Martin Luther´s "Breakthrough": Its Political, Social and Economic Impact
Anurag Gangal
December 20, 2008
Co-authored by Anurag Gangal and Kishor Sharma*
Montgomery Bus Boycott and related Supreme Court of United States´ (US) decisions anent Martin Luther´s fight against racialism constitute his real "Breakthrough". Martin Luther´s sufferings for a public and humanitarian cause for equal opportunities and treatment to non-white communities, especially African black American citizens, became an apparent threat to legitimacy of the then Government of United States. Widespread nonviolent and
"…deliberate ´freedom rides´ "violated prohibitions against open seating during interstate travel. The rides sought to challenge the failure of the US Government to carry out a 1946 Supreme Court decision and a similar 1960 ruling that segregated seating on interstate lines and in terminals was unconstitutional. Black and white riders [accordingly had to] travel…in racially integrated [and identical] fashion across lines [in view of decisions of the Supreme Court as well]. The concept was originated by [Congress of Racial Equality] CORE in 1947 (King 528, see also 104-117)."
Other noted nonviolent partners of Luther like Malcolm X were also murdered alongwith Martin Luther King (MLK) at the behest of US Government and its undercover agents. However, Gene Sharp appears practically justified to observe that:
"As cruelties to nonviolent people increase, the opponent´s regime may appear still more despicable, and sympathy and support for the nonviolent side may increase. The general population may become more alienated from the opponent and more likely to join the resistance (Sharp 113)."
As such, political impact of Martin Luther King has been deep and long lasting. Legally speaking, racialism ended only in Luther´s life time. Its positive results in political participation of the African black population are distinctly visible in the effect of Montgomery Bus Boycott, equal voting-rights to blacks and so many other changes in the outlook of the erstwhile white dominated Us Government.
The recent election of President-Designate Barack Obama is also one of the best instances of the political impact of Luther´s "Breakthrough".
"The best way to understand the impact of King's 13-year crusade for freedom and justice is to divide his career into two periods—before the Selma, Alabama campaign and after it. The first period ignited with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of December 1955 and closed with the successful voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, on March 25, 1965. The second period commenced with the January 1966 Chicago campaign for jobs and slum elimination and ended with the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968, in Memphis. During the first period, King's belief in divine justice and his vision of a new Christian social order fueled his sublime oratory and his equally sublime courage. This resulted in a shared commitment to the concept of "noncooperation with evil," that swept the ranks of Civil Rights Movement devotees. Through nonviolent, passive resistance, they protested the social evils and injustices of segregation and refused to obey and/or comply with unjust and immoral Jim Crow laws. The subsequent beatings, jailings, abuses, and violence that were heaped upon these protesters ultimately became the price they paid for unprecedented victories (Encyclopedia, Emphasis added)."
Interestingly, Martin Luther King says:
"…in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story [that] to become the instrument of a great idea is a privilege that history gives only occasionally. Arnold Toynbee says in A Study of History, that it may be the Negro who will give the new spiritual dynamic to Western civilization that it so desperately needs to survive (Encyclopedia)."
That´s exactly what has happened. Martin Luther King, thus, lays down unknowingly foundations of a philosophy emerging from his nonviolent action. His ideas of justice – political, social and economic – have helped shape the context of social security, right to equality, right to equal economic opportunity, right to equal political options and dignity of human self-respect. That is what the true Christianity is about.
He has also a very unique contribution to his credit. Luther put into action fundamentals of Bible and Christianity for bringing about civil rights movement expanding to the realms of society, politics and economics – essentially modern liberal democratic and precious human in nature.
He has also shown the practical usefulness of Godly values of self-sacrifice, mutual brotherhood and wider nature of a secular and anti-racial universal humanistic religion of Christianity and message of Christ.
Maybe it is for above mentioned world-view of Luther that his method has been employed by so many other leaders in different parts of the globe such as Poland, Germany, Czechs, Slovaks, Burmese and Thais etc.
"King's life…was turned from its expected trajectory by an unexpected event. That event was the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott which King had neither started nor suggested, but which irrevocably changed him from the successful pastor of a moderately comfortable church to the leader of a national movement for racial justice. He later recalled, ´When I went to Montgomery as a pastor, I had not the slightest idea that I would later become involved in a crisis .... I simply responded to the call of the people for a spokesman´ (Luther 101 see also Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today). As spokesman for the boycott, King was overwhelmed with a load of back-breaking responsibilities and frightened by serious threats against his life and his family's safety. Reaching the end of his endurance, King sat at his kitchen table one night over a cup of coffee, trying to figure out how to get out of the movement without appearing a coward (Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today)."
"And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it.... I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night. I said, Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now. I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage they will begin to get weak. And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ´Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And to I will be with you, even until the end of the world.´ ...I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared (Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today)."
Martin Luther´s dream, indeed, was to have every individual so strong in soul force that everyone is able to make a difference in dealing with exploitation, poverty and protection of civil and human rights because soul force brings people together in a nonviolent way.
Dr Kishor Sharma, Lecturer, Department of Education, Jammu and Kashmir Government, J&K, India.
Works Cited
King, Marry. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action. Paris: UNESCO, 1999.
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.
Raboteau, Albert J. "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today. Atlanta: Emory University, Winter 1988 Supplement, Vol.40, pp. 80-95.
Sharp, Gene. The Methods of Nonviolent Action. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
Montgomery Bus Boycott and related Supreme Court of United States´ (US) decisions anent Martin Luther´s fight against racialism constitute his real "Breakthrough". Martin Luther´s sufferings for a public and humanitarian cause for equal opportunities and treatment to non-white communities, especially African black American citizens, became an apparent threat to legitimacy of the then Government of United States. Widespread nonviolent and
"…deliberate ´freedom rides´ "violated prohibitions against open seating during interstate travel. The rides sought to challenge the failure of the US Government to carry out a 1946 Supreme Court decision and a similar 1960 ruling that segregated seating on interstate lines and in terminals was unconstitutional. Black and white riders [accordingly had to] travel…in racially integrated [and identical] fashion across lines [in view of decisions of the Supreme Court as well]. The concept was originated by [Congress of Racial Equality] CORE in 1947 (King 528, see also 104-117)."
Other noted nonviolent partners of Luther like Malcolm X were also murdered alongwith Martin Luther King (MLK) at the behest of US Government and its undercover agents. However, Gene Sharp appears practically justified to observe that:
"As cruelties to nonviolent people increase, the opponent´s regime may appear still more despicable, and sympathy and support for the nonviolent side may increase. The general population may become more alienated from the opponent and more likely to join the resistance (Sharp 113)."
As such, political impact of Martin Luther King has been deep and long lasting. Legally speaking, racialism ended only in Luther´s life time. Its positive results in political participation of the African black population are distinctly visible in the effect of Montgomery Bus Boycott, equal voting-rights to blacks and so many other changes in the outlook of the erstwhile white dominated Us Government.
The recent election of President-Designate Barack Obama is also one of the best instances of the political impact of Luther´s "Breakthrough".
"The best way to understand the impact of King's 13-year crusade for freedom and justice is to divide his career into two periods—before the Selma, Alabama campaign and after it. The first period ignited with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of December 1955 and closed with the successful voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, on March 25, 1965. The second period commenced with the January 1966 Chicago campaign for jobs and slum elimination and ended with the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968, in Memphis. During the first period, King's belief in divine justice and his vision of a new Christian social order fueled his sublime oratory and his equally sublime courage. This resulted in a shared commitment to the concept of "noncooperation with evil," that swept the ranks of Civil Rights Movement devotees. Through nonviolent, passive resistance, they protested the social evils and injustices of segregation and refused to obey and/or comply with unjust and immoral Jim Crow laws. The subsequent beatings, jailings, abuses, and violence that were heaped upon these protesters ultimately became the price they paid for unprecedented victories (Encyclopedia, Emphasis added)."
Interestingly, Martin Luther King says:
"…in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story [that] to become the instrument of a great idea is a privilege that history gives only occasionally. Arnold Toynbee says in A Study of History, that it may be the Negro who will give the new spiritual dynamic to Western civilization that it so desperately needs to survive (Encyclopedia)."
That´s exactly what has happened. Martin Luther King, thus, lays down unknowingly foundations of a philosophy emerging from his nonviolent action. His ideas of justice – political, social and economic – have helped shape the context of social security, right to equality, right to equal economic opportunity, right to equal political options and dignity of human self-respect. That is what the true Christianity is about.
He has also a very unique contribution to his credit. Luther put into action fundamentals of Bible and Christianity for bringing about civil rights movement expanding to the realms of society, politics and economics – essentially modern liberal democratic and precious human in nature.
He has also shown the practical usefulness of Godly values of self-sacrifice, mutual brotherhood and wider nature of a secular and anti-racial universal humanistic religion of Christianity and message of Christ.
Maybe it is for above mentioned world-view of Luther that his method has been employed by so many other leaders in different parts of the globe such as Poland, Germany, Czechs, Slovaks, Burmese and Thais etc.
"King's life…was turned from its expected trajectory by an unexpected event. That event was the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott which King had neither started nor suggested, but which irrevocably changed him from the successful pastor of a moderately comfortable church to the leader of a national movement for racial justice. He later recalled, ´When I went to Montgomery as a pastor, I had not the slightest idea that I would later become involved in a crisis .... I simply responded to the call of the people for a spokesman´ (Luther 101 see also Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today). As spokesman for the boycott, King was overwhelmed with a load of back-breaking responsibilities and frightened by serious threats against his life and his family's safety. Reaching the end of his endurance, King sat at his kitchen table one night over a cup of coffee, trying to figure out how to get out of the movement without appearing a coward (Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today)."
"And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it.... I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night. I said, Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now. I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage they will begin to get weak. And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ´Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And to I will be with you, even until the end of the world.´ ...I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared (Raboteau, "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today)."
Martin Luther´s dream, indeed, was to have every individual so strong in soul force that everyone is able to make a difference in dealing with exploitation, poverty and protection of civil and human rights because soul force brings people together in a nonviolent way.
Dr Kishor Sharma, Lecturer, Department of Education, Jammu and Kashmir Government, J&K, India.
Works Cited
King, Marry. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action. Paris: UNESCO, 1999.
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.
Raboteau, Albert J. "A Hidden Wholeness", Spirituality Today. Atlanta: Emory University, Winter 1988 Supplement, Vol.40, pp. 80-95.
Sharp, Gene. The Methods of Nonviolent Action. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
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