The Definition of “Nonviolence” in America
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist in the 1950s and 60s. He led rallies and demonstrations of civil disobedience to protest the unfairness of black segregation in the southern United States. Though he is most famous for his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, which he ad-libbed in front of a crowd of 250,000 people, he wrote several letters and essays about effective activism and treating people well. One of his books, “Strength to Love,” contains a quote to which I have given some consideration: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’ The quote, as well as some themes in the book, were taken from a sermon he preached in 1957 about loving one’s enemies.
He offered nonviolence as an answer to the prejudice and hatred that proponents of the Jim Crow laws hurled at black citizens. Nonviolence was an incredibly hard path for blacks to take. Even after the American Civil War, blacks had been separated from normal American society by location, income, and freedoms, and as they pushed for universal suffrage, segregationists turned violent and began to physically accost protesters. It was natural for those who had been harmed by the push-back to give an eye for an eye, to make them sorry for the harm they had caused the black community. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, however, saw the very risky drawbacks of violent protest, and the long-term positive effects of peaceful civil disobedience.
The quote can be dissected sort of like this: rooms are generally only useful if you have light in them. If you were to encounter a dark room, you would not close the door and shut the blinds.
With ugly confrontation on both sides, they might just be happier writing both off and continuing with their lives.
Doing so would not be useful to you, and would only hinder your use of the room. Instead, you would turn on the lights and throw open the shades so you could better use the room for its intended purposes. Similarly, entering a screaming contest with someone, similar to the ones you had with your siblings when you were little, is not going to do much good other than make an unnecessary amount of distressing noise.
The quote is not meant, though, for your opponent. It is meant for the people who have only slightly hateful opinions about your cause. King Jr. was saying that your opinions may be valid, and you may win the ideological war you are waging, but you cannot alienate them. If you win through pulverizing the minds, bodies and emotional health of your objectors, they will be as useful to you as a darkened room. If your treatment of them does not crush them, it might justify their own actions in their minds, by making them realize that they are not nearly as destructive as you. If you do win the day, they will never cease to complain, and will find ways to get around your ideas. Violence does not just alienate your opposition, either. It turns those who are undecided against you, too.
Nonviolence, on the other hand, draws the undecideds to you. When your opposition responds to your peaceful resistance with violence, as they did during the Civil Rights protests, those who are not involved, or lean only slightly one way or another, have to think about who is in the right. With ugly confrontation on both sides, they might just be happier writing both off and continuing with their lives. Seeing your nonviolent response, however, will make them happier to live under a new code of law, or simply less angry.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s advocacy for fighting nonviolence with peace helped his movement gain traction in the favor of Americans who wished to help him and his cause. Darkness cannot fight darkness, and hate cannot fight hate. Many demagogues in today’s political action would do well to remember this.