Joe Schurer

Ms. Burke

Honors English 11

1/26/17

The Necessity of Nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement

The road to equality in the United States of America has been a long tough road for the

nation to walk. During the civil rights movements, many leaders came to the forefront with their

own ideas of how the fight for equal rights should play out. Perhaps the most famous of these

leaders are Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. Both men were working towards the same

goal, but they disagreed fundamentally about how their goals should be achieved. Martin Luther

King Jr. supported winning equality for blacks through widespread mass nonviolent protests,

however Malcom X believed that the time for nonviolence had passed and supported violent

resistance. While each method may have its advantages, Martin Luther King Jr.s nonviolent

approach was the best way to achieve racial equality in the United States. Dr. Kings method was

the best way to win equality for African Americans while allowing them to integrate into

American society and created the situation where his movement would receive the most support

from the rest of the public.

Dr. King made a strong argument that nonviolence was the only way that African

Americans would be able to effectively integrate into American society. In his speech,

Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom, Dr. King said, The American racial revolution has

been a revolution to get in rather than to overthrowThe goal itself indicates that social change

in America must be nonviolent. Dr. King pointed out that what they are fighting for is equality

for African Americans. He clarified that he does not want the destruction of American society, he
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merely wants African Americans to be included in what the rest of America already has. Malcom

X conveyed a very different idea in his speech, The Ballot or the Ballot, So its time in 1954 to

wake uplet them know your eyes are open too. Its got to be the ballot or the bullet. Malcom

X was advocating for African Americans to take up violent resistance to gain equality and the

right to vote. However, it is hard to imagine that African Americans would live peacefully in

America with whites ever if there was a widespread insurrection. The division this would create

would likely never heal and even if the blacks did win equality it would only be on paper. There

would be even more hatred between the races and the African Americans would lose any support

from whites that they had. There is a modern example of this in the Black Lives Matter

movement. When the movement started out it quickly gained a great deal of public support.

However, after some protests in Chicago that were only loosely associated with BLM turned into

riots, the group lost a lot of support from outsiders (Sidner). People saw the group as too extreme

and they fair amount of their mainstream appeal.

Dr. King also recognized that nonviolence was the only way that he could win

widespread mainstream support outside of the African American community. He knew that if

America was to accept the African Americans fully, then he needed to change the hearts of

Americans by getting them involved in making the change happen. In his speech, Nonviolence:

The Only Road to Freedom, Dr. King said, The nonviolent strategy has been to dramatize the

evils of our society in such a way that pressure is brought to bear against those evils by the forces

of good will in the community and change is produced Humans naturally respond to the

images of violence being committed against a helpless person. Dr. King knew the images of

officers in riot gear standing off against the huddled masses of African Americans demonstrating

peacefully would carry a powerful message. Images and stories like these had to potential to
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change the hearts of whites and to bring them into the fold of the civil right movement. Malcom

X expressed a very different view in The Ballot or the Bullet, And now youre facing a situation

where the young Negros coming up. They dont want to hear that turn-the-other-cheek stuff...

Malcom X was basically arguing that it was time to stop being nonviolent in the face of violence

against African Americans. At a glance, it seems to be strong reasoning and it seems only natural

to fight back when challenged. However, Dr. King made a strong case for why this was a

pointless venture, I must continue my faith that is too great a burden to bear and that violence,

even in self-defense, creates more problems than it solves. Only a refusal to hate or kill can put

an end to the chain of violence in the world and lead us toward a community where men can live

together without fear. Dr. King argued that any use of violence would create more problems for

African Americans and it would offer no solution to the conditions which led to violence in the

first place. Yet again we can see another relation to the black Lives Matter movement today. Just

the perception in the public that the group was connected to a protest that turned violent cost the

group a lot of its respect and BLM is still trying to repair their image from those riots (Foran).

Even if the protestors were only defending themselves from police officers the event has left a

lasting mark on BLM in the eyes of many.

Martin Luther King Jr. presented an effective and convincing argument for why

nonviolence was the only way forward for the civil rights movement in the United States.

Nonviolence gave African Americans a path to be integrated into the rest of American society

and created a situation in which his movement received a large amount of support from non-

African Americans. Had African Americans led a violent insurrection it is very likely that the

divisions between the races would never be able to heal in the United States and each side would

forever feel resentment and hatred for the other. While violence may have seemed easier or more
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tempting in the short term, nonviolence was ultimately the best method for the civil rights

movement. There are cases were the use of violence is necessary or is the only way forward, But

Dr. King made a strong argument for why it would have been counterproductive for the civil

rights movement.
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Works Cited

Foran, Clare. "A Year of Black Lives Matter." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 31 Dec.

2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.

Sidner, Sara. "The Rise of Black Lives Matter." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Dec. 2015. Web.

26 Jan. 2017.