By. Mary Elizabeth King Despite the tumult in Mississippi Freedom Summer’s 1964 Jackson headquarters, the function of communications was ongoing and sometimes life-saving. On most days, Mary King was working to break news stories, or speaking with reporters as seen here. © George Ballis Nonviolent campaigns usually seize the latest technologies available, perhaps leading…
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By. Mary Elizabeth King Gandhi recuperating at the home of the Rev. J.J. Doke, Gandhi’s first biographer, in Johannesburg, after having been assaulted on February 10, 1908. (Wikimedia) Born 150 years ago, Gandhi’s perceptions about human sensibilities, social power and political truths began their transformation not in India, but South Africa. Born 150 years…
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By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The year 1966 brought with it the first public challenge to the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence from within the ranks of the civil rights movement. Resolutions of self-defense and Black Power sounded forth from our friends and brothers. At the same time riots erupted in several major…
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By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In this speech, King makes a significant point: “avoid the temptation of being victimized with a psychology of victors.” Gandhi, too, was concerned to avoid triumphalism. . . . Mr. Chairman, distinguished platform associates, fellow Americans. Three years ago the Supreme Court of this nation rendered in simple,…
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By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by turning out in such large numbers. I…
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By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On 10 July 1959, Christian Century editor Harold Fey asked King to write an article for “How My Mind Has Changed,” a series of “statements by significant thinkers” reflecting their intellectual and spiritual development over the previous ten years. In this essay, King stresses the academic influences that have led…
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By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms…
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By Mary Elizabeth King Ku Klux Klan rally on the Louisiana State Capitol steps in Baton Rouge in the 1960s. State Library of Louisiana Historic Photograph Collection. Black History Month has many meanings. For me, it is a time to remember the tremendous contribution African Americans have made to the building of the United States—as…
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By George Lakey. Originally published on Waging Nonviolence. Movement manuals can be useful. Marty Oppenheimer and I found that out in 1964 when civil rights leaders were too busy to write a manual but wanted one. We wrote “A Manual for Direct Action” just in time for Mississippi Freedom Summer. Bayard Rustin wrote the forward. Some…
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By Stephen Zunes. Aminatou Haidar, center, is a Sahrawi human-rights defender, activist, and former political prisoner (1978-91). This photo was taken in 2006, when Haidar and other political prisoners were released by Moroccan authorities after pressure by human rights organizations. Sahrawi is a term for a group of Hassaniya speaking Arab-Berber Bedouin tribes traditionally located…
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