no point in putting the revolution off because it would only dig a hole so deep that they would not be able to get out.  Martin Luther King Jr even goes as far as to compare the movement to a tidal wave.  Like a tidal wave, the revolution could not be ignored, slowed down, or silenced.  He just wanted to warn the nation that the tidal wave was coming so that nobody would miss such an important change in society.  This tidal wave created by Martin Luther King Jr cannot be stopped until the world house transforms from a "world-wide neighborhood into a world-wide brotherhood" (King). 

"The World House" can be used to create an image and to help people imagine the world Martin Luther King Jr was picturing when delivering his most famous and well-known speech, "I Have a Dream", on August 28, 1963.  The idea of the world house and how we can achieve such an accomplishment as a nation is an expanded version of this speech.  In this speech, King's main goal was to address the inequality between whites and blacks in the United States.  He was able to do this by referring to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the means by which our country was founded and governed.  These documents said that every American was given a "promise that all men  would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (King).  King's point in bringing this up was that "America has given the Negro people a bad check" by taking away these basic rights given to all American people (King).  Similarly to the comparison of the tidal wave in "The World House", King again explains that we have to act now, this time by comparing segregation to quicksand.  Like a man stuck in quicksand, putting an end to segregation in the United States would only be possible if action is taken early.  Once the man has been in the quicksand for too long, then he will be impossible to save.  

Martin Luther King was a supporter of nonviolence.  He believed that in order for everybody to come together and live peacefully inside of the world house, our problems have to be fixed in a peaceful manner.  Instead of promoting hatred toward the people who had treated the black community of the United States with disrespect, King told his followers that they must have "dignity and discipline" when going through this time of change (King).  He tells them that in order for a change to be made, "we cannot walk alone" in the world house (King).  The supporters of Martin Luther King Jr's movement came together as a community to listen to this speech and decided to become an example of the nonviolent revolution everywhere they went in hopes that one day people will "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" (King). The effects of Martin Luther King Jr's, "I Have a Dream", speech changed the way people viewed African Americans and was an important milestone in putting an end to segregation in the United States.

As Martin Luther King Jr's "The World House" mentioned, getting people to live in peace with each other will always be an ongoing issue.  Lewis V. Baldwin discusses this chapter's relevance in today's world in his article for Yes! Magazine, "MLK's 'Racism and the World House: More Relevant than Ever."  Baldwin talks about the impact that Martin Luther King Jr had in putting an end to segregation and inequality of blacks in American society.  However, he does mention that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before everyone can move into the world house.  These conflicts need to be resolved within nations before it can be done between nations.  For example, in America "the rise of hate groups, hate crimes, and politically motivated patterns of racial profiling" are still pressing issues that need attention Baldwin).  All people living on this earth need to be given freedom and need to see all others with equality.  Baldwin argues that until both of these things happen, Martin Luther King Jr's beliefs will continue to be just as relevant as they were when he was still alive.  Until both of these things happen, it will be impossible for Martin Luther King Jr's idea of "The World House" to become a reality. 

Martin Luther King Jr's contribution to society was not limited to the Civil Rights Movement, but also had a significant impact on other global issues such as poverty, militarism, and nonviolence. His idea of a "World House" brought up the other issues of religious and cultural segregation, as well as racial segregation, by introducing the idea that everyone must live together in peace in the same world house.  Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech" and Baldwin's article give the reader a better understanding of what we, as a global community of mixed races, religions, and cultures, have to do in order to live under the world house.  King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Baldwin's "MLK's 'Racism and the World House: More Relevant than Ever", and "The World House" emphasize the relevance of Martin Luther King Jr's work as a whole by explaining the importance of living in peace with one another. The work done by Martin Luther King Jr in his lifetime has changed the way people treat one another on a global scale, which in turn has made him one of the most influential people in history. 

