Nonviolence

At Holt Street Baptist Church, King presides over the last day of the MIA’s institute on nonviolence.

King delivers the presidential address at the MIA’s Fourth Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change at Montgomery’s Bethel Baptist Church.

Liberation publishes King’s “The Social Organization of Nonviolence.”

Andrew Young’s work as a pastor, administrator, and voting rights advocate led him to join Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the civil rights struggle. Young, who entered electoral politics shortly after King’s assassination, credited King with giving “purpose and sustenance” to his life (Young, 474). “He left his mark on me, both in indelible memories and in the spiritual and practical lessons of our trials and triumphs,” Young recalled. “It is by the quality of those days that I have come to measure my own continuing journey” (Young, 474).

Albert Lutuli, an African nationalist and Zulu chief, was recognized nationally and internationally for his involvement in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.

As a social gospel minister, Kelly Miller Smith believed in using his pastorate to promote activism. Smith participated in the founding meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, and co-founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC) a year later. In a 1961 telegram Smith described Martin Luther King as the “embodiment of the message you bear” (Smith, 19 December 1961).

During his tenure as dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, theologian and minister Howard Thurman sent Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King his 1955 volume on spirituals, Deep River. He inscribed the book: “To the Kings—The test of life is often found in the amount of pain we can absorb without spoiling our joy” (Papers 6:299).” Thurman’s commitment to a spiritually and physically integrated society, and to the methods of Gandhian nonviolence, served as major influences in King’s life.

Harris Wofford was the Kennedy administration’s civil rights expert and an ally of Martin Luther King. Wofford believed in employing a mix of direct action and legal techniques to combat segregation. He applauded King’s leadership in Montgomery: “You have already proven yourselves master artists of non-violent direct action” (Papers 3:226).

King leads a panel at the institute on “The Mass Process of Nonviolent Resistance”; he serves as an advisor during a subsequent discussion.

At Spelman College, King speaks on the opening day of the First Southwide Institute on Nonviolent Resistance to Segregation.