Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Non-Violence: The Only Road to Freedom

Mostly in your own terms, write a brief one-page, single-spaced summary, restating the main ideas of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Non-Violence: The Only Road to Freedom” (pgs. 577-581). This document is located in the Call and Response text on e-reserves on the CSULB library website. The aim of this assignment is to thoroughly comprehend a text and to translate the essential meaning of the text into terms accessible to others. You will need to identify the author’s subject, audience, and purpose. Strategies:

Identify the main claims in the text and restate them near the start of your summary.

Paraphrase the supporting points, examples, and details; use a thesaurus to find synonyms for key words.

Condense the original text, keeping your writing within one single-spaced page.

Be “objective” rather than “critical” – try to narrow down the original, without adding editorial comments.

Use verbs that capture the author’s argument and analysis. The first draft is due on Tuesday, June 2nd. Please post a copy of your work to the Dropbox Link on Beachboard and bring a typed copy to class. The final draft is due on Thursday, June 4th in a hard copy format at the start of class. In addition, please submit your assignment via the Dropbox Link on Beachboard.

Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom

It was felt in the year 1966 that the nonviolence movement of the black people was challenged and many black brethren brought in their doubts regarding self defense in the non violent movement. It was also put forth that every incident of casualty which is arising is being done by the Blacks under the veil of nonviolence to attain freedom. But, the real scenario is that none of the Negroes have in fact resorted to violence in any form (Teachingamericanhistory.org). Various testimonies have been recorded which substantiate this. There are also incidents and reports that point that a single white man has killed and assaulted more people on a single day than that killed by the entire Negro Community. Observations have been made in this regard by the author and he has underlined the subject that the entire Negro population never intends to cause violence and refrain from bloodshed in order to attain independence.

The audience in the current article is the Native American population. Regarding the issue of self defense, it has been pointed that many people have at some point of time stated that they prefer to remain silent because they believe that they are likely to lose their cool if they are attacked by the whites. Luther has expressed his view and said that when the people are being made to suffer on a regular basis when their children are being deprived of their rights, their wives are being maltreated and even they are being forced to face discrimination in work places, then it necessarily qualifies the wrongful acts per se (America Magazine). In such a situation, if they can afford to stay calm, then they are supposed to stay calm when they are physically abused as well.

The purpose of the Article is to point out that liberty and freedom can be attained through non violent means as well. The good in humanity can be restored through non violent strategies. The example of the student demonstration as a protest against the fact that they were denied to sit and have lunch together with the whites has been drawn in this and it has been very lucidly explained that how putting the authorities under some kind of pressure succeeds in bringing about a change rather than assaulting and causing massacre in the population (Connection.ebscohost.com). It has also been made imperative to resort to human rights in order to achieve the rights that are guaranteed by the constitution.

Some strategy regarding this can be followed in the future (Abc.net.au). Peaceful demonstrations have achieved success in history and the same can also witness a success story in the future. Arms and ammunitions cannot help a nation. Rather, what is required to be done is that such marches have to be organized which can make the desired changes in the society. Non violence has to be used as the new weapon which can change the attitude of the people. For this, cooperation and organization are the most important elements.