Fighting Without Force

3 Pages 811 Words

Martin Luther King Jr. was a well-respected speaker and leader for the Civil Rights Movement when blacks struggled the battle of discrimination and segregation. He was a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and led many blacks in how to fight for desegregation and to stop discrimination. One way he did this was through the power of nonviolence. He spoke out to blacks telling them that they could fight back without force.
In Martin Luther King, Junior’s essay, “The Power of Nonviolence,” he discusses and reminds the black community what nonviolence is and what its effects are, and why to pursue it. It is a reminder that the reason blacks are pursuing the act of nonviolence is not to win victory over the white community, or to humiliate them but to gain respect and understanding.
King states that the blacks fight against segregation and discrimination is not just a fight (white vs. black) but a fight between “justice and injustice.” This meaning it is not the individuals that stand before them they are fighting against but it is more or less the system. King summarizes this by saying that there, “…will be a victory for justice, victory for good will, a victory for democracy.” (King, “The Power of Nonviolence”, Bloom and Breines, p. 16)
Also in the essay, King goes on to discuss that this battle is also for that one day the community will base their lives on love rather than hatred. He explains that there are three words for love described in the Greek language. They are eros – a romantic love, phillia – the love between close friends, and then there is agape love. Agape is not loving someone because they are likable, but loving someone after they have done something wrong by hating the thing they did wrong not the person. (King, “The Power of Nonviolence”, Bloom and Breines, p. 16)
With the nonviolent resistance movement, King believes that the universe is on their side and that just...