Martin Luther king Jr. Non-violence struggle as analysed in his letter from a Birmingham Jail.
Martin Luther king Jr. Non-violence struggle as analysed in his letter from a Birmingham Jail.
We have divided our work into three main parts those are introduction, main body and conclusion. Whereby in introduction we have tried to define different key terms found in the question together with a brief biography of Martin Luther King Jr. and why he wrote a letter while in a jail. In the main body we tried to discuss steps suggested by Martin Luther King Jr. towards non-violence struggle together with the reasons why he decided to use non-violent struggle towards injustice. And in conclusion we tried to give our views towards the use of non-violence struggle against different injustice.
Non-violence struggle have been differently defined from different sources for example according to free online dictionary, non-violence struggle referred as the doctrine , policy or practice of rejecting violence in favour of peaceful tactics as a means of gain political objectives.
Under this king of struggle political objectives are achieved without bloodshed. Also it can be referred as methods of bringing about change do not involve hurting people or causing damage (Collins English dictionary).
Generally, non-violence struggle is the kind of struggle which involves doctrine, policy or practice of rejecting violence in favour of gain social political and economic objectives without hurting people or causing damage. Having itemized the term non-violence struggle, the next part of our work is to know the biography of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia, on 15 January, 1929 as Michael Luther King Jr. later on his name changed to Martin Luther King Jr. after being baptized. King became a civil rights activist in his carrier. Then in 1955, he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott and in 1957, he helped to find the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C) and serving as it’s the first president. In 1951, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University School of Theology.
On 12 April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. arrested for violating Alabama’s law against mass public demonstrations. One day after being arrested, king received the letter which was the critical of King’s activities. The letter titled “ An Appeal for law and order and common sense’’
written by eight white clergymen like Carpenter, Murray, Harmon, Hardish, Stalling, Ramage, Durick and Grafman. In response to the letter written by such eight white clergymen, king wrote a letter while in jail and the letter became famously known as the “Letter from Birmingham jail’’.
According to the question, now we are going to discuss different steps suggested by Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter towards non-violence struggle as well as why he decided to use non violent struggle.
The first step is collection of facts to determine whether injustice exists; collection of facts is an activity of gathering concrete information used as basic for further interpretation. In the whole process of collecting facts, Martin Luther King Jr. found that in Birmingham there were racial injustice, Negros unjust treatment in the courts and unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches than in any other city in the nation. For instance from his letter Martin Luther King, on the case of injustice the Negros or blacks were not allowed to make eye contact with white women. Thus in any country which facing problems or misunderstandings there must be the collection of facts in order to address the problems prevailing.
The second step is negotiation; this step comes after the collection of facts whereby it involves the process of achieving the agreement through discussion. This done by oppressed leaders with oppressors in which the oppressed leaders demand their rights or to solve those problems facing oppressed people. After collecting facts he discovered that in Birmingham city black people were facing different problems in case of racial, court treatment and others, he decided to negotiate with city fathers but they refused to engage in a good faith negotiation, so in any non -violence struggle, negotiation comes after collection the facts and determine injustice exist or not, and if unjust exists, negotiation is a likely step to be used first before undergoing the further steps.
The third step is self-purification. In general it is a preparation step for direct actions. This comes after negotiation whether failed to take place or after unfulfilled promises to oppressed groups from oppressors. It involves the provisions of training on direct action struggle as well as to schedule different direct action programmes. With references to the letter Martin Luther King jr. tried to schedule different direct programme, example one for the Easter and Christmas but those were postponed due to different reasons. This step is very important on conducting a non violent struggle because people are to be prepared mentally and physically on how to conduct a safe direct action which can avoid unnecessary violent mass Killing or bloodshed to both oppressed and oppressors.
The last step in direct action according to Martin Luther King Jr, direct action refers to non violence struggle towards injustice whereby people would present their very bodies mentally and physically as laying means of their case before the conscience of their local and national community. In this step, different direct actions campaign such as marching, civil disobedience, boy cotting as well as sit- in are likely to be used, whereby sit-in is the non-violence tactic in which people sit down at the site of injustice and refuse to move far for a time until their goals are achieved. Marches is a tactic in which a large number of people walk in a group to the place significance to protect injustice. Civil disobedience is the act of openly disobeying unjust, immoral or unconstitutional laws whereby Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter divided the laws into just and unjust and he emphasized to obey just laws and ignoring unjust laws because they are out of moral values and the laws of god whereby he squares his ideas with St. Augustine who argue that “ unjust laws are not laws at all” but the whole purpose of direct action is to create a situation so that it will open the door to negotiation, this step is the best one to be used anywhere if negotiation failed to take place because it arouse attention to oppressors towards negotiation again as Martin says in his letter “ an oppressed cannot be remained oppressed forever’’, as well as “a freedom cannot be voluntarily given by oppressor but it must be demanded by oppressed themselves’’ thus why direct action is necessary to fight against injustice.
Apart from discussing different steps of non violent struggle, now the following are the reasons why Martin Luther King Jr. preferred to use non violence struggle towards injustice.
Non-violence is the way of the strong non-violence is not for the cowardly, the weak, the passive, the apathetic or the fearful. “Non-violence resistance does resist’’ he wrote “It is not a method of stagnant passively. While the non violent resistor is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically, but strong active spiritually. It is not passive non resistance to evil; it is active non-violence resistance to evil.
The goal of non-violence is redemption and reconciliation. Non-violence does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win friendship and understanding. The aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community while the aftermath of the violence is tragic bitterness thus why in non-violence struggle it is better than violence struggle against injustice because it maintains friendship between oppressors and oppressed.
Non-violence seeks to defeat evils, not people. Non-violence is directed “against forces of evil rather than against persons who happens to be doing the evil. It is the evil that the non-violent resistor seek to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil’’ referring to his letter Martin Luther King Jr. based much on fighting against evils done by the oppressors like racial segregation, unjust treatment of Negros in the courts and bombing of negro homes and churches in Birmingham.
Non- violence choose love instead of hate, Martin Luther King Jr. preferred non-violence struggle in order to avoid enemity between the oppressed and the oppressors so as to maintain love between themselves, while they are in conflicting situation. To him to hate oppressors when fighting against injustice was a sin, therefore when fighting against injustice we are required not to hate our enemies rather we are required to promote friendship and love so as to make easy negotiation between two sides.
In summing up, although there are some scholars like Lionel Lokos and and Frank Meyer criticized Martin Luther’s non-violence struggle, but as the group we regard non-violence struggle as the best way for achieving both political, economic and social objectives without hurting people or causing damages.
REFERENCES
Bass J.S (2001). Blessed are the peacemakers, Martin Luther King Jr. Eight white Religious leaders and the Letter from Birmingham jail’’ Louisiana: Louisiana state University press.
Oates S.B (1982). Let the Trumpet sound: The life of Martin Luther King Jr. New York: Harper & Row
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, volume 7, number 1, spring, pp. 1-22 (Article) published by Michigan state university press.
