Thong Trieu Nguyen

991262233
English Composition 1 Section 77
February 8, 2016

SSC

Nonviolent Resistance (1958)

By Martin Luther King, Jr.
King may be explaining a process, but he is also arguing. What is his central claim, and what
support does he provide for it?
His central claim is that among three characteristic ways people handle oppression
(acquiescence, violence, nonviolent resistance), the way of nonviolent resistance is the right
method for black people to choose as they strive for freedom.
He supports his own claim by showing us the flaws of the first two approaches and explaining
why the third approach is the only one that is going to work.
The biggest issue with the first tactic is to accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate
with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor (pg. 259). By the same
token, the second strategys main flaw is that it is impractical because it is a descending spiral
ending in destruction for all (pg. 259)
According to King Jr., the last approach is the most rational method for the black to exercise at
the time, because it would help the Negro rise to the noble height of opposing the unjust system
while loving the perpetrators of the system, remain in the South and struggle for his rights, and
eliminate the fears of the white community. Whats more, in his viewpoint, this strategy could
reconcile the harshness of the two other strategies and avoid the extremes and immoralities of
both.