“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke out four words that engraved him into our American soul as one of our greatest icons. Dr. King is recognized throughout the world as one of the most inspiring American leaders who helped change our national discourse on race, discrimination and civil rights in our country. For him, when the constitution begins with “We the people” it meant “All the people.” However, despite his fame, there is little understanding of what he stood for beyond his four famous words, “I Have A Dream!” Every February, during black history month he is held up as one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders; but little is known about who he is, what he stood for and how he became one of the most beloved leaders in our American story. According to Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo, “Only through an inquiry of his social, political, religious and philosophical development will we be able to understand the nature of his thoughts and the magnitude of his historical accomplishments.” Martin Luther King Jr wasn’t just a brilliant orator and community organizer. He was also a groundbreaking thinker.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He grew up as the son of a leading minister in Atlanta, Georgia. After completing high school at age 15, King graduated from Morehouse College at the age of 19 with a BA in Sociology. After graduation he left for graduate work at Crozer Theological Seminary, followed by his post-graduate work at Boston University. At the age of 26 King received his Ph.D. Despite these great accomplishments, Dr. King's felt the sting of segregation even though his genealogical heritage traced back to Cork, Ireland, in addition to his Native American and West African roots.
In the pursuit of a just society, he appealed to pre-existing philosophies, historical and religious perspectives to conquer the fear of oppression. King’s influences included: (1) Philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard and Henry David Thoreau and (2) Theologians Walter Rauchenbusch, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich. According to former US Ambassador Andrew Young, Martin and his ministry perspectives did not happen in a vacuum, but rather, it also stood on the historical cultural context and shoulders of one of Georgia’s most celebrated figures, Native American, Tomochichi. According to Young, “It was Tomochichi who could have massacred James Edward Oglethorpe and the British when they landed in 1733, but choose peace instead. Considered by Great Britain to be co-founders of Georgia, they established peaceful British Colonial Native Georgia relations for a century, until the despicable removal of the native population with the trail of tears.” King also studied the work of Mahatma Gandhi, who was leading India’s fight for freedom from Great Britain. Gandhi knew that armed insurrection would justify British attack. His solution was nonviolent passive resistance, in which vast numbers of Indians boycotted British goods and disobeyed what they felt were unjust laws. Relentless nonviolent mass confrontation eventually forced the British to abandon their claim to India. King saw that Gandhi’s nonviolent approach to the struggle for freedom in India could work in the struggle for equal rights in America. Each of these influences helped shape his non violence for social change that marked the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.
After years of dehumanization, discrimination and in the face of injustice toward African Americans, King developed his non-violent strategies on the three pillars of his moral and political philosophy:
His Christian Faith
His principles of Non-violence for Social Change
And Civil Disobedience against unjust laws and social evils
As a Emancipative Theologian, King held to the power of love for solving social problems. He believed that faith in a personal God and a commitment to human dignity would enable all Americans to live up to their professed belief that “All Men Are Created Equal.” King said, “This is the way that we will get out of this dark night of oppression, and make of this nation a better nation. It means that we can stand up and allow the opposition to know that we will not accept injustice. We will stand up against it with our lives. We will never stoop down to the level of violence and hatred, and we will come to that point and we will be able to convince him that a new world is emerging.” King’s principles of non-violence are:
1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
• It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
• It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.
2. Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
• The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.
3. Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.
4. Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
• Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
• Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
• Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and
transforming possibilities.
• Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.
5. Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
• Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
• Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
• Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
• Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
• Love restores community and resists injustice.
• Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.
6. Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.
• The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.
Despite his influence, dream and fame in the mid-twentieth century, King’s mission was to achieve ‘equal justice and equal application of the law’ for all our citizens. Further inquiry into his perspectives of ‘non-violence for social change’ affords us a unique opportunity to build upon his work and become the moral force in eliminating what he called, the triple evils of society: “poverty, racism, and war.”
Biography
Ansbro John J. King, Martin Luther. Non-Violent Strategies and tactics for Social Change. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY. c 1982
Birt, Robert E., The Liberatory Thought of Martin Luther King Jr.: Critical Essays on the Philosopher King. Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland c 2012
Gilbreath, Edward. Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Epic Challenge to the Church. Intervarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL. c 2013
Jahanbegloo, Ramin. The Revolution of Values: The Origins of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Moral and Political Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc, Lanham, Maryland. C 2019
Nojeim, Michael J. Gandhi and King: The Power Of Nonviolent Action. Praeger Press. West Port, CT
C 2004
*** Private Pictures Collective provided by Evangelist Dr. Alveda King
Hey Mike hope all is well. If you happen to see this why did you block me (Paul POWELL)? Sorry if I hurt your feelings, or in some other fashion upset you.
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