If anyone is willing to read this draft...

Nonviolent direct action can be defined as any nonviolent means of bringing about social change. It can involve marches, mass demonstrations, sit-ins, boycotts, and civil disobedience. During the 1950's and 1960's, Whites denied Blacks fundamental civil rights such as decent housing, adequate education, and the right to vote. In this time period, many of the shows on television presented Blacks being severely beaten with sticks, fire hoses, and dogs. Many cities in the South, especially Birmingham, Alabama, enforced segregation and unjust laws. Considered one of the greatest political strategists of all time, Martin Luther King Jr. took action against the racists of the South and compelled them using his non-violent methods to accept equality. He demonstrated that non-violent direct action could be a powerful way to promote liberty and equality for blacks in the South. He used the power of love for God against his enemies. He influenced the South by putting them under political, economic, and moral pressure. His compassionate speeches gave Blacks a sense of hope for equality. He stressed that they should not surrender their right to protest in order to allow opportunity to be similarly distributed among the races.
The lack of power that Blacks had before the 1960's was similar to the women's lack of power during the Puritan era. Carol Karlsen finds in her research that Puritan clergy in seventeenth century Massachusetts believed that women in general were witches. In the King era, state governments in the South did not actively participate in ending racism because they were in favor of segregation. For example, in the mid 1600's, Katherine Harrison, the wife of a wealthy landowner, petitioned for redress. The court ignored her petition. Harrison lost her liberty because of the death of her rich husband. Her husband had given her his entire estate and thus she disrupted the Puritan inheritance system which was designed to keep men in power. Both Harrison and King are treated unfairly as a result of a gender or race hierarchy in their communities. When her community feared that she had the same amount of wealth as her husband did, her protection was lost and she was sent to jail. Similarly, when Whites feared that King had the ability to restore the racial balance in America, he was sent to jail.
A century after the witch hunts, the Declaration of Independence promoted development of personal freedom and emphasized that "all men are created equal." Despite expressing John Locke's ideas of religious tolerance, right of rebellion, and popular sovereignty, the Declaration of Independence did not extend these liberties to Blacks before the 1960's. Written in 1787, the Constitution followed ideas involving a strong central government because the authors believed that the government would be more stable if its powers were extended over a large amount of land. However, it was very ambiguous and evasive about the issue of slavery because the authors feared that the Union would not be preserved if issues of slavery were brought up during the time. After the Constitution was ratified, the "silence" of slavery became a threat to liberty, equality, and power for Blacks because the issue of slavery became worse throughout the 1800's. Under this "silence," the Founding Fathers feared that the Union would be destroyed because if the slavery issue was clearly resolved, then it would be nearly impossible to ratify the Constitution. In 1790, Quaker delegates petitioned for the abolishment of African slave trade. It was difficult for the Founding Fathers to ignore this petition because Benjamin Franklin, whose sense of timing was essential for the preservation of the Union, signed it. James Madison, whose strategy of silently banishing petitions failed to work this time, believed that the issue not only had the potential to destroy the Union, but to destroy the Virginia planter class. Meanwhile, others argued that freeing slaves would cause even more problems such as overpopulation and integration of whites and blacks in society. Madison was able to prove to the Congress that they did not have the power to interfere with the emancipation of slaves. Even George Washington, who was considered by Joseph Ellis as the "supreme Founding Father," believed that the ongoing debate must be terminated. Roughly two hundred years later, Blacks still suffered from this "silence." King decides that he must act fast or this "silence" may last forever. Both Franklin and King knew that self-preservation for Blacks would be lost forever unless they confront the issue ruthlessly.
The opposite idea of the critical proposition of human equality was the antebellum idea of the Slave Power. Followers of the Slave Power believed that slavery was a normative principle whose institution must be defended. During the ensuing Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which allowed slaves to enter society. At Gettysburg in 1863, Lincoln attempted to revise what the Founding Fathers instituted during the American Revolution. Garry Wills discusses how Lincoln was able to place the proposition of equality that the Declaration of Independence stressed as an essential principle of the Constitution. His way of thinking was abstract in that he never referred to any specific people or places in his famous Gettysburg Address speech in 1863. This way of thinking influenced many people. For example, the United States became a singular noun. He stressed that a group of people addressed its task which was assigned by an accepted proposition. About a century later, King attempted to revise the ultimate proposition of equality once more. He used Christianity, reason, and love in order to reinforce the idea that all people, including blacks, were all "primary values."
After the Civil War, Congress proposed amendments to change race relations in America. The 13th amendment stated that "slavery is forever dead." The 14th amendment provided equal rights for all citizens. The 15th amendment gave ex-slaves the right to vote. However, the tide of racial equality went into a sharp decline when the "Slaughterhouse Cases" occurred in 1873. A few decades later, Jim Crow laws and Plessy vs. Ferguson case upheld the legality of segregation. In his dissenting Plessy opinion, Justice John Harlan stated that the "separate but equal doctrine" was causing Blacks to feel inferior. One of the objectives of King's nonviolent campaigns was to expose the evils of segregation. In his "Freedom Rally in Cobo Hall" speech, King compared segregation to an alternative form of slavery that is as morally wrong as it was legally wrong. Echoing Harlan, King argued that it created a race hierarchy.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Booker T. Washington, known as an "accommodationist" implemented a strategy of "gospel of work and money," where Blacks could accumulate wealth. In his "Atlanta Compromise" speech in 1895, he stressed that Blacks were to accept their inferiority and to try to uplift themselves through industrial education. Washington's strategy was criticized by historian and revisionist W.E.B. Du Bois, who argued that three things happened as a result of Washington's program: Blacks were disfranchised, a "legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro" was established, and higher educational institutions were defaced.
Considering Washington's program a failure, Du Bois believed that there should be a group known as the "Talented Tenth." This was Du Bois' reference to the Blacks who had as much potential as Du Bois in respecting their own race and getting others to respect their race. The "Talented Tenth" would lead the race. Du Bois' objective was to provide Blacks with a sense of dignity and to teach them elevated ideals of life. By freeing the Blacks from ignorance and love for money, they would be sure how to cry for their freedom. One drawback of Du Bois' strategy was that it did not expose the evils of the South because the only action that Blacks were taking was that they were trying to educate themselves. In the "Freedom Rally in Cobo Hall" speech, King described how the White community told him to "slow up." Just as Du Bois knew that action needed to be taken now, King addressed their comment in the same way. He said that Blacks must continue to gain their liberty because gradualism would result in "stand-stillism."
In the 1950's, many states in the South implemented a strategy commonly known as "massive resistance," where they demanded that the Blacks comply with the law no matter how unjust it may be to them. Powerful Whites promised brutal retaliation if the Blacks tried to disrupt society. The "massive resistance" of the South slowed implementation of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 to desegregate schools. Southern Congressmen signed the "Southern Manifesto," which declared the Brown vs. Board of Education decision as "contrary to the established law and the Constitution." In order to expose and destroy "massive resistance," King implemented a strategy of a nonviolent direct action. King depended on publicity and government intervention through his nonviolent campaigns. He once admitted to the inherent paradox of his nonviolent campaigns in that the Black's "soul force" caused physical force from the racists. Although he preached nonviolence, King realized that the violence caused by the racists' reaction forced the federal government to intervene. Thus, the order of these demonstrations was the execution of nonviolent direct action, violent reaction of the racists, demand for government intervention from "Americans of conscience," and then intervention of the government.
The racist democracy of the South was economically and socially flawed. In an interview, King listed the four main flaws of America as racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. He explained that these flaws have been evident for centuries because the economy was unevenly distributed. Professor Thomas Dye observes that racial inequality originated from many different reasons during the 1950's such as poverty caused by the period of slavery, family disorganization, urbanization, industrialization, and education.
King demonstrated nonviolent direct action to be the most effective means of bringing about social change because it put the South under extreme political, economic, and moral pressure. Blacks would not be able to gain freedom through political action. They were denied the right to vote. Using violence would certainly not prove to be effective means of destroying the evils of the South let alone expose them. King's reason was that White supremacists and Black supremacists were both attacking the ideals of Christianity. He stated that they have "lost faith in America."0
King had borrowed many of his ideas from Mahatma Gandi, another strong advocate of nonviolence. One of Gandi's points that King emphasized against supporters of violence was that if people were all important, then any technique for social change cannot result in the violation of any person. He also followed Gandi's notion that you must defeat the enemy by making them realize their weaknesses.0 The emergence of King's beliefs was not only because he studied Gandi's philosophy, but because of his study of personalistic philosophy while attending Boston University. After struggling through various metaphysical and theological explorations through his studies, he became a very democratic person. He believed that people were of infinite metaphysical value and that property and profit were two things that were destroying democracy in America.
By the 1960's, some members of the Black Power movement argued that in order to fix the corrupted democracy of the South, they must use violence. They believed this because the white supremacists were using violence. King was enraged by this and responded by stating that they are assuming that all hope was lost. King emphasized that nonviolence is supposed to be spiritual despite that it is passive physically. He argued that nonviolent resistance was not supposed to be directed toward any person unlike violent resistance. Violent supporters also argued that nonviolence was simply ineffective in actually changing society. King responded by saying that if nonviolence was ineffective, then "honesty, goodwill, integrity, virtue, and justice" were ineffective as well. In King's "The Birth of a New Nation" speech in 1957, he mentioned how the British government was unable to stop Prime Minister Nkrumah and his supporters from stopping the colonialism of the Gold Coast during the 1940's and 1950's. Nkrumah uses nonviolent methods to bring his people together. He united a group so large that the British realized that they could not rule the Gold Coast.
In terms of achieving civil rights, there are many instances where nonviolent direct action has been proven to be the best answer. The crisis that occurred at Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1960's is evidence for this. During this time, Birmingham's black churches were being bombed and segregation was heavily enforced. In addition, Eugene "Bull" Conner made nonviolent direct action illegal in the city. As a result, King implemented a campaign in Birmingham known as "Project Confrontation." He eventually violated a court order and thus committed his first act of civil disobedience. He was then sent to jail, where he would publish his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."0 The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" created a crisis in the city. Right behind the "I Have a Dream" speech, the letter was considered one of the most significant documents in American history. King wrote the letter in response to "An Appeal for Law and Order of Common Sense" which was written by white clergymen who declared that Project C was "unwise and untimely." It was so successful because it clearly presented King's goals and strategies. In the letter, he justified his act of civil disobedience by stating that John Locke as well as the Founding Fathers believed that if a law was unjust to God or simply degraded human personality, then that law can be challenged. In addition to justifying his actions in Birmingham, King described succinct steps for executing nonviolent direct action campaigns. First, in order to determine whether injustice really existed in any situation, knowledge had to be gained about the situation. Without proper evidence, the Blacks would be fighting for virtually nothing. If injustice existed, negotiations must be attempted. If the negotiations fail, then the Blacks must go through a process known as "self-purification" to relieve the bitterness toward their enemies and to prepare to face violent racists. Finally, nonviolent direct action is taken.
The order in which these actions were taken was so effective because mass demonstrations can lead to government intervention or lead to successful negotiations. For example, once a crisis was provoked in Birmingham as a result of the letter, negotiations were made. Everyone agreed that eating facilities would be desegregated and that blacks would be able to be hired by businesses and industries.
King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which coordinated direct action campaigns. It was a "faith operation," which lacked bureaucratic behavior and relied on Christian inspiration. Political action and community organization were two alternative strategies that the SCLC considered as opposed to nonviolence. Political action was immediately thrown out of the question because the Blacks received virtually none of the benefits of political participation and they had no chance of creating a coalition with the government.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was formed by college students as a result of the "Freedom Rides" and sit-ins that occurred in 1961, argued that community organization had a more firm basis for bringing about social change. They believed that community organization was better because nonviolent direct action left the Blacks disorganized, exhausted, demoralized, and vulnerable. Adam Fairclough places community organization to the same level as separatism because community organization merely showed hopelessness in any situation.
Relying on nonviolence and the SCLC, King was able to defeat white southern "political machines" just as Willie Talos did in All the King's Men. The political machine refers to a single person or a group of people that control the political machinery in a city or state. When Talos found out that he was being used to split-up the votes in an election, he realized that politics is not about a clash of ideals, but a clash of willpower and manipulation. He manipulated the "political machines" by taking advantage of the corrupt business of Southern politics. Similarly, King took advantage of America's corrupted democracy. The main goal of his strategy was to expose the corruption of the South. Both King and Talos were successful. While King sacrificed himself by violating a court order, Talos "digged dirt" on his opponents. Talos defined "digging dirt" as doing "good" using illegal methods. In one scene in the book, Jack Burden, Talos' assistant, was ordered to find "dirt" on Judge Irwin because he supported one of Talos' political enemies. While Burden was tracing Irwin's past, he met Lily Mae Littlepaugh, who was the sister of a man who committed suicide because Irwin preceded him as counsel for the American Electric Power Company. Burden learned from Miss Littlepaugh that Irwin accepted a bribe from the company in order to save his plantation. He also learned that Governor Stanton, who was governor of the state during the time, illegally protected Irwin when Mortimer Littlepaugh reported Irwin's illegal activity to him. The power of mass rally was evident among King and Willie. As a result of exposing the corruption of the South, Willie gained many supporters for his cause. Similarly, King persuaded many Blacks to join his cause through his high quality speeches that reached to his audience. However, King's methods seemed to be better than Talos' because King's acts of civil disobedience did not necessarily disrupt order or cause confusion in the cities he campaigned in while Talos goes as far as using blackmail and trickery to defeat his opponents.
To overcome the evils of the South, the SCLC and King implement the strategy of nonviolent direct action. The SCLC admitted that their success depended on White's violent reaction as well as the press. As a result of King's demonstrations, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were two things that Blacks were granted by the federal government. The Civil Rights Act declared any public discrimination of races as illegal while the Voting Rights Act protected the rights of black voters. Proving Du Bois' point, King was a member of the "Talented Tenth" who attended Boston University, where he studied personalistic philosophy and the essential principles of Ghandi's philosophy of nonviolence. The power of King's knowledge allowed him to convince even supporters of violence that their methods were only making the situation worse. He took action against the South by using his ability to expose the inherent racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism of America. Knowing that action was needed to be taken soon, King went as far as to commit acts of civil disobedience in order to bring about change in society. The reason King was successful in bringing about social, political, and economic change was because he knew what power really meant. In his "Where Do We Go From Here?" speech, he defines power as "the ability to achieve purpose." Thus, the reason that the racists were unsuccessful in preventing social change was because they used power incorrectly.