The Power of Nonviolence
By Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the very beginning there was a philosophy undergirding
the Montgomery boycott, the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. There was
always the problem of getting this method over because it didn't make sense to
most of the people in the beginning. We had to use our mass meetings to
explain nonviolence to a community of people who had never heard of the
philosophy and in many instances were not sympathetic to it. We had
meetings twice a week on Mondays and on Thursdays, and we had an institute on
nonviolence and social change. We had to make it clear that nonviolent
resistance is not a method of cowardice. It does not resist. It is
not a method of stagnant passivity and deadening complacency. The
nonviolent resister is just as opposed to the evil that he is standing against
as the violent resister but he resists without violence. This method is
non-aggressive physically but strongly aggressive spiritually.
Not to Humiliate But to Win Over
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 of 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
the 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 and 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.
Another basic thing we had to get over is that nonviolent
resistance is also an internal matter. It not only avoids external
violence or external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.
And so at the center of our movement stood the philosophy of love. The
attitude that the only way to ultimately change humanity and make for the
society that we all long for is to keep love at the center of our lives.
Now people used to ask me from the beginning what do you mean by love and how is
it that you can tell us to love those persons who seek to defeat us and those
persons who stand against us; how can you love such persons? And I had to make
it clear that all along that love in its highest sense is not a sentimental sort
of thing, not even an affectionate sort of thing.
Agape Love
The Greek language uses three words for love. It
talks about eros. Eros is a sort of aesthetic love. It has come to
us to be sort of romantic love and it stands with all of its beauty. But
when we speak of loving those who oppose us we're not talking about eros.
The Greek language talks about philia and this is a sort of reciprocal love
between personal friends.
This is a vital, valuable love. But when we talk of
loving those who oppose you and those who seek to defeat you we are not talking
about eros or philia. The Greek language comes out with another word and
it is agape.
Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive good will for
all men. Biblical theologians would say it is the love of God working in the
minds of men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.
And when you come to love on this level you begin to love men not because they
are likable, not because they do things that attract us, but because God loves
them and here we love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed
that the person does. It is the type of love that stands at the center of
the movement that we are trying to carry on in the Southlandagape.
A Power in the Universe
Working for Justice
I am quite aware of the fact that there are persons who
believe firmly in nonviolence who do not believe in a personal God, but I think
every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the
universe in some form is on the side of justice. That there is something
unfolding in the universe whether one speaks of it as an unconscious process, or
whether one speaks of it as some unmoved mover, or whether someone speaks of it
as a personal God. There is something in the universe that unfolds for
justice and so in Montgomery we felt somehow that as we struggled we had cosmic
companionship. And this was one of the things that kept the people
together - the belief that the universe is on the side of justice.
God grant that as men and women all over the world struggle
against evil systems they will struggle with love in their hearts, with
understanding good will. Agape says you must go on with wise restraint and
calm reasonableness but you must keep moving. We have a great opportunity
in America to build here a great nation, a nation where all men live together as
brothers and respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. We
must keep moving toward that goal. I know that some people are saying we
must slow up. They are writing letters to the North and they are appealing
to white people of good will and to the Negroes saying slow up, you're pushing
too fast. They are saying we must adopt a policy of moderation.
Now if moderation means moving on with wise restraint and
calm reasonableness, then moderation is a great virtue that all men of good will
must seek to achieve in this tense period of transition. But if moderation
means slowing up in the move for justice and capitulating to the whims and
caprices of the guardians of the deadening status quo, then moderation is a
tragic vice which all men of good will must condemn. We must continue to
move on. Our self-respect is at stake; the prestige of our nation is at
stake. Civil rights is an eternal moral issue that may well determine the
destiny of our civilization in the ideological struggle with communism. We
must keep moving with wise restraint and love and with proper discipline and
dignity.
The Need to be 'Maladjusted'
Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more
than any other word. It is the word "maladjusted." Now we
all should seek to live a well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and
schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social
order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be
maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and
discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never
intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical
violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to
such things. I call upon you to be as maladjusted as Amos who in the midst
of the injustices of his day cried out in words that echo across the generation,
"Let judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty
stream." As maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see
that this nation could not exist half slave and half free. As maladjusted
as Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry
out, "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness." As maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who
dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. God
grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change
our world and our civilization. And then we will be able to move from the
bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man to the bright and
glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.
Source: Speech given at University of California at Berkeley, June 4, 1957.
Published in James M. Washington's I Have a Dream, 1992. Cited in
web site: www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1335/power.html