We all know that non-violence was around long before Martin Luther King Jr.
We also know that one of King's closest allies Bayard Rustin studied Mahatma Gandhi and his protests that helped the anti-colonial movement to exorcise Great Britain from India. This comparison was not some synthesis or contextual points historians made after the fact, many Americans and Indians for that matter saw the connection. King himself was asked about this and here was his response in a 1963 press conference just a couple of months after the "Letter from Birmingham Jail".
Note that in so many of King's speeches, including "I Have A Dream", he frames the struggle in American terms with American history references.
This has been condemned at times by historians and Malcolm X that said the term "civil rights" was too limiting and that really this was a struggle for human rights. To hear these words from King go against some of my own pre-conceived notions of what history has told me about the man. Then again, that is the point of this project for Dr. King, just like the Declaration of Independence, is far more difficult and messier than we care to admit. Enjoy your Friday!
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