Internet Resources
- For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant ‘Wait and See’In later speeches, his language became more assertive, as he urged those with privilege to reject the comfort of the status quo—and jump into the fray.
- The King Philosophy - NonviolenceThe Triple Evils of POVERTY, RACISM and MILITARISM are forms of violence that exist in a vicious cycle. They are interrelated, all-inclusive, and stand as barriers to our living in the Beloved Community. When we work to remedy one evil, we affect all evils. To work against the Triple Evils, you must develop a nonviolent frame of mind as described in the “Six Principles of Nonviolence” and use the Kingian model for social action outlined in the “Six Steps for Nonviolent Social Change.”
- King’s Message of Nonviolence Has Been DistortedIn order to evaluate what Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance of nonviolence has contributed to our current view of protest, it bears noting that the concept of his nonviolence has been flattened.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Six Principles of Nonviolence handoutMartin Luther King, Jr.’s Six Principles of Nonviolence.
- NonviolenceAs a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent books and articles. “True pacifism,” or “nonviolent resistance,” King wrote, is “a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love” (King, Stride, 80).
- Why Martin Luther King Jr.'s Lessons About Peaceful Protests Are Still RelevantTime article on the relevancy of Martin Luther King, Jr's peaceful protests.
MLK: Nonviolence is the Most Powerful Weapon
“Nonviolence (nonviolent organized resistance) is the most powerful weapon…Nonviolent resistance is dynamically active.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmOwgkCZQHg
MLK: On Peace and Nonviolence
Perspectives
Breaking White Supremacy
This magisterial follow-up to The New Abolition, a Grawemeyer Award winner, tells the crucial second chapter in the black social gospel's history. The civil rights movement was one of the most searing developments in modern American history. It abounded with noble visions, resounded with magnificent rhetoric, and ended in nightmarish despair. It won a few legislative victories and had a profound impact on U.S. society, but failed to break white supremacy. The symbol of the movement, Martin Luther King Jr., soared so high that he tends to overwhelm anything associated with him. Yet the tradition that best describes him and other leaders of the civil rights movement has been strangely overlooked. In his latest book, Gary Dorrien continues to unearth the heyday and legacy of the black social gospel, a tradition with a shimmering history, a martyred central figure, and enduring relevance today. This part of the story centers around King and the mid-twentieth-century black church leaders who embraced the progressive, justice-oriented, internationalist social gospel from the beginning of their careers and fulfilled it, inspiring and leading America's greatest liberation movement.
Boycott
When Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in the "whites only" section of the bus, she sets in motion the Civil Rights movement, making Martin Luther King, Jr. a national leader.
Gospel of Freedom
"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," declared Martin Luther King, Jr. He had come to that city of racist terror convinced that massive protest could topple Jim Crow. But the insurgency faltered. To revive it, King made a sacrificial act on Good Friday, April 12, 1963: he was arrested. Alone in his cell, reading a newspaper, he found a statement from eight "moderate" clergymen who branded the protests extremist and "untimely." King drafted a furious rebuttal that emerged as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"-a work that would take its place among the masterpieces of American moral argument alongside those of Thoreau and Lincoln. His insistence on the urgency of "Freedom Now" would inspire not just the marchers of Birmingham and Selma, but peaceful insurgents from Tiananmen to Tahrir Squares. Scholar Jonathan Rieder delves deeper than anyone before into the Letter-illuminating both its timeless message and its crucial position in the history of civil rights. Rieder has interviewed King's surviving colleagues, and located rare audiotapes of King speaking in the mass meetings of 1963.Gospel of Freedom gives us a startling perspective on the Letter and the man who wrote it: an angry prophet who chastised American whites, found solace in the faith and resilience of the slaves, and knew that moral appeal without struggle never brings justice.
Northern Protest
After the triumphs of Montgomery and Selma, Martin Luther King, Jr., rallied his forces and headed north. The law was on his side, the nation seemed to be behind him, the crusade for civil rights was rapidly gathering momentum--and then, in Chicago, heartland of America, the movement stalled. What happened? This book is the first to give us the full story--a vivid account of how the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1965-1967 attempted to combat northern segregation. Northern Protest captures this new kind of campaign for civil rights at a fateful turning point, with effects that pulse through the nation's race relations to the day. Combating the outright, unconstitutional denial of basic political and civil rights had been King's focus in the South. In the North, the racial terrian was different. James Ralph analyzes the shift in the planning stages--moving from addressing public constitutional rights to private--impact legal rights--as King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) mounted an unprecedented attack on housing discrimination, one of the most blatant social and economic inequities of urban America. A crisis in the making is unfolded as King, the SCLC, and a coalition of multiracial Chicago civil rights groups mobilize protests against the city's unfair housing practices. Ralph introduces us to Chicago's white ethnics, city officials, and business and religious leaders in a heated confusion of responses. His vibrant account--based in part on many in-depth interviews with participants--reveals the true lineaments of urban America, with lessons reaching beyond the confines of the city. The Chicago Freedom Movement is given a national context--as King envisioned it, and as it finally played out. Here, the Chicago crusade becomes emblematic of the civil rights movement today and tomorrow. Ralph argues that this new push for equality in more private realms of American life actually undermined popular support for the movement and led to its ultimate decline.
September 27, 1966: MLK—A riot is the language of the unheard
Three years after "I Have a Dream" and the March on Washington, Dr. King talked with Mike Wallace about divisions in the Civil Rights movement.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K0BWXjJv5s