H OnOring D r . M ArTin L uTHer K ing , J r .
Nonviolence Then and Now
T
he civil rights movement
of the late 1950s and
early 1960s pioneered
nonviolent resistance in the
United States. Nonviolence
was at the heart of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s philosophy.
Today, Occupy protesters, who
took to the streets last year to
protest wealth inequality and
growing poverty, cite Dr. King
and the civil rights movement
as the inspiration for their non-
violent methods.
“We had to make it clear that
nonviolent resistance is not a
method of cowardice,” King
says in his 1957 speech The
Power of Nonviolence. “It does
resist. It is not a method of stag-
nant 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 nonaggressive physi-
cally but strongly aggressive
spiritually.”
King became an advocate for
nonviolence after studying
Ghandi and the Indian battle for
freedom from British rule.
Born into a long line of Baptist
ministers,
King
saw
Christianity as a powerful force
for social change. And his
vision of a peaceful, just and
loving world opened his mind
to new ways of thinking about
resistance to oppression.
How well did nonviolence
work? At the lunch counters
and in the streets, civil rights
protesters and freedom riders
refused to retaliate, even as
they risked their lives every
day. In fact, there was plenty of
violence, brutality and bomb-
ing. Most of it came from
authorities and a substantial
White population who were
determined to maintain segre-
gation and deny equal rights to
Blacks.
Yet many historians credit
nonviolence as a key impetus
for the passage of the 1964
Civil Rights Act that ended
official segregation. Images of
peaceful young Black protest-
ers being ruthlessly beaten and
hosed outraged so many people
that it allowed legislators to
pass more progressive legisla-
tion than previously proposed.
The Skanner News asked a
few Portlanders to talk about
their impressions of nonvio-
lence and social change. Here’s
what they told us.
imani Muhammad, founder of the Portland Youth
summit
derriel ingram, student at Lane
Community College
“Things have become desperate with the
increase in poverty and the struggles people are
having. Back in the civil rights days Black peo-
ple were not looked at as humans; we were dehu-
manized. Now it’s the same, but some people are
so blind to it, they can’t see it. And the govern-
ment doesn’t care. Talking can only get you so
far, eventually you have to act. I think (the
Occupy movement) should be protesting in DC
where the government and the officials are.
People here can only do so much.
“But there are so many ways to get out there
rather than getting pepper sprayed and hurting
yourself. I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t just not
fight back. That would be different.”
Page 10 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Martin Luther King Edition January 11, 2012
“It’s true that the Occupy movement can be compared to
Dr. King’s ideas about non-violence. But I don’t know that
it will continue to be that peaceful movement. After what
we have seen in Egypt and the Middle East I believe the
uprise in the East is a sign of what will comes to the West
which will result in violence and bloodshed. People are so
frustrated, and they want change because they are suffering.
They are desperate to get the attention of people in power.
The Dr. King I have studied: yes, he did advocate for resist-
ing violence. But, near the end of his life he told Harry
Belafonte, ‘I’ve come to the realization that I think we may
be integrating into a burning house.’ And that burning
house was the United States. He began to see that some of
those people in power – the 1 percent — were not willing
to give freedom, justice and equality to specifically Black
people and the oppressed. They wanted to hold on to that
idea of themselves as better than others and remain in
power to control the masses. And this is why we are in the
current condition today.”
See AdVOCATE on page 11