Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement's nonviolent resistance

¶ … Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was widely hailed as a champion of African-Americans. He labored hard to attain civil rights for this group of people. One of the primary ways that he sought to achieve this objective was through the integration of African-Americans with Caucasians. His method for achieving this integration was as an orator, a leader, a writer, an activist, and a non-violent protestor. Through his activism and non-violent protests, he achieved renown and was targeted by police as well (including the FBI, which sought to silence him).[footnoteRef:1] This paper will describe the life and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he did for African-Americans in seeking to unite them in a more integrated way with whites in American society.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspired at an early age by his own father\'s demonstrations against segregation.[footnoteRef:2] Seeing his father being talked down to by policemen who called him \"Boy\" (and seeing his father refuse to pay attention to such language or oblige authority figures when they spoke in this demeaning language), Martin grew up with the understanding that African-Americans should be respected rather than treated with discrimination and racism. [1: Tim Weiner, Enemies (NY: Random House, 2013), 208.] [2: Marshall Frady, Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life (NY: Penguin, 2002), 12.]

When he grew up, Martin became a Baptist minister and received a doctorate in theology in the mid-1950s. He had a strong, powerful voice and a desire to preach.[footnoteRef:3] Around that same time, Rosa Parks was making headlines for the stand she took in Montgomery by not giving up her bus seat for a white man (which African-Americans were required to do). This was the beginning of the bus boycotts, which went on for more than a year. Martin Luther King, Jr. led these boycotts in the spirit of civil disobedience -- which had its roots in the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau.[footnoteRef:4] King described the Montgomery boycotts in his book Strive Toward Freedom, which depicted the trials of African-Americans living in a segregated society.[footnoteRef:5] [3: Lewis Baldwin, The Voice of Conscience (UK: Oxford University Press, 2005), 43.] [4: Kurt Schock, \"The Practice and Study of Civil Resistance.\" Journal of Peace Research, vol. 50, no. 3 (2013), 277.] [5: Martin Luther King, Jr. Strive Toward Freedom (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), 1.]

By now Martin Luther King, Jr. was a well-known leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was speaking on behalf of African-Americans, arguing for an end to segregation and for equal rights for his people. This raised the ire of some leaders in America, such as J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, who viewed Martin Luther King as a Communist and a threat to American security.[footnoteRef:6] Nonetheless, King continued to lead the movement and continued to come into conflict with legal authorities during his demonstrations of civil disobedience. In Birmingham he was arrested and while in prison he penned his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. This letter was significant because it was addressed to his fellow Christian pastors who criticized King for upsetting the status quo. This letter was King\'s defense of his actions as well as a call to his brothers and sisters to see that Christ was as much in favor of these kinds of protests as he was. He wrote, \"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here\" and that like \"the prophets of the eighth century\" he went where he was called to give voice to the oppressed.[footnoteRef:7] Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God were freed from oppression and throughout the history of the Christian Church, followers of Christ have had to come forward and bear the cross of their brothers and sisters -- and that is what King is doing in Birmingham, he wrote. He did not want to be viewed as an integrationist or as an agitator but rather as a Christian and a leader of Christ\'s sheep.[footnoteRef:8] [6: Tim Weiner, Enemies (NY: Random House, 2013), 210.] [7: Martin Luther King, Jr. \"Letter from a Birmingham Jail.\" African Studies Center -- University of Pennsylvania. Web. 5 Dec 2016.] [8: Martin Luther King, Jr. \"Letter from a Birmingham Jail.\" African Studies Center -- University of Pennsylvania. Web. 5 Dec 2016.]

This letter was important because at this time violent protests were erupting and other leaders were coming forward who called for more aggressive action and their rhetoric was much more militant.[footnoteRef:9] Leaders like Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam contrasted with Martin Luther King, Jr. who, of course, was a Christian leader. Malcolm X viewed the whites of America as enemies of blacks and his stance was a powerful one that eventually gave rise to more militant groups like the Black Panthers after his own assassination in the 1960s. For Malcolm X and his followers, violence was a reality of the life of African-Americans -- as shown in the marches and demonstrations, as shown in the Jim Crow laws and lynchings, in the beatings by the police and the riots in Los Angeles at these times. Malcolm X brought a militant confidence, which he displayed in L.A. when he went out to help the African-American community there, which was being discriminated against and killed by police without warrant.[footnoteRef:10] Malcolm X also gave a different/alternate perspective on the actions and policies of Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X did not want integration and he viewed the march on Washington as a foolish affirmation of the power of white elites. [9: Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (NY: Ballantine Books, 1964), 33.] [10: John Buntin, LA Noir (NY: Three Rivers Press, 2009), 296.]

Martin Luther King, Jr., did not share Malcolm X\'s vision, however. He instead channeled the ideals of men like W. E. B. Dubois, who viewed the road to equality and liberty as one that should be pursued through the normal and accepted recourses of the law, through persuasion, through intelligent action, and through efforts like what King was pursuing. Dubois\' The Souls of Black Folk described the toils of African-Americans and the great spirit and energy with which they carried on. It was this great spirit of perseverance that inspired Martin Luther King and propelled him forward in his peaceful civil disobedience. Like Dubois, who wrote of the Negro, \"He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa,\"[footnoteRef:11] King saw the kind of separation advocated by Malcolm X as unhealthy for America and the world. Malcolm X saw whites and blacks as different and did not promote any kind of union of the two. King saw what Dubois saw -- that the two could go together but that it would take understanding on both sides to make it possible. [11: W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (NY: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003), 27.]

To this end, King gave his \"I Have a Dream\" speech, echoing the ideas of Dubois: \"I say to you today, my friends, so 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.\"[footnoteRef:12] By uniting the movement for Civil Rights with the movement of the early Americans and the idea of the American Dream, King was bridging the divide between blacks and whites and showing that the two could join together and be one people. [12: Martin Luther King, Jr. \"I Have a Dream\" Speech. American Rhetoric. Web. 5 Dec 2016.]

Martin Luther King, Jr., began to protest against the senseless killing of the Vietnam War, too. This further united him with many young Americans around the country who saw the war as a waste of human life. King\'s life was cut short soon thereafter, however, as he was assassinated like so many leaders in the 1960s -- from the Kennedys to Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, Jr., who died on Apri 4th, 1968, shot by James Earl Ray.