Floyd Leavitt Letter From Birmingham Jail Why nonviolence?

Martin Luther King practiced what he preached. The theme of much of his preaching was nonviolent resistance. It is a more difficult alternative but it brings greater rewards. In his Letter From Birmingham Jail he explains many of the reasons. I stand in the middle of two opposing forces, he says. One of these is complacency. Some members of the Negro community have become insensitive. This constitutes one of the easier alternatives to nonviolent resistance namely nonresistance. The other opposing force is one of bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. Indeed during this time many in the Black community were advocating violence. So of the three alternatives, violent resistance, nonresistance, and nonviolent resistance, Dr. King chose to base his lifes work on the most difficult. Violent resistance is the most seductive of the alternatives. It is much more satisfying to human nature to fight against the oppressor than to simply make his life more difficult. As t-shirts define it stress is created when ones mind overrides the bodys basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it. It is a tribute to the charisma and spiritual power of the man that he was able to convince his followers that there is a better way. In the past there have been countless occasions when the oppressed people turned on their persecutors violently. Often producing vicious reprisals, violence breeding violence. The other choice is also an easier way - not getting involved, waiting for time to sort things out. Dr. King also disapproves of this method. Says he, Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.

Martin Luther Kings wisdom lay at least partially in his ability to see the ends from the beginning. Violent resistance would lead to a kind of equality but it would be the equality of opposing armies. Each would always respect and fear the other but sympathy and love would be difficult to come by. Nonresistance simply perpetuates the injustice. Only nonviolent resistance provides a way to the kind of equality that he believed was possible. This outcome, where both races live together in harmony. He chose the only way that made that possible, though still not guaranteed.