Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr The power of nonviolent action Mary King UNESCO Publishing Cultures of peace Also in the Cultures of Peace Series: Culture of Democracy: A Challenge for Schools Peace! An Anthology by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Tolerance UNESCO – An Ideal in Action: The Continuing Relevance of a Visionary Text UNESCO and a Culture of Peace: Promoting a Global Movement Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr The power of nonviolent action Mary King Cultures of Peace Series UNESCO PUBLISHING The author is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Published in 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France Composed by Éditions du Mouflon, 94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Printed by Imprimerie Darantiere, Quétigny ISBN 92-3-103431-6 © UNESCO 1999 Printed in France Woodcut by the Bengali artist Nandlal Bose of Gandhi on the Salt March of 1930, the 241-mile march from Ahmedabad to the sea coast at Dandi, on the western coast of India. Preface Some time ago, when I asked Mary King to prepare this book as a UNESCO project, my overriding concern was to share the message of nonviolence with today’s readers, particularly the young. Indeed, as a young woman, Mary King lived nonviolence in the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Recent events around the world, as admirably documented here, show the continued relevance of nonviolence at the end of this the most violent century in human history. The examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and of those who follow and adopt their teachings today, are crucial to UNESCO’s constitutional commitment to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women everywhere. Where else but in our minds and hearts can we find the resourcefulness to break the cycle of war and violence that has characterized history until now – what I call the ‘Culture of War’ – and build a ‘Culture of Peace’? A culture of peace is anything but a culture of passivity. Nonviolence is a strategy for action, not inaction, and certainly not docility. It is forthright, courageous, disciplined, assertive and, as we all too often forget, remarkably successful. It is based on big ideas and overarching ethical imperatives communicated, for all to see, in everyday gestures: Gandhi walking to the sea and silently picking up a grain of sand, Rosa Parks staying seated on her Montgomery bus, Martin Luther King and thousands of others walking to work in the famous bus boycott. A culture of peace is an everyday, active commitment to free expression, to caring for our neighbors and sharing our ideals and dreams with them. This is what Gandhi and King teach us. This is what their fate forces us to conclude: they were threats to social and political orders based on injustice, intolerance and violence. Their nonviolence and messages of freedom and love forced change, not only in external laws and systems of vii governance, but in the minds of men and women. And their ideas drew strength from the very tragedy of their deaths. UNESCO celebrates these two great figures who, in the clamor of our war-torn century, quietly spoke ‘truth to power’ calmly, bravely and effectively. For it is also true that this century has seen the birth of political nonviolence as a new force for change, for democracy, for justice and for peace. When UNESCO’s founders wrote of the need for the ‘intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind’ in the pursuit of freedom, justice and democracy, they were offering the force of ideas against the idea of force. That is why it is so important to understand from this book that the Culture of Peace has a history and, most importantly, a future. Federico Mayor Director-General of UNESCO Contents Acknowledgments xi A note about jiu-jitsu xv Introduction 1 Various uses of nonviolent tools 2 Two giants of nonviolent struggle 4 Bibliography 1 Confronting power itself: Mahatma Gandhi’s campaigns and the power of truth 9 A kind of power Influences on Gandhi Thoreau’s ‘civil disobedience’ The early years Return to India Brick by brick: the constructive program The Ahmedabad textile mill satyagraha Gandhi rises on the Indian stage The Vykom temple satyagraha The Bardoli peasant satyagraha The Salt March Return to the village The Calcutta fast The power of truth for all the world Bibliography 2 Standing face to face with power: Martin Luther King Jr and the American civil rights movement 85 The young Martin First encounters with Gandhi and Thoreau Intellectual pilgrimage to nonviolence Nonviolent resistance is not for cowards The Montgomery struggle sparks a movement The Montgomery bus boycott The boycott sets the parameters of nonviolent struggle Resident Gandhian tutors ‘When the gun gets too heavy, you will put it down’ After 381 days of boycott Rediscovery of Gandhi To India The sit-ins and the freedom rides Civil rights, civil disobedience and civility Letter from a Birmingham jail The children’s crusade The Selma march ‘Fire that no water could put out’ ‘Mine eyes have seen the glory’ Bibliography 3 East to West: contacts between the Indian and American movements 173 Millions learn of Gandhi Gandhi and the African-American press A black Gandhi Visits with Gandhi The least of these A living bridge linking Gandhi, King and the present Unadulterated message delivered to the world Almost any country or any century Bibliography 4 Gandhi and King, in their own words 201 Gandhi on himself King on Gandhi Gandhi on Thoreau and other influences King on Thoreau and other influences Gandhi and the African-Americans Gandhi on truth and nonviolence King on truth and nonviolence Gandhi on love and reconciliation King on love and reconciliation Gandhi on satyagraha King on the necessity of sacrifice and struggle Gandhi on means and ends King on means and ends Gandhi on the tools of nonviolent struggle King on the tools of nonviolent struggle Gandhi on democracy, human rights and justice King on democracy, human rights and justice Gandhi on the news media King on the news media Gandhi on religious faith King on religious faith Gandhi on human equality King on human equality Gandhi on the human family King on the human family Gandhi on global prospects for nonviolence King on global prospects for nonviolence Gandhi on violence and cowardice King on violence and cowardice King on freedom Gandhi on education Bibliography 5 Seven struggles: traditions on which to build 369 New tools, forged in practice Charismatic leadership is not required The nonviolent struggle in Burma The Polish fight for freedom The Pastors’ Movement in East Germany The Czechs and Slovaks: a ‘Velvet Revolution’ Thailand: a transnational movement for democracy, human rights and nonviolence Nonviolence is never too late: the Palestinian intifada The struggle of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala Bibliography Epilogue 505 Appendix 1: Gandhi’s fasts 513 Appendix 2: Last Sunday sermon by Martin Luther King Jr 517 Glossary 527 xi In memory of my father, Luther Waddington King, and my mother, Alba Irequi King Acknowledgments When I was a small child, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the Metropolitan- Duane United Methodist Church in New York City, where my father was minister at the time of the founding of the United Nations. She told the Manhattan congregation of her belief that, in the long run, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) might be the most important part of the United Nations system because of the scope and promise of its mission. The views of the former First Lady of the United States about the importance of UNESCO imprinted themselves on my mind. In the decades since its establishment on 4 November 1946, as UNESCO has worked to teach the global classroom about the urgency of tolerance and appreciation of differences, Eleanor Roosevelt’s observation has proved to be prescient. Therefore, when Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, suggested that I write this volume, I was delighted. He had read my book Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, about my four years of work in that struggle, and then asked that I explore the remarkable accomplishments of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr and recent nonviolent movements. I should like to offer particular gratitude for Federico Mayor’s vision. Yet he is not the only person at UNESCO who worked hard to help bring this project into being. Tom Forstenzer, in the Office of the Director-General, made the book possible. To Fernando Ainsa, and others whose labors in UNESCO Publishing have brought it into fruition, are extended my sincere thanks. Appreciation also goes to Solomon Hailu, in the Office of the Director-General, for his kind interest. My association with the scholar who chose the quotations from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Chapter Four has been most fulfilling. B. R. Nanda has spent most of his life as an historian writing about Gandhi. Despite the occasional breakdowns in the fax machines that connected my office in Washington, D.C., with his in New Delhi, India, he always responded xii Acknowledgments rapidly to my queries.