Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died forty-four years ago today. Given the momentous life Dr. King lived, and the place of honor he has come to receive, it is easy to forget how young he died - only 39 years of age. Like Jesus of Nazareth, Dr. King was struck down before even turning forty, and yet like his Lord and Savior, his life, legacy, and dream lives on.
As we solemnly remember Martin Luther King's death this year, we cannot help but also having in our minds another Martin who died too soon - Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain was appointed to help protect the neighborhood after a rash of breakins. For reasons we are all speculating about, Zimmerman found Martin suspicious, followed him, and claims he was then attacked by him. When police arrived Martin was lying in the grass in a pool of blood.
We will never know exactly what happened between Martin and Zimmerman which led to Martin's death. Whatever did happen, we can all agree it ended in tragedy. I would like to suggest this tragedy underscores our need to learn more creative and non-violent responses to crime, suspicion, fear, insecurity, and intimidation - the kind of creative and non-violent practices Dr. King himself embodied throughout his life and ultimately even up to the day of his death.
Most people know that the King-led Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955 were Gandhi-inspired demonstrations of non-violent, direct resistance to evil. It was Dr. King's insistence on the power of non-violence which began the Civil Rights movement in earnest. What most people do not know, is that it was Dr. King's continued belief in the power of non-violence which brought him to Memphis on that fateful day thirteen years later.
In March of 1968, Dr. King was planning a "Poor People's Campaign" where he intended to bring busloads of poor people to the Mall on Washington, DC in a massive demonstration against policies which Dr. King saw as keeping millions of Americans endemically poor. Prior to the Washington campaign, however, Dr. King answered a plea from Rev. Jim Lawson to come and assist Memphis sanitation workers - mostly black - in a protest for more decent pay and working conditions. On March 28 Dr. King led an ill-prepared march which was interrupted by rioting and mass looting. Dr. King left the march and soon Memphis and 4,000 National Guardsmen were called out to quell the rioting.
The March 28 march would be King's last. It was perhaps the nadir of his involvement with mass demonstrations. Never before had a march led by Dr. King broken out in violence among his own ranks. The lack of training among the marchers on March 28 is rightfully considered a blunder on the part of the King and the other march leaders. Critics seized on this as an example of Dr. King's waning ability to lead mass groups of young blacks. If this is what happened in Memphis, what would happen in Washington?
Dr. King needed to act quickly to come back to Memphis with more staff trained at leading non-violent demonstrations in order lead a more disciplined march through Memphis, lest both the campaign in Memphis and also in Washington be lost. This was the reason why Dr. King was back in Memphis on April 4th - to continue his insistence in the power of nonviolence and to put it into better practice.
For as Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays said in his eulogy at Dr. King's funeral just five days later, "[Dr. King] went up and down the length and breadth of this world preaching nonviolence and the redemptive power of love . . . Nonviolence to King was total commitment not only in solving the problems of race in the United States, but in solving the problems of the world."
George Zimmerman insists he does not have a race problem. He did, however, have problems for which more creative and nonviolent solutions must be sought out. Breakins were a problem and a neighborhood watch program was a good response. Vigilance is needed; vigilanteeism is not. The purpose of watch programs is to reduce incidents in a neighborhood. Zimmerman failed flat out on that and it came at a great cost for him and an even greater one for Martin. On the flip side, if we take Zimmerman at his word and suppose he is telling the truth when he says Martin attacked him, certainly we could understand the desire to defend oneself from a perceived threat. Yet, I have to wonder what else would be expected of Martin in response to being followed by an armed man? Run away? That's pretty unlikely.
The killing of Trayvon Martin underscores just how desperately we need alternative solutions to the violence in our streets today. Dr. King, Rev. Lawson, and the other leaders of Gandhian resistance, knew that nonviolent direct action takes creativity and discipline that must be learned and practiced in advance of an incident. Turning the other cheek, and walking the extra mile do not come naturally, but they are necessary tactics for survival in volatile situations.
Perhaps what is most needed is a new generation of such leaders who can teach neighborhood watch groups disarmed and disarming ways to deal with criminals in their neighborhoods. Likewise, they could teach young people like Trayvon Martin the skills necessary for engaging antagonistic situations without either suffering the indignity of running or the danger of fighting. What we need is the "third way".
The Quakers have a saying: "If in seeking to kill the beast, you become a beast, then beastiality has won." We must confront the beasts, but we cannot confront him by becoming him. What we need is another way; the nonviolent way - what Dr. King called "the only road to redemption."
For a great essay from King on nonviolence please see his article "Nonviolence: The Only Road to Redemption" at:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1426
For more information on King's role in the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and the place where I got much of the history for this essay see and listen to:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/
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