While intellectually committed to nonviolence, King did not experience the power of nonviolent direct action first-hand until the start of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. During the boycott, King personally enacted Gandhian principles.
Why did Martin Luther King use non-violent resistance?
Martin Luther King, Jr. really favors this choice of method because it is the right and moral way to achieve freedom and peace. Nonviolent resistance is a combination of acquiescence and violence which will enable an individual or group that will need submit to any wrong.
Why did MLK go to jail for 10 days?
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963 These words were spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. during his ten-day jail term for violating a court injunction against any "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing" in Birmingham.
What role did Martin Luther King play in the Civil Rights Movement?
If students know anything about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s, it will probably be Martin Luther King, Jr.'s role in leading the Movement along the path of nonviolent resistance against racial segregation.
How does MLK explain how oppressed people can deal with their situation?
There are three ways he explained how oppressed people can deal with their situation. The different processes that are opened to the oppressed people are acquiescence, violence, and nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King, Jr. does not approve of the first two processes because they are both immoral and impractical.
How does Dr King defend nonviolent resistance?
How does Dr. King defend nonviolent resistance in this text? Resistance should not mimic the action it is protesting.
What type of resistance did MLK use?
King called it active resistance, in contrast to the more familiar term, “passive resistance,” which he said “gives the false impression that this is a do-nothing method.” King rebelled against the pacifist attitudes that so many liberal Christians in his day embraced.
How did MLK use passive resistance?
“Our use of passive resistance in Montgomery,” King told TIME, “is not based on resistance to get rights for ourselves, but to achieve friendship with the men who are denying us our rights, and change them through friendship and a bond of Christian understanding before God.”
What methods did Dr King use?
used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible goals.
How did Martin Luther King define nonviolence?
It is active nonviolent resistance to evil. It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Principle two: Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.
Why did Martin Luther King Jr use non violence?
Dr. King believed that the age-old tradition of hating one's opponents was not only immoral, but bad strategy which perpetuated the cycle of revenge and retaliation. Only nonviolence, he believed, had the power to break the cycle of retributive violence and create lasting peace through reconciliation.
Why did MLK advocate for nonviolence?
King saw nonviolent direct action as a means of protesters presenting their bodies as an appeal to the conscience of the larger community, in an effort to create a beloved community.
How did MLK fight for civil rights?
In 1963, King and the SCLC worked with NAACP and other civil rights groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which attracted 250,000 people to rally for the civil and economic rights of Black Americans in the nation's capital. There, King delivered his majestic 17-minute "I Have a Dream" speech.
What was Martin Luther King's strategy for protest?
In 1959 he concluded about his protest strategy: “One is the approach of pure nonviolence, which cannot readily or easily attract large masses, for it requires extraordinary discipline and courage.” This quotation clearly shows that MLK was aware of the extent of his suggested way of struggle.
What strategies did Martin Luther King use in his speech?
King drew on a variety of rhetorical techniques to “Educate, Engage, & Excite” TM his audiences – e.g., alliteration, repetition, rhythm, allusion, and more – his ability to capture hearts and minds through the creative use of relevant, impactful, and emotionally moving metaphors was second to none.
What were Malcolm X's methods?
Malcolm X's most known and used method was his violent protests against their white oppressors. A main aspect of X's beliefs came through the Nation Of Islam.
What is an example of passive resistance?
resisters are often present during public demonstrations or other lawful protests. Passive resistance at such an event may include chaining oneself to an object or refusing upon verbal direction to stand up or move.
Guiding Questions
To what extent was King's nonviolent resistance to segregation laws the best means of securing civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s?
Learning Objectives
Explain Martin Luther King, Jr.'s concept of nonviolent resistance and the role of civil disobedience within it.
How did Martin Luther King explain how oppressed people can deal with their situation?
There are three ways he explained how oppressed people can deal with their situation. The different processes that are opened to the oppressed people are acquiescence, violence, and nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King, Jr. does not approve of the first two processes because they are both immoral and impractical.
Why does Martin Luther King not approve of the first two processes?
Martin Luther King, Jr. does not approve of the first two processes because they are both immoral and impractical. He absolutely detests the process of acquiescence because it means that the Negroes are giving in to the whites unjust system. He stated that the Negroes must earn the respect of the white people.
What is the third way of resistance?
The third way is nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King, Jr. really favors this choice of method because it is the right and moral way to achieve freedom and peace. Nonviolent resistance is a combination of acquiescence and violence that will enable an individual or group that will need submit to any wrong.
Who said the oppressed must organize themselves into a militant and nonviolent mass movement in order to achieve the
READ: Shirley Chisholm: Biography & Political Leader. Martin Luther King , Jr. stated that the oppressed people must organize themselves into a militant and nonviolent mass movement in order to achieve the goal of integration. The oppressed must convince the oppressors that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the oppressors.
What is the way of nonviolence?
The way of nonviolence means a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It¹s the ultimate form of persuasion through words or acts, even death to free us all from injustice. This quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.,”.
Rainstorm
Ask students to help you make a "rainstorm" by following your actions around the circle. Start by rubbing your hands together.
Agenda and Introduction
Explain that in today's lesson you'll honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by looking at the power of nonviolent resistance. Most people, when faced with violence, either confront it with their own violence or they turn away and try avoid the violence altogether. This old survival mechanism is known as the "fight or flight response."
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Explain that the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 is a successful example of nonviolent action against the practice of racially segregated seating on city buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
Microlab: The power in numbers
Ask students to break into groups of three. Ask them to talk in their groups about a time they were teased or picked on — and/or a time they saw someone else getting teased or picked on.
Closing
Ask a few volunteers to share something they learned today, or something they felt during the class.
What did Martin Luther King see as nonviolent direct action?
King saw nonviolent direct action as a means of protesters presenting their bodies as an appeal to the conscience of the larger community, in an effort to create a beloved community. Alongside the theater of protest, King’s rhetoric performed the role of narration and monologue that heightened the drama between oppressed and oppressor.
Who admired Martin Luther King Jr.?
Sharp admired Martin Luther King Jr., but wrote that “exhortations in favor of love and nonviolence have made little or no contribution to ending war and major political violence.”.
What is the legacy of Martin Luther King?
The legacy of King’s militant nonviolence lives on in the pockets of mass protests that emerge across the country following an injustice. Conspicuously absent from the language modern activists use, however, is an appeal to America’s innate goodness, a call to fulfill the promise set forth by its Founding Fathers.
What is the Moral Monday movement?
Barber’s “Moral Mondays” movement is an outlier among other modern movements, publicly using his religious beliefs as the motivation to combat poverty, voter disenfranchisement, health-care inequalities, and other “immoral” legislation in the state of North Carolina. Since its genesis in 2012, ...
What is the love most commonly spoken of in the Movement for Black Lives?
The love most commonly spoken of in the Movement for Black Lives is a self-love that compels activism.
What is the conservative belief in racism?
The conservative belief in racism as an individual sin or moral failing, rather than a system that requires community and governmental reform, makes King’s writings on love convenient fodder for warm-and-fuzzy quotes. It no longer performs the work he originally intended—bringing about social justice for morality’s sake.
Where did Martin Luther King Jr. meet with the Registrar?
During a meeting in Hayneyville, Alabama, on March 1, 1965 King inquired about voter registration procedures but Registrar Carl Golson told him "It's none of your business.". ( Horace Cort / AP) Editor’s Note: Read The Atlantic’s special coverage of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. In 1956, after journalist William Worthy nearly sat on ...