NONVIOLENCE IS A SUPERIOR TACTIC FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

NONVIOLENCE IS A SUPERIOR TACTIC FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

1. THE GOAL OF NONVIOLENCE IS RECONCILIATION WITH THE OPPRESSOR

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992, p, 30.

Another thing that we had to get over was the fact that the nonviolent resister does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. This was always a cry that we had to set before people that our aim is not to defeat the white community, not to humiliate the white community, but to win the friendship of all the persons who had perpetrated this system in the past. The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption. Then we had to make it clear also that the nonviolent resister seeks to attack the evil system rather than individuals who happen to be caught up in the system. And this is why I say from time to time that he struggle in the South is not so much the tension between white people and Negro people. The struggle is rather between justice and injustice, between the forces of light an the forces of darkness. And if there is a victory it will not be a victory merely for fifty thousand Negroes. But it will be a victory for justice, a victory for good will, a victory for democracy.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992, p, 60.

I do not want to give the impression that nonviolence will work miracles overnight. Men are not easily moved from their mental ruts or purged of their prejudiced and irrational feelings. When the underprivileged demand freedom, the privileged first react with bitterness and resistance. Even when the demands are couched in nonviolent terms, the initial response is the same. I am sure that many of our white brothers in Montgomery and across the South are still bitter toward Negro leaders, even though these leaders have sought to follow a way of love and nonviolence. So the nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.
3. NONVIOLENCE DEMANDS DIRECT ACTION IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992, p, 69.

I feel that this way of nonviolence is vital because it is the only way to reestablish the broken community. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the conscience of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride, or irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep. The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: we will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, and cheerfully because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but, if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to the truth as we see it.

WE MUST TAKE DIRECT ACTION TO CONFRONT INJUSTICE

1. THE MOVEMENT MUST ACT NOW, JUSTICE TOO LONG DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992, p, 87.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well-timed," according to m timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only too give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. WE must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait."

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992 p, 176.

I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here," that we honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society.
3. BOTH LEGISLATION AND EDUCATION ARE NECESSARY FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel peace prize recipient, I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, 1992, p, 25.

We must continue to struggle through legalism and legislation. There are those who contend that integration can come only through education, for no other reason than morals cannot be legislated. I choose, however, to be dialectical at this point. It is neither education nor legislation; it is both legislation and education. I quite agree that it is impossible to change a mans internal feelings merely through law. But this really is not the intention of the law. The law does not seek to change ones internal feelings; it seeks rather to control the external effects of those internal feelings. For instance, the law cannot make a man love religion and education must do that but it can control his efforts to lynch. So in order to control the external effects of prejudiced internal feelings, we must continue to struggle through legislation.