For Martin Luther King, nonviolence was an essential element of his prosecution of the Black freedom struggle. In an interview from 1957 — this after the Little Rock school crisis — King talked about why he was committed to the philosophy:

“It seems to me that there are three ways that oppressed people can deal with their oppression,” he said. “One is to rise up in open violence, in physical violence. And some persons have used that method, persons who have been oppressed. But I think the danger of that method is its futility. I feel that violence creates many more social problems than it's solved.”

But just as King thought violence was wrong, he also rejected passive acceptance of oppression: ”I think that is just as bad as violence because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”

Today we’re going to talk about what Martin Luther King called his “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,” how it relates to the foundations of that philosophy as articulated by Gandhi, and how in both King’s time and today there were those who question the effectiveness of nonviolence as a tool of politics.

Last year, Brian Mackey talked about this with Columbia University political science professor Karuna Mantena. She is a scholar of Gandhi and King, and wrote a chapter in a book that came out a few years ago called To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. The chapter was called “Showdown for Nonviolence: the Theory and Practice of Nonviolent Politics.”

Back in 1963, Don Rose was an organizer for Midwest states at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He’s made plenty of other marks in Chicago politics, but today we wanted to talk with him mostly about 1966, when Martin Luther King brought his civil rights work to Chicago, and Rose worked as his press secretary.

Back in 1963, Don Rose was an organizer for Midwest states at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He’s made plenty of other marks in Chicago politics, but today we wanted to talk with him mostly about 1966, when Martin Luther King brought his civil rights work to Chicago, and Rose worked as his press secretary.

On February 4, 1968, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon called the “Drum Major Instinct.” “Everybody can be great,” he said, “because everybody can serve.” As we continued to look back at his life and legacy on this Martin Luther King Day, The 21st was joined by the 22-year-old Trustee serving on the Peoria Park District Board.