"In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We
an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all
indirectly.... In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic
steps: collection of the facts to determine whether in justices
exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action....
You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches,
and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite
right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very
purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to
create; such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community
which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront
the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no
longer be ignored.... I have earnestly opposed violent tension,
but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is
necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was
necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals
could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the
unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so
must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind
of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark
depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of
understanding and brotherhood....
The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a
situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door
to negotiation .... One may well ask: "How can you advocate
breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is in the fact
that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be
the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a
legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely,
one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would
agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at
all...."
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly,
and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an
individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust,
and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to
arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in
reality expressing the highest respect for law....
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The
yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is
what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has
reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without
has reminded him that it can be gained....
The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent
frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let
him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on
freedom rides -- and try to understand why he must do so. If his
repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will
seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact
of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your
discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this is normal and
healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of
nonviolent direct action...."
I Have a Dream Speech, Washington, DC, August
28,
1963
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
they were signing a promissory note to which every American was
to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black
men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....
But there is something that I must say to my people, who
stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of
justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must
not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our
thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and
hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plain
of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative
protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we
must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with
soul force; and the marvelous new militance, which has engulfed
the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white
people. For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their
presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is
tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that
their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot
walk alone. And as we talk, we must make a pledge that we shall
always march ahead. We cannot turn back....
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is
a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that
one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of
its creed, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills
of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will
be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a
dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by
the content of their character....
When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children,
black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of
the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last. Free at last. Thank
God Almighty, we are free at last."
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech,
December 10, 1964
"I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is
beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle: to a movement
which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the
essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I
received on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that
nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral
question of our time the need for man to overcome oppression and
violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.
Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have
demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a
powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.
Sooner or later, all people of the world will have to discover a
way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending
cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human
conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and
retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love....
I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and
jetsam in the river of life which surrounds him. I refuse to
accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of
peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after
nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of
thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and
unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is
why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining
bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe
that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing
streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to
reign supreme among the children of men...."
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