On the power of peaceful persuasion

The Department of Sociology. The School of Social Welfare. The university YMCA and the university YWCA and the campus Committee on drama lectures and music. I was all privileged to present the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This is a resoundingly list responses is by no means too imposing. The significance of the man welcomed to Berkeley out of Montgomery Alabama. The first capital of the Confederacy. It has come to us and the rest of the nation. A man who strives not for division but for unity among all men. Placing his faith in Malvo and spiritual power. This pastor has taught us. Taught us as well as permission is the force that is in passive resistance. As he follows the teachings of Jesus and the techniques of Gandy the Reverend King

now twenty eight and only twenty six years of age when his great public career began came to the pulpit in keeping with a family tradition for both his father and his grandfather have been past is gone. In Atlanta Georgia in one thousand twenty nine. Martin Luther King Jr. attended that city's Morehouse College. That could best serve humanity by entering the ministry. Therefore he went next to the closure of Theological Seminary in Chester Pennsylvania where he was one of six negroes among the hundred students. He won the school's award as outstanding student and was president of its senior class after graduation. He enrolled at Boston University and then at that time also took courses at Harvard which led to his Ph.D. at Boston. Upon completion of his formal

education the Rev. King refused offers from several Northern churches so as to work with his own people in his own part of the country. Since September 1054 has been the past month Gummer Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Only a little more than a year after his assumption of this pastor that Dr. King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association the organization that called was called into being to conduct the famous boycott of busses and organization which he led with great but peaceful power. Aided by the Reverend Ralph Abernathy and the Reverend Robert Gratz and others as he conducted his campaign of boycott successfully for 381 days. Although Howard by terrorism and by malevolent suit by bigotry and by bombs by Ret. and by fiat the Reverend King unflinchingly

continued his policy of peaceful persuasion because of this that he will speak today. Martin Luther once said A man may do good works. But good works do not make a good man. Today we have with us the great Luther's namesake. And here is a good man who has done good works on behalf of the University of California. I am pleased and privileged to present this man to leavened Martin Luther King Jr.. Thank you. Mr. Vice Chancellor. Members of the

faculty. And members of the student body of this great institution I need not polish to say how delighted I am to be here. This afternoon. And to be a part of this very rich experience. I'm certainly indebted to the vice chancellor for this gracious introduction. And I can hardly speak to any audience in America without pausing for a moment to say thank you. And I want to express my personal appreciation to you Father Mauro support and even financial support that. You have given us and the Struggle for Freedom and Justice in Montgomery Alabama.

This afternoon I come. In to tell the dramatic story. Of a hand some. Little City which has been known over the years as the cradle of the Confederacy. It is a story of a Negro community. Grappling with a new and creative approach to the crisis and race relations. It is impossible however to understand the. Montgomery Story and. The techniques of persuasion involved.

Without understanding the larger story. Of the radical change in the negro's evaluation of himself. And a brief survey of the history of the Negro in America reveals his change in terms that a crystal clear. You will well remember that it was in the year under 16 19. That the first slaves landed on the shores of this nation. And they were brought here from the saws of Africa. I'm like the Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth a year later. They were brought here against I will and throughout slavery the negro was treated in a very inhuman fashion.

He was a thing to be used not a person to be respected. He was merely a depersonalized a cog. And a vast plantation machine. The famous Dred Scott decision of 1857 well illustrates the status of the negro during slavery. Or in this decision the United States Supreme Court said in substance that the negro was not a citizen of this nation. He is merely their property and subject to the dictates of his own mouth and with the growth of slavery it became necessary to give some justification for it. It seems to be a fact of life that human. Beings cannot continue to do wrong without eventually reaching out for some. Rationalization which ends up call than an obvious wrong and a beautiful garments of righteousness.

And this is exactly what happened. And the man of the slave owners face the danger that forever confronts religion and to literalistic interpretation of the Bible. That is the danger that religion and the Bible not properly interpreted would be used as instruments to crystallize the status quo. And this is exactly what happened. And so it was ah good from pulpits across the nation that the negro was inferior by nature because. Of Noah's curse upon the children of Ham. Paul the dictum became a watchword servant to be obedient to your master. And one of the ministers had probably. Read something of the logic of Stalin so he could put his argument. And a farm comparable to an Irish the Italians syllogism.

You could say all the M&M I made in the image of God that's a major premise and comes to mind a premise God as everybody knows is not a Negro. Then comes a conclusion. Now follow along. The Negro is not a man. This was the type of reasoning. This was a type of reasoning that prevailed. Living under these conditions men and negroes lost faith in themselves and then it came to feel that perhaps they were less than human. The tragedy of physical slavery is that it always leads to the paralysis of mental slavery. So long as the negro accepted. This place assigned to him this subservient attitude as sought a ration of peace was maintained. But it was an uneasy peace and which the Negro was forced patiently to accept injustice and exploitation.

It was a negative piece it was not a positive piece because. True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force but the presence of some positive force. True peace is not merely the absence of tension but the presence of Justice and the peace which existed at this time was a negative piece devoid of any positive meaning. But then something happened to the negro. Circumstances made it necessary for him to travel more. His road plantation background gradually gave way to an urban industrial life this cultural life was gradually rising through the steady decline of crippling illiteracy and even his economic life was developing through then loans of organized labor and the growth of industry. And all of these forces conjoined. And because the

negro to take a new look at himself the negro masses all over began to re-evaluate themselves. And the negro came to feel that he was somebody. He came to see that the important thing about a man is not his specificity but his fundamental I'm not the color of his skin and of the texture of his have but the quality of his soul. And with this new sense of dignity and this new self-respect a new Negro in mud and with the emergence of this new Negro of the. The negative piece was gradually undermine and the tension which we witness in the Southland today can be explained in part by the revolutionary change in the negro's evaluation of his nature and destiny and his

determination to struggle and sacrifice. Until justice is a reality. This is at bottom the meaning of the Montgomery Story. Why it is impossible to understand. What happened and what is happening in Montgomery without understanding that that is a new Negro in America with a new sense of dignity and destiny. If a visitor had come to Montgomery prior to December the 5th 1955. He would have known as bus operators called The Negro passengers names and one is almost ashamed to mention he would have noticed the times Nigro passengers. Getting on the front door of the bus and paying the fare.

And then been forced to get off and go to the back in order to board the bus. And often he would have noticed the bus pulling off before the negro passenger could get to the back. But even more he would occasionally an oldish negro passenger standing over empty seats. Pretty soon it would have been revealed to him that these empty seats were reserved for whites only. This custom went even beyond that white passengers feel of the reserve section which had about 10 seats for whites if they feel of all of these seats and it became necessary Ah the white passengers boarded the bus. The negro passenger seated immediately behind the reserve section were asked to stand and moved to the back and out of that the white passengers could be

seated and if the negro passengers refused to move to stand up they were arrested. On the 1st of December. Mrs. Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat to move back an auto that a white passenger could be seated. And it is interesting to note that Mrs. Parks was not seated in one of the tender is there seat she was seated in the first seat of the reserve section. And if she had given up her seat she would have had to stand while a male white passenger would have been seated and in a quiet and dignified manner so characteristic of the radiant personality of Mrs. Parks. She refused to move back and the result was the

rest. The trial was set up for Monday December the 5th. And almost out of nowhere our leaflets were circulated around the Negro community saying this must be stopped another negro woman has been humiliated and arrested because she refused to give up a seat for a white passenger. And then it suggested that. The negro citizen should protest by refusing to ride the buses on Monday the day that the trial was set. The word got around amazingly well. All of the negro ministers came together and in DOS the plan with hot enthusiasm by Monday the word was around the city. Then came Monday morning do some of the things on the buses was empty all day long negro passengers

would constitute 75 percent of the bus riders refused to ride. The Negro community was now united in a way that it had never been united before. And from that day to the end of the protests which was three hundred and eighty one days negro passengers cooperated. With this endeavor more than nine and I was sent. Co-operating. It was more than 99 percent successful from the very beginning. Realizing at the very beginning the need for some guiding organization to give direction. To the protests. The ministers and civic leaders came together on the afternoon of December the 5th. And although not as the Montgomery Improvement Association.

And it is this association that has guided and directed. The protest rather that guided and directed the protests for all of the three hundred and eighty one days this organization is led on by. Some of the most outstanding ministers and civic leaders of the Montgomery Community. Through this all going to zation. It was always necessary to stress unity and the need for sticking together for a great cause. And said and this was one of the techniques to bring. People together across denominational lines and somehow Zam to subject that particular egos to the greatness of the cause and the farm on that and you know the members of this organization work together amazingly well. The ministers of the city called a mass meeting Monday night December the 5th.

Urging the Negro citizens of the community to come out and discuss a problem together. And by three o'clock that afternoon people start of assembling in the church and by 7 o'clock the church was overflowing with more than 5000 persons. More than three or four thousand standing on the outside. It was in this meeting that. These persons unanimously live voted to adopt the following resolution. The negro passengers would not resume riding the buses until more courtesy was extended from the bus drivers until the seating arrangement had been changed to a first come first serve basis and until negro bus drivers and then hide. And sold the one day protests. From that day became an and definite protest which lasted

three hundred and eighty one days. The picture is becoming clearer now. Almost every negro citizen of Montgomery had to have some humiliating experience on the bus and if he had not had an experience himself he had to witness a humiliating experience that someone else had something like that comes a time when people get tired. That comes at a time when people get tired of being trampled over by they are in feet of oppression. That comes a time when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of exploitation where they experience the bleakness of Nagen and justice. And so the story of Montgomery is a story of 50000 negroes who became tie into thin justice who came to see that it is ultimately my honorable to walk in dignity than to ride in humiliation.

A group of people who are willing to substitute tired feet for tired sold and walked the streets of Montgomery. Until the sag and walls of segregation were finally crushed by the battering rams of historical necessity. This is at bottom the meaning of the Montgomery Story. One of the first practical problems at the X bus ride is confront it was out of work and out some way to get around the city to get to and from that jobs and to get to and from all the places that they were interested in going. And this need was met first by. Having the taxes of the city to operate on a jitney rate of cheap jitney rate for 10 cents the same as a bus. Buses charge but this was immediately stopped by the police commissioner who said to the taxes that you will be arrested if you do not stop this day and he set up a

minimum of 45 cents that every taxi had to comply with and so it was necessary to move into another area. And almost overnight we had worked together and brought. More than 300 private cars to follow a cop and even the police commissioner had to admit one person a White Citizens Council meeting that the transportation system operated with military precision. It worked amazingly well. And this was one of the ways that the people who were able to get around it did not meet the whole problem. People still had to walk and sacrifice but it did help out. With all of these automobiles being used and finally a station wagon. Were you able to organize a transportation system from the very beginning that was an attempt on the part of the opposition to to

stop to block the protest. I should say that was an attempt on the part of the reactionary forces of the white community. If I would not like to leave the impression with any of you that all of the white persons in Alabama on sympathetic with the cause of human dignity and justice. I have always felt and I still feel. That there are more moderate persons in the white south than appears on the surface persons of goodwill. And today they are in a state of fear and afraid to speak out afraid to take a definite stand. Fear of economic political and social reprisals. But they have that in large in numbers and some time appears on the surface. So I must stress the fact that they reactionary elements of the white community sought to block the protests. They use several methods the first method was that of seeking to negotiate us into a compromise.

And after that didn't work a second method in my eyes and that was a method that I like to call of. By dividing dividing and audit to conquer. That was an attempt to split up the unity of the leadership. Many persons of the opposition and of the reactionary white community went to some of the older the ministers and the Negro community and said Now if this thing has to exist and it has to take place it seems that you should be in the leadership you have been here all these years and the people looked over you and calling on the young man. It just looks bad that you are leading this thing. Now that was an attempt to create jealousy among the leaders and then that was the attempt to spread false Romo's concerning the leaders of the protest saying that the ministers were doing nothing but making a lot of money and buying Cadillac cars and using it to that person and

that didn't work. After this method didn't work. The method. Which might be referred to as a get tough policy came into being and this was really a method to use it bogged down in the final analysis that it was a series of a rest from an imaginary traffic violations hundreds of people were arrested just to be arrested in order to break the unity. But that didn't stop it. After the get tough policy then we didn't want physical violence came into being in the homes of several persons but that didn't stop it. After that didn't work. Then came the mass arrests. Most of the 96 persons why indicted for leading an illegal boycott of the law said these persons one died on the basis of an old anti-labor a lot of

doubtful constitutionality. And even that didn't stop it. And so the protests continued in the midst of all of this opposition for many many months. Three hundred and eighty one days. Now let me come to one of the basic points. From the very beginning Valois has a philosophy undergirding the boycott. We often refer to it as if a lot of nonviolent resistance. The philosophy of passive resistance as you well know this is a. Method made famous by Mahatma Gandhi and of our generation. And he used it to free his people from. The political domination and economic exploitation and humiliation inflicted upon them by Britain.

The method of. Passive resistance. That was always the problem of getting this method over because it didn't make sense to most of the people in the beginning. And so we had to use our mass meetings as a place to get the philosophy of nonviolence over to a community of people who had never heard of the philosophy and in many instances were not sympathetic with it. We had meetings twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and we used these meetings as an opportunity to teach and lecture on the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. And even in the midst of our struggle we had institutes. We had an institute on nonviolence and social chains to study social change and to get over all of the philosophy of nonviolence. And I was certain basic things that we had to make clear in the beginning about this philosophy.

We had to make it clear that this was not a a method of colonists. It does resist. It is not a method of stagnant passive it and deaden and complacency. The nonviolent resistor is just as opposed to the evil that he is standing against as a violent resistance. But he resists without violence. This method is passive physically but dynamically active spiritually. It is non aggressive physically but strongly aggressive spiritually. Another thing that we have to get over concerning this method. Was the fact that the nonviolent resistance does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding.

This was always a cry that we had to set before the people that I came as not to defeat the white community not to humiliate the white community but to win the friendship. Of all of the persons who have perpetrated this system in the past. The end of violence of the aftermath of violence is bitterness but the aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of the beloved community. And that is the type of thing that we are trying to get o that a boycott is never an end within itself it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppression. But the end is reconciliation the end is redemption. And then we had to make it clear also that. The nonviolent resistance seeks to attack the evil system rather than individuals who happen to

be caught up in the system. And this is why I say from time to time that the struggle in Montgomery and the struggle in the south is not so much attention between white people and negro people. The struggle is at bottom a tension between justice and injustice between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And if that is a victory it will not be a victory in Maryland for fifty thousand negroes but it will be a victory of FOD justice and victory for good will a victory for our democracy. The method of nonviolent resistance seeks to attack the. Evil system rather than individuals who happened to be victimized with these evil systems. That is another basic thing that we have to get over and that is that nonviolent resistance is

also an internal matter. It not only of God's Eckstein of violence X-titles physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. Not owner refuses to shoot a man but had refused to hate him and so at the center of the movement stood the philosophy of love. You had it too that's the only way to ultimately change humanity and make fun of a society that. We all long for used to keep love at the center of our lives. Now people used to ask me from the beginning what do you mean by love and how is it that you can tell us to love those persons who seek to defeat us and those persons who stand against us how can you love such persons. And I had to make it clear all along that love in its highest sense

is not a sentimental sort of thing not even affection an affectionate sort of thing is very interesting that the Greek language it uses three words for love. It talks about air Ross never Ross's assault of aesthetic love. Plato talks about it a great deal in his dialogues a sort of yearning of the soul fog realm of the gods and has come to us to be a sort of romantic love and it stands with all of its beauty we poets write about it and we read about it. I guess Shakespeare was thinking about erasure when he said Love is not love which alters when its alteration finds bends with the remover to remove it is and have a fix it mom that looks on Tempest and is never shaken. It is a stock to ever wonder involved. You see I can remember that because I used to quote it to my wife when we were coaching. But when we speak of loving those who oppose us we are talking about Eros the Greek

language talks about filia and this is a sort of. Reciprocal love between personal friends and on this level an individual's love because they are this is a type of love that we have close and intimate friends. This is a vital valuable love. Now. When we talk about loving those who oppose you and those who seek to defeat you. We're not talking about Eros off Ilia the Greek language comes out with another word in it cause I don't got pain I got paid as more than a Ross a god pay is more than fair Leonor gotta pay is understanding creative redemptive goodwill for all man. Biblical theologians would say it is the love of God working in the lives of men and it is an overflowing love. Which seeks nothing in return. And when we come to love on this level we've begun to love men not because they are likable not because

they do things that attract us but because God loves them. And here we love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does and it is this type of love that stands at the center. Of the movement. Which we are trying to carry on in the Southland Agong pain. It is also impossible to understand among government movement without understanding a certain spiritual bases of the movement. It is impossible to understand it without seeing that nonviolence in the final analysis is based on the assault of faith and the future. And I am quite aware of the fact that a persons who believe in a nonviolent not theist who do not believe in a personal God. But I think every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the universe and some Fong is on the side of

justice and that that is something in the unfolding in the universe whether one speaks of it as an unconscious process or whether one speaks of it as some long moved move or a whether someone speaks of it as a personal God that is something in the universe that unfolds toward justice. And so in Montgomery we felt somehow that as we struggle we had cosmic companionship and this was one of the things that kept the people together. The belief that the universe is on the side of justice that is something in this universe which justifies call and saying no lie can live forever. That is something in this universe which justifies William Cohen Bryant in saying Truth crushed to earth will rise again. That is something in this universe which justifies James Russell Lowell then saying truth for I have on the scaffold. Wrong for ever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future.

And behind the demo unknown stands God within the shadow keeping watch above his own. And that is the reason Munn gum Alabama that we can walk and never get weary because we know that is a great kept meeting and the promised land of freedom and justice. This in short is something of a story that could not possibly be told in a lecture. Just mentioning some of the pawns that held us together then some of the basic philosophical presuppositions. Of this philosophy. And God grant that as men and women all over the well struggle against evil systems that they would struggle with love and Hobbes with understanding goodwill. But this is a philosophy that says you must move on with wise restraint and calm reasonableness. But you must keep moving. And this is the challenge to America.

We have a great opportunity to build here a great nation a nation where all the men live together as brothers and respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. And we must keep moving toward that goal I know that some people are saying we must slow up. They're writing letters to the knowledge and they are appealing to the white people of goodwill and to the Negro saying Slow up you're pushing too fast they're saying we must have dropped a policy of moderation. Now if moderation means moving on with wives restraint and calm reasonableness. Then moderation is a great virtue that all men of goodwill must seek to achieve in this tense period of transition. But if moderation means slowing up in the move for justice and capitulating to the whims and caprices of the Guardians of the deadening status quo then moderation is a tragic vice.

Which all men of goodwill must condemn. We must continue to move on. Self-respect is at stake the prestige of our nation is at stake and we must come to see that the issue of civil rights is not an ephemeral evanescent domesticity which can be kicked about by vociferous politicians. But it is an eternal moral issue. Which may well determine the destiny of our civilization in the ideological struggle with communism. We must keep moving with lives restraint and love and the proper discipline and with dignity. I close now but let me leave this with you. That is within every academic discipline. Certain technical words that soon become cliches and stereotypes and they become. Basic words in the capital area of that particular discipline. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word

in modern psychology. It is a word maladjusted. It is a ring and cry of the new child psychologist maladjusted. Now all of us should seek to live the well-adjusted life and auto to avoid neurotic and schizo phrenic personalities. We should attempt as much as possible to be adjusted. But I leave you this afternoon saying that if something is within our social order. To which I am proud to be a maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to a mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the method of physical violence and tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things. It may be that the salvation of a civilization

lies in the hands of the maladjusted. I call upon you to be maladjusted as maladjusted as Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day could cry out in woods attic or across the generations and the judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not exist have slaves and have free as maladjusted as Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry out him times lifted to cosmic proportions. All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who dreamed a dream of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. God granted we will be so maladjusted and we will be able to go out and

change our world and our civilization. And then we will be able to move from the bleak and desolate midnite of man's inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering DAYBREAK of freedom and justice. Thank you AA. HTH Thank you.

You've been listening to a talk by Dr. Martin Luther King speaking on the techniques of persuasion in Montgomery Alabama. Dr. King would you be kind enough to tell us how the techniques that you've been describing might be used to deal with other problems in the south such as school segregation. I am in the process now of thinking through all. The possibilities of using this method in the area of school integration. I must confess however that it is still in a formative stage in my mind and I have not thought of all of the techniques said we can use to make this a method a meaningful method in the area of school integration but I'm sure it can be used and we are definitely committed to the idea that philosophy of nonviolence and as we move into. The area of integrated schools we will have opposition. We might be the victims of violence but at least we will refuse to retaliate with violence. However that is a

larger sense in which this technique can be used which I have not completely worked out in my mind. One other short question Dr. King. What is happening on the buses in Montgomery Alabama today. The buses in Montgomery federally integrated. They are running day in and day out on an integrated basis. And we have not had any major incidents at the beginning. Some bombings have been some shooting in the buses but now things are working amazingly well and we have not had any real not any major incidents occasionally you have a minor incident but on the whole day transition from segregated buses to integrated buses has been a very smooth and orderly transition. Thank you very much Dr. Martin Luther King of Montgomery Alabama.