The Social Organization of Nonviolence Summary and Analysis

The historic 1954 ruling of the Supreme Court was nullified by the actions of the local and state governmental authorities. Only token integration had taken place in schools across the country. This crisis supported members of the community who believed that nonviolence would never work. Some were actively organizing armed and trained militias, prepared to physically fight for their civil rights. Dr. King argued against violence. He recognized nonviolent resistance is difficult for most people. He admitted that there is a need for a moral acceptance for self-defense. He feared that the tool of violence, organized as warfare, deliberately and consciously tempts many Negroes. The danger of this strategy is that it would alienate the group of individuals in the middle, who yet have not determined that any resistance is necessary, who had not...