Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--The ninetyandnine Interview

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--The ninetyandnine Interview

February 25, 2008

“Each is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his capacity to overcome them.”

By Joshua Remington

February is Black History Month, and, because one of my greatest heroes is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I wanted to find some way to honor him this month. Since his words still retain power today, and instead of writing about him, it would be a more fitting tribute to allow him to speak for himself.

The following is an “interview” in which I have strung together quotes from Dr. King's articles, speeches, and books that allow him, in his own words, to speak afresh to us today.

Battle for Civil Rights

90&9: The beginning of the civil rights movement…This was a time that many young people today know nothing about. What was it like when you first decided to boycott the buses?

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The nation waited until the black man was explosive with fury before stirring itself even to partial concern.” “…what we were really doing was withdrawing our cooperation from an evil system, rather than merely withdrawing our economic support from the bus company.”

90&9: But you found little support for your boycott from local or federal courts at first. You faced firebombs, imprisonment, and constant death threats your entire life. What made you keep pressing in the face of all that, when it seemed like every white man was against you?

MLK: “They expect[ed] these experiences to harden me into a grim and desperate man. They fail[ed], however, to perceive the sense of affirmation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles. They have no comprehension of the strength that comes from God and man… The past is strewn with the ruins of the empires of tyranny, and each is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his capacity to overcome them.”

90&9: And did all your supporters share the same faith? Did all of those masses believe with you that these blunders could be overcome?

MLK: “There [was] something about the protest that [was] suprarational; it cannot be explained without a divine dimension.” “For the mass meeting audiences, these scriptural admonitions were not abstractions that came to them from a distance across the centuries; they had a personal and immediate meaning for them today.” “It was the Sermon on the Mount, rather than a doctrine of passive resistance, that initially inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to dignified social action. It was Jesus of Nazareth that stirred the Negroes to protest with the creative weapon of love.”

Nonviolent Resistance

90&9: You mentioned the idea of passive resistance. The way you utilized this to win so many victories for civil rights was, and remains, inspiring to many…

MLK: “…there is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.”

90&9: Explain to us a little more about this concept of passive resistance.

MLK: “The method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually. It is not passive non-resistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil…it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding… The attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing evil.

[It] is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back. 'Rivers of blood may have to flow before we gain our freedom, but it must be our blood,' Gandhi said to his countrymen. …it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he also refuses to hate him. …it is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. Consequently, the believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future.”

“…the use of violence in our struggle would be both impractical and immoral. To meet hate with retaliatory hate would do nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force.” “…only just means may be used in seeking a just end.”

90&9: Wouldn't it have been easier to just let things go? Surely, in time, things would have turned around without anyone's blood flowing? Why did you insist on resistance, nonviolent or otherwise?

MLK: “…nonviolence in the truest sense is not a strategy that one uses simply because it is expedient at the moment; nonviolence is ultimately a way of life that men live because of the sheer morality of its claim.” “A righteous man has no alternative but to resist such an evil system. If he does not have the courage to resist nonviolently, then he runs the risk of a violent emotional explosion. As much as I deplore violence, there is one evil that is worse than violence, and that's cowardice.”

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it… So in order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.”

90&9: So for you, it was a question of morality. It would have been immoral to not resist, but it would also have been immoral to violently resist?

MLK: “Once again we must hear the words of Jesus echoing across the centuries: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.' If we [had] fail[ed] to do this our protest [would] end up as a meaningless drama on the stage of history, and its memory [would] be shrouded with the ugly garments of shame.” “In the end, it is not a struggle between people at all, but a tension between justice and injustice. Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors but against oppression.”

90&9: So it seems that, based on this doctrine of nonviolent resistance, you would not be very supportive of the war America is fighting today?

MLK: “It seems glaringly obvious to me that the development of a humanitarian means of dealing with some of the social problems of the world--and the correlative revolution in American values that this will entail--is a much better way of protecting ourselves against the threat of violence than the military mans we have chosen.”

“Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.” “Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. A voice echoes through time saying to every potential Peter, 'Put up your sword.'”

Social Problems

90&9: Looking back, does it make you happy to see how far America has come?

MLK: “If we look honestly at the realities of our national life, it is clear that we are not marching forward; we are groping and stumbling; we are divided and confused. Our moral values and our spiritual confidence sink, even as our material wealth ascends.” “Economic insecurity strangles the physical and cultural growth of its victims. Not only are millions deprived of formal education and proper health facilities but our most fundamental social unit--the family--is tortured, corrupted, and weakened by economic insufficiency.”

“To the young victim of the slums, this society has so limited the alternatives of his life that the expression of his manhood is reduced to the ability to defend himself physically.” “…eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out 'I can take it no longer.'” “Criminality and delinquency are not racial; poverty and ignorance breed crime whatever the racial group may be.”

90&9: And what do you see as the cause of this division, confusion and insecurity?

MLK: “This is not a nation of venal people. It is a land of individuals who, in the majority, have not cared, who have been heartless about their…neighbors because their ears are blocked and their eyes blinded…” “…many…are occupied in a middle-class struggle for status and prestige. They are more concerned about 'conspicuous consumption' than about the cause of justice, and are probably not prepared for the ordeals and sacrifices involved…”

“All too many Americans believe that justice will unfold painlessly.” “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” “America has not yet changed because so many think it need not change, but this is the illusion of the damned.”

The Church

90&9: It sounds like you and those working with you were not satisfied merely with the civil rights victories you achieved. Do you see the church as a ray of hope in all of this?

MLK: “…we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

“In a world gone mad with arms buildups, chauvinistic passions, and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent… The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will.” “It has always been the responsibility of the church to broaden horizons, challenge the status quo, and break the mores when necessary.”

“A further effort that the church can make…is to take the lead in social reform. It is not enough for the church to be active in the realm of ideas; it must move out into the arena of social action… How often the church has had a high blood count of creeds and an anemia of deeds!” “The church must… become increasingly active… outside its doors… It must take an active stand against the injustice that [minorities] confront in housing, education, police protection, and in city and state courts. It must exert its influence in the area of economic injustice. As guardian of the moral and spiritual life of the community the church cannot look with indifference upon these glaring evils.”

90&9: So there is hope for the church, but your hope is not in the church. Leave us with a thought about the God that your hope is in.

MLK: “The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both tough-minded and tenderhearted. He has qualities both of austerity and of gentleness. The Bible, always clear in stressing both attributes of God, expresses his tough-mindedness in his justice and wrath and his tenderheartedness in his love and grace. God has two outstretched arms. One is strong enough to surround us with justice, and one is gentle enough to embrace us with grace. On the one hand, God is a God of justice who punished Israel for her wayward deeds, and on the other hand, he is a forgiving father whose heart was filled with unutterable joy when the prodigal returned home… He is tough-minded enough to transcend the world; he is tenderhearted enough to live in it. He does not leave us alone in our agonies and struggles. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us and for us in our tragic prodigality.”

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Joshua Remington is an alumnus of Urshan Graduate School of Theology and currently serves as the discipleship pastor at TurnPoint Church in Clermont, Florida. He would like to dedicate this article to James and Steven Beardsley, two pastors who showed him how to live a life of true racial equality through their examples.

Footnote

All quotes come from the following book: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., James M Washington ed., (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco), 1986. This book provides transcripts of most of Dr. King's speeches, essays, interviews, and books, including a collection of his sermons. To construct the interview I drew from all of these sources.