Creating Change: MLK

ED Nixon (a prominent Civil Rights Activist) called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in as the major spokesman for the Civil Rights Movement. At the age of 26, King was given the responsibility to lead the nation in a fight against segregation. He approached the movement in a nonviolence manner, as his actions were watched around the world as he spoke across the country regarding race relations and equal rights. This YouTube video below provides a brief five-minute glimpse into King’s life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ank52Zi_S0

As the video explains, King was imprisoned over twenty times because of his involvement with the movement. One of his most famous pieces comes from a time he was in prison in 1963, known as “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. His letter is written in response to criticism he received calling his actions “unwise” and “untimely”. In the letter King makes many powerful and profound statements in defense of this nonviolent movement. He states, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I think a comment such as this makes a strong presence. This statement is at the foundation of the nonviolence approach. It shows the severity of the racial tension within society, and the significance in the need for change.

King explains the knowledge behind the nonviolence approach within this letter. He states, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” When looking specifically at the facts, King knew that injustices existed across the country for black people living in a white man’s world. He identified the injustice of inequality and then proceeded with negotiations, self-purification, and direct action. King goes on to explain the struggles they faced in following most of these basic steps,

You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't

negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed,

this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create

such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly

refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the

issue that it can no longer be ignored…The purpose of our direct action program

is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to

negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has

our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue

rather than dialogue.

King makes a profound statement here as he is pointing out the obstacles that the movement has faced. His explanation shows that members of the movement are merely seeking to have a conversation in regards to the unequal rights between blacks and white, but that society and its officials have closed the door to negotiate their concerns.

Due to the lack of concern that the city officials and larger members of society showed towards the movement, King explains the necessity in the nonviolent action that is needed in order to create some small element of change. King states,

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

King seems to make this statement with the understanding that he will not be able to change society as a whole in one nonviolent march or protest, but instead knows that if he changes one person’s heart, and then another, that this can effect many numbers in the future as the movement continues. The nonviolent approach is therefore effective in instilling change in individual’s hearts, and can therefore then affect much of society with time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” provided a response that signified the importance of the movement and its nonviolence approach. He wrote with passion and conviction in order to show that he worked to make a difference. It was through letters like this and nonviolent protest and marches that individual’s lives were changed and a difference was made.