Reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal essays and speeches is inspiring. He was certain that nonviolent resistance is the only way to win true justice in the face of adversity, and he has convinced me of this sentiment. He writes how nonviolent resistance is not just the willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, but that it “does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.” Resistance “is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil.” This is what he meant when he said that we are all brothers and sisters in humanity (and in the eyes of God). Remember the words of Jesus: “He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword,” which is synonymous with another mighty believer in nonviolence, Ghandi, who observed that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
Despite what you may believe, nonviolent resistance is not passive, but it is in fact quite active. While not active in physical retaliation, it is active emotionally, spiritually and economically, always trying to convince oppressive forces of their unjust ways. Justice is never given willingly by an oppressor, but must be demanded by the oppressed, over and over again, until their cries for justice are heard.
The fight for racial justice is intertwined with the fight for economic justice like two fibers comprising the same rope. King understood that this rope was being used to tie the poor and poverty stricken people of the world down to the bottom rungs of society. In the months preceding his assassination on April 4th, 1968, King and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) were putting tremendous time and effort into organizing The Poor People’s Campaign, which was a march on Washington to demand economic rights for the poorest of the nation. On March 10th, 1968, less than a month before his final breath was taken in Memphis Tennessee, King gave a speech in New York City in which he asserted that The Poor People’s Campaign would not just include black people, but would “also have Puerto Ricans because Puerto Ricans are poor in the United States of America.” They would also include “Mexican and Indian Americans because they are mistreated. And for those who will not allow their prejudice to cause them to blindly support their oppressor, we’re going to have Appalachian whites with us in Washington.” His ultimate dream was for all poor and working class people to live lives of decency and dignity.
King often spoke about how the means to an end are just as important as the end itself, writing that “constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means, because in the final analysis the end is preexistent in the mean.” How many dictators throughout history have had the vision of a peaceful society, yet only used violence to achieve it? Napoleon Bonaparte, looking back over his years of conquest, is reported to have said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended on force. But centuries ago Jesus started an empire built on love, and even to this day millions will die for him.” History may remember great users of force, but people alive today will still die for great champions of love.
So, if we are to achieve peaceful ends, then we must work to achieve that goal by peaceful means. “The problem with a riot is that it can always be halted by superior force,” writes King, and he is correct, especially in a country like the United States which possesses the largest military force the world has ever seen. But this is not just in reference to violent actions taken, but “also internal violence of spirit,” King contends, “The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him.” Forgiveness of one’s oppressors is paramount, for forgiveness is a precursor to love.
I am writing this in the autumn of 2021 and feel as though we need King’s messages now more than ever. At least in the United States, we are more divided than ever, with groups hating other groups with which they have so much in common. I believe the divide in this country is not between white and black, republican and democrat, urban city dwellers and rural townsfolk. The true divide is between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. Politicians and the media have kept us divided for their own benefit, and the longer we focus on our differences, the longer racial and economic struggles continue. Only by uniting can the poor, disenfranchised, and unjustly treated in this country (and world) win the freedoms that this great nation promises to all men and women.
If you are reading this, please stop hating people. We are all kin. Focus your attention on commonalities and how to be uplifting and constructive within your groups and communities. Add value to your slice of society in positive ways. Do it with love, I implore you.