If you think Martin Luther King, Jr. would not have been sympathetic to the rioters, it means the only MLK speech you have read is “I Have a Dream.” Read any other speech.
MLK was not some peace-loving hippy sitting in a drum circle singing kumbaya. He was the leader of an army who taught his soldiers to take punches instead of start fights. He chose nonviolent civil disobedience in part because he believed white Americans could not turn away from the sight of the police brutally attacking people who didn’t fight back.
Part of the strategy of nonviolent direct action during the Civil Rights Movement was to break the law. MLK went to jail 29 times. One of his most famous pieces of writing, “The Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written from jail.
He wrote “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to white people who were basically saying, “That is not the right way to protest.”
The whole point of nonviolent civil disobedience is to create so much tension that it is impossible to ignore the injustices causing the unrest. Disruption is the point!
From “The Letter from Birmingham Jail:” “You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.”
I understand feeling outrage for rioting and looting. Where is your outrage for the rest?
