Martin Luther King, Jr. responded to acts of racism and protest by interpreting their meaning in relation to American history, the Constitution, and the Bible, and assured his followers and his enemies in his Letter from Birmingham Jail that he and the protesters who followed his teachings were always “co-workers with God.”
Gandhi’s Influence on King
King’s arrival at the doctrine of nonviolence was a long philosophical and theological process. One of the key factors in cementing nonviolence as his chief means of achieving his goals was the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi. King repeatedly referred to Gandhi in his speeches and writings to defend nonviolent protest and civil disobedience.
He was fascinated by Gandhi’s crusades for nonviolent resistance, and spoke in the book, I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World, of “[seeing] for the first time that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people.”
He had at last arrived at his destination, with, as he stated in the same book, “Christ [furnishing] the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.” For King and the nonviolent protesters, Gandhi’s wisdom would become an essential authority to rely upon, draw strength from, and validate their movement.
Philosophy on Christianity and Civil Disobedience
In King’s philosophical arguments, he was always keen to make Christian or Biblical references, thereby making it difficult to argue with his opinions, even for a white Christian segregationist.
He asked, in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, that if the devoutly faithful African Americans were to be condemned for their peaceful actions in protest, “isn’t [it] like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?”
When accused of being an extremist, King retorted by naming other great religious icons and leaders—such as Jesus, Paul, and Martin Luther—as fellow extremists in their time.
King's Criticism of the Church
King also frequently expressed his criticism for and disappointment with the church’s handling of the Civil Rights Movement, especially for not becoming integrated sooner. King saw the church as one body, with whites and blacks meant to work together as one.
He was also upset at the church’s silent attitude toward the Civil Rights movement and the impending Vietnam War. He described his hope that the leaders of the white churches around the country would have been stronger supporters of the protesters.
He believed that the Christian religion depended upon serving the entirety of a person, not just the soul, and stated in the “I Have a Dream” speech that “any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
Sources
King, Martin Luther, Jr. I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Essential Documents in American History, 1492-Present: 1-13.
Stull, Bradford T. Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden: Du Bois, King, Malcolm X, and Emancipatory Composition. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.
Zepp, Ira G, Jr. The Social Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing Inc, 1989.
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