Naomi Lede
Columnist
January 22, 2008 03:06 am
—
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope…”
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an address to delegates of the Fellowship of the Concerned of the Southern Regional Council in November 1961, he spoke about the philosophy behind the student movement that permeated the South during that time.
He reminded the delegates that “we confront a crisis in race relations in the United States.” It was a crisis stemming from the 1954 Supreme Court Decision outlawing segregation in the public schools. Keenly aware of opposition to desegregation, he warned that the struggle for freedom “will not come to a halt, for history reveals to us that once oppressed people rise up against opposition, there is no stopping short of full freedom.”
He said: “history reveals to us that those who oppose the movement of freedom are those that are in privileged positions who seldom give up their privileges without strong resistance.”
If you look back over the past decade, King’s convictions and words have merit. Since the passage of Civil Rights legislation and the thrust for equality through means such as executive orders designed to provide equal opportunity/ to encourage affirmative action, some resistance continues. Young Republican groups and a “silent majority” comprising a resistance movement continue efforts to oppose access to equal opportunities.
Certain philosophical precepts formed the basis for King’s principles on nonviolence. Foremost among these was the belief that ends and means must cohere. Contrary to the belief that the end justifies the means, the idea of nonviolent resistance is the philosophy which says that “immoral destructive means cannot bring about moral and constructive ends.”
King also believed that any individual engaged in nonviolence must never inflict injury upon another. Of equal importance to him was that those who participated in the student movement should avoid internal violence of the spirit. He referred to the kind of love that was not perceived to be an emotional or sentimental outpouring. He advocated three words in the Greek language of love: Eros, an aesthetic love; Philia, an intimate affection between friends — loving because you are loved; while agape is more than the previous types. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive, goodwill to all. Theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. King believed that “the whole idea of the ethic of love was the basis of the student movement.
As he articulated his philosophy about the student movement, a critical component of the Civil Rights Movement, he made a distinction between violence and nonviolence. Violence says that suffering can be a powerful social force by inflicting suffering on somebody else; so this is what we do in war, this is what we do in the whole violent thrust.
In contrast, the nonviolent persons say that suffering becomes a powerful social force when you willingly accept violence on yourself, so that self-suffering stands at the center of the nonviolent movement. The individuals involved are able to suffer in a creative manner, feeling that unearned suffering is redemptive, and that suffering may serve to transform the social situation. King advocated nonviolence.
Dr. King’s speech delivered to delegates of the Southern Regional Council (1961), preceded the passage of Civil Rights legislation by President Lyndon B. Johnson, set the tone for a united movement for civil rights.
Using the theme possibly for the first time, he stated: “There is something in this student movement which says to us, that we shall overcome.”
Inspired by King, it is understandable that Sen. Barack Obama, a young man with a diverse racial background, would see him as his role model and an American idol. In contrast, Sen. Hillary R. Clinton may also be committed to Civil Rights. The difference is that Obama - in many ways — seeks a unity of purpose for America through the eyes of one of the world’s greatest kings — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Like King, I believe his aim is to build a “unity of purpose” so that the nation will join together in solving the problems involving health care, housing, economic stability and vitality, the issues involved in the complex problem of illegal immigration, the Iraqi War, environment, and other related issues. Symbolically, King's speech symbolized hope for America:
“We shall overcome because there is something in this universe that justifies James Russell Lowell in saying, truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, with this determined struggle, we shall be able to emerge from the bleak and the desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. “
President Bill (Hillary) Clinton may come from Hope, Ark., but Barack Obama comes from a position of strength because he shares King’s optimism about hope for America — by seeking to unite Americans to join him in solving both domestic and global problems. If achieved, his hope for change will be fulfilled.
Naomi W. Lede is a retired Senior Research Scientist, Distinguished Professor and University Administrator. She serves as Chair of the Board of the Samuel Walker Houston Museum and Cultural Center in Huntsville, Texas.
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