The Power of Non-violence

Martin Luther King, Jr.


June 4, 1957

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From the very beginning there was a philosophy undergirding the Montgomery boycott, the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. There was
always the problem of getting this method over because it didn’t make sense to most of the people in the beginning. We had to use our
mass meetings to explain nonviolence to a community of people who had never heard of the philosophy and in many instances were not
sympathetic with it. We had meetings twice a week on Mondays and on Thursdays, and we had an institute on nonviolence and social
change. We had to make it clear that nonviolent resistance is not a method of cowardice. It does resist. It is not a method of stagnant
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 physically but strongly aggressive spiritually.

NOT TO HUMILIATE BUT TO WIN OVER

Another thing that we had to get over was the fact that the nonviolent resister does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but
to win his friendship and understanding. This was always a cry that we had to set before people that our aim is not to defeat the white
community, not to humiliate the white community, but to win the friendship of all of the persons who had perpetrated this system in the
past. The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation
of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor
but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

Then we had to make it clear also that the nonviolent resister seeks to attack the evil system rather than individuals who happen to be
caught up in the system. And this is why I say from time to time that the struggle in the South is not so much the tension between
white people and Negro people. The struggle is rather between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of
darkness. And if there is a victory it will not be a victory merely for fifty thousand Negroes. But it will be a victory for justice, a
victory for good will, a victory for democracy.

Another basic thing we had to get over is that nonviolent resistance is also an internal matter. It not only avoids external violence
or external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. And so at the center of our movement stood the philosophy of love.
The attitude that the only way to ultimately change humanity and make for the society that we all long for is to keep love at the
center of our lives. Now people used to ask me from the beginning what do you mean by love and how is it that you can tell us to love
those persons who seek to defeat us and those persons who stand against us; how can you love such persons? And I had to make it clear
all along that love in its highest sense is not a sentimental sort of thing, not even an affectionate sort of thing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74XJJ3Tq5ew&NR=1

AGAPE LOVE

The Greek language uses three words for love. It talks about eros. Eros is a sort of aesthetic love. It has come to us to
be a sort of romantic love and it stands with all of its beauty. But when we speak of loving those who oppose us we’re not talking
about eros. The Greek language talks about philia and this is a sort of reciprocal love between personal friends. This is
a vital, valuable love. But when we talk of loving those who oppose you and those who seek to defeat you we are not talking about eros or philia. The Greek language comes out with another word and it is agape. Agape is understanding,
creative, redemptive good will for all men. Biblical theologians would say it is the love of God working in the minds of men. It is an
overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. And when you come to love on this level you begin to love men not because they are
likeable, not because they do things that attract us, but because God loves them and here we love the person who does the evil deed
while hating the deed that the person does. It is the type of love that stands at the center of the movement that we are trying to
carry on in the Southland—agape.

SOME POWER IN THE UNIVERSE THAT WORKS FOR JUSTICE

I am quite aware of the fact that there are persons who believe firmly in nonviolence who do not believe in a personal God, but I think
every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the universe in some form is on the side of justice. That
there is something unfolding in the universe whether one speaks of it as a unconscious process, or whether one speaks of it as some
unmoved mover, or whether someone speaks of it as a personal God. There is something in the universe that unfolds for justice and so in
Montgomery we felt somehow that as we struggled we had cosmic companionship. And this was one of the things that kept the people
together, the belief that the universe is on the side of justice.

God grant that as men and women all over the world struggle against evil systems they will struggle with love in their hearts, with
understanding good will. Agape says you must go on with wise restraint and calm reasonableness but you must keep moving. We have
a great opportunity in America to build here a great nation, a nation where all men live together as brothers and respect the dignity
and worth of all human personality. We must keep moving toward that goal. I know that some people are saying we must slow up. They are
writing letters to the North and they are appealing to white people of good will and to the Negroes saying slow up, you’re pushing too
fast. They are saying we must adopt a policy of moderation. Now if moderation means moving on with wise restraint and calm
reasonableness, then moderation is a great virtue that all men of good will must seek to achieve in this tense period of transition.
But if moderation means slowing up in the move for justice and capitulating to the whims and caprices of the guardians of the deadening
status quo, then moderation is a tragic vice which all men of good will must condemn. We must continue to move on. Our self—respect is
at stake; the prestige of our nation is at stake. Civil rights is an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our
civilization in the ideological struggle with communism. We must keep moving with wise restraint and love and with proper discipline
and dignity.

THE NEED TO BE “MALADJUSTED”

Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word. It is the word “maladjusted.” Now we all should seek to
live a well—adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social order
to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation
and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods
of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things. I call upon you to be as maladjusted
to such things. I call upon you to be as maladjusted as Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day cried out in words that echo
across the generation, “Let judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” As maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln
who had the vision to see that this nation could not exist half slave and half free. As maladjusted as Jefferson, who in the midst of
an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry out, “All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” As maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who
dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to
go out and change our world and our civilization. And then we will be able to move from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s
inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.