Taylor Branch has an important essay in the New York Times today (MLK Day) about King's legacy of nonviolent activism.
After the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, Dr. King claimed that the distinctive methods of sharecroppers and students had revived nothing less than the visionary heritage of the American Revolution. "The stirring lesson of this age is that mass nonviolent direct action is not a peculiar device for Negro agitation," he told the Synagogue Council of America. "Rather it is a historically validated method for defending freedom and democracy, and for enlarging these values for the benefit of the whole society."
Even in his lifetime, nonviolence came under attack both within and without the civil rights movement, but King never wavered from his commitment to nonviolence:
Dr. King grew ever more lonely in conviction about the gateway to constructive politics. "I'm committed to nonviolence absolutely," he wrote. "I'm just not going to kill anybody, whether it's in Vietnam or here." When bristling discouragement invaded his own staff, he exhorted them to rise above fear and hatred alike. "We must not be intimidated by those who are laughing at nonviolence now," he told them on his last birthday.
His oratory fused the political promise of equal votes with the spiritual doctrine of equal souls. He planted one foot in American heritage, the other in scripture, and both in nonviolence. "I say to you that our goal is freedom," he said in his last Sunday sermon. "And I believe we're going to get there because, however much she strays from it, the goal of America is freedom."
Only hours before his death, Dr. King startled an aide with a balmy aside from his unpopular movement to uplift the poor. "In our next campaign," he remarked, "we have to institutionalize nonviolence and take it international."
Today nonviolence is again ridiculed by political leadership (and the media) in the US. The love of violent war has once again embroiled the nation in a fruitless war. Now, even as this war dissolves into disaster, the same leadership (and the media) are preparing us for a new war with Iran. We would do well to heed Kings words today:"We must not be intimidated by those who are laughing at nonviolence now."
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.- Martin Luther King Jr., December 11, 1964
Some other excellent thoughts on MLK Day:
Juan Cole speculates on what King would say about the Iraq War. I especially liked this thought:
Note that Martin recognized love as the principle that all the great religions saw as the "supreme unifying principle of life," including Islam. His religious universalism might be a starting point for Americans to rethink the Islamophobia that has become so widespread.
Nathan Newman reminds us that ML King died at a union picket line, while Rich Benjamin and Jamie Carmichael point out that in his last years King was conscious of the connection between economic inequality and the pursuit of war.
Assassins snuffed King as he began his most challenging campaign of all: the fight against inequality of capital and opportunity. Ignoring this campaign suppresses an incisive message, offering up a palliative charade precisely when his economic vision of substantive change is most needed.
In Germany, the blog OpenFACTS has an excerpt in German of King's moving "I have a dream" speech. It is unfortunate that some of King's most powerful speeches, such as Time to Break the Silence are not available in German online (at least I couldn't find them).
BooMan has some unforgettable quotes:
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.- Martin Luther King Jr.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.- Martin Luther King Jr.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.- Martin Luther King Jr.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.- Martin Luther King Jr.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.- Martin Luther King Jr.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.- Martin Luther King Jr.
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.- Martin Luther King Jr.
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.- Martin Luther King Jr.
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.- Martin Luther King Jr.
The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.- Martin Luther King Jr.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.- Martin Luther King Jr.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.- Martin Luther King Jr., December 11, 1964
Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'- Martin Luther King Jr.
I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.- Martin Luther King Jr.
Please check out our attempt to respond to Dr. King's call to take nonviolence international.
www.eucharism.org
Posted by: Josh Kaufman-Horner | February 07, 2006 at 04:00 PM