When Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, I was in a shoe store in downtown Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The somber news interrupted the store’s calm atmosphere: “Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. has be shot….” Ever-ready gusts of depression blew in and snuffed out all the excitement of getting new shoes. My birthday was the next day and I was going to be 8 years old. Up until then, my life had been dominated by news reports and images of violence crackling out from radios and onto newly-mass-produced TV screens—Vietnam, Civil Rights, the Cold War—all part of a steady stream of announced assassinations, race riots, protests, campus unrest, impending nuclear annihilation, evil communists. We left the shoe store immediately; my parents feared the city would react violently to the news of MLK’s assassination.

*****

Five years before MLK was murdered, he spoke in Ft. Wayne on June 5, 1963. Two months before that, he had written “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” but had not yet delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech,” which would happen three months hence at the March on Washington. A year later, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. John Meister, a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church introduced MLK during his visit to Ft. Wayne: “A glorious disturber of people and the peace.”

At the podium, MLK said, “Some say slow up. You’re moving too fast….But we are through with gradual-ism, token-ism, see how far you’ve come-ism….We have learned to stand up against the evil system—and still not hate in the process. We have discovered that love works miracles.” MLK warned that segregation was not just a problem for the American South, but that de facto segregation existed throughout the country.

King was right. One of the most troubling consequences of de facto segregation was that it created school systems throughout America which did not offer equal opportunities for education to all children. After MLK’s death, Ft. Wayne started trying to integrate their schools. None of us were prepared for the busing of Black kids into our all-white neighborhood schools. One day it just seemed to crash land in everyone’s front yard. Chaos ensued and while the adults were desperately trying to protect their children from harm, their children were desperately trying to make it through the school day. We were sexually and physically and mentally assaulted by each other. Our school bathrooms became war zones. So did the hallways, the lines for lunch, the gym locker rooms. I was a fifth grader in elementary school and the stories I heard about what was happening in the junior high schools and the high schools kept waves of fearful depression washing over me. At one point, I stopped going to school for several weeks. I didn’t tell anyone I was one of the girls being sexually and physically assaulted. I just kept saying, over and over again, “I have a stomach ache.”

*****

In honor of the MLK holiday, I took an excursion up the road through a driving rainstorm to go see the movie Selma. Most people in my region of the world were cheering on the New England Patriots, so I enjoyed a quiet night at the theater for one. I guess the movie isn’t getting the attention some say it deserves. I hope that won’t cause people to dismiss it as unworthy. The movie is not only well-directed with great acting and music, it’s also important because it’s a catalyst—it’s one of those films you go to see and after you see it, you start doing some research. You want to find out for yourself what’s true, what isn’t, and what happened to the people in the film. The movie triumphs as a work of art because it makes you think and thinking for yourself is one of the most crucial ideals of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy:

“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE.” 

Injustice is everywhere. What do we do when we come upon it?

The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. suggests that we consider the practices and philosophy of nonviolence. The MLK holiday, along with my excursion to watch the film, Selma, inspired me to learn more about MLK’s philosophy and strategies for nonviolence and how he developed them. One of the greatest men he admired was Mohandas Gandhi, best known as Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi:

“…I was particularly moved by the whole concept of “Satyagraha”. Satya is truth which equals love, agraha is force; “Satyagraha” means truth-force or love force…As I delved deeper into the study of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the area of social reform. Prior to reading Gandhi, I had about concluded that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationships. Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on the large scale….It was in the Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months. The intellectual and moral satisfaction I failed to gain from the utilitarians of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the “back to nature” optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche—I found in the nonviolence resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to see it was the only morally and practically sound method for oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.”

In MLK’s 1959 Sermon on Gandhi, he elaborated on points he’d made in a 1957 speech, Birth of a Nation:

“The aftermath of nonviolence results in the creation of a beloved community, so that when the battle is over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor. The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence lead to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.”

King emphasized that the Beloved Community was not some utopian Garden of Eden with gentle serpents and luscious apples. The Beloved Community was a community of people devoted to the methods of nonviolence.

King’s study of Gandhi influenced his Six Principles of Non-Violence. In his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, (he was attacked and stabbed while signing copies of the book), he lists the principles:

1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is an active nonviolent resistance to evil. It is aggressive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. 2) Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. 3) Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people. 4) Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform. Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation. 5) Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. 6) Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice. The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win. Nonviolence believes that God is a God of justice.

His Letter From a Birmingham Jail spelled out Six Steps for Nonviolent Social Change (Love in Action):

1) Information gathering. Become an expert on your opponent’s position. 2) Education. Inform others about your position. 3) Personal commitment. Eliminate hidden motives and prepare to accept suffering in your work for justice. 4) Discuss and negotiate. Use grace, humor, and intelligence. Do not seek to humiliate. 5) Use direct action. When the opponent is unwilling to discuss/negotiate—impose “creative actions” to supply moral pressure. 6) Reconciliation. Nonviolence is directed against evil systems, forces, oppressive poles, unjust acts, but not against persons.

*****

Most important of all to MLK’s activism and legacy was his wife, Coretta Scott King. She isn’t often listed as a great American Black woman, but she is one of the greatest. She was born in Alabama, was the valedictorian of her high school class, and attended Antioch College until she was awarded a scholarship to study voice and violin at Boston Conservatory of Music. Corretta Scott King met MLK in Boston when he was at Boston University. The two married and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. King was the mother of four children. In her “spare time,” she composed and performed “Freedom Concerts” which combined prose and poetry narration with music. The funds raised from her concerts supported MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Upon her husband’s death, she established the King Center—a legacy to the philosophy and practice of nonviolence. She traveled the globe on goodwill missions, she was arrested for protesting against Apartheid in Washington, she was an author, an activist, and a civil rights leader who championed women’s rights and gay and lesbian rights. She was awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize and more than 60 honorary degrees from colleges and universities. She worked exhaustively to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and, by doing so, she has kept the spirit of his dreams alive.

*****

If you watch the movie Selma you will get a sense for how the principles of nonviolence led to, among other things, the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (1965! In America! Voting rights still being challenged!)

Talk about courage. It takes a lot of mighty hearts, and a lot of people willing to think, in order to rise above the injustice of Selma’s Bloody Sunday and its attendant vicious attacks against human dignity.

Watching authentic footage of the people marching from Selma to Montgomery I found myself wanting to look into the eyes of every freedom fighter. I wanted to touch the power of every heart that must have leaped into the arms of guardian angels that day, praying for the safety of all. Could I ever believe so fully in the weapons of nonviolence? In a situation as dangerous? In a country that claims to protect liberty and justice for all?

If I continue to study the principles of non-violence, and think of those who have practiced them before me, I think I could.