Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both
impractical and immoral.
I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often
brings about momentary results.
Nations have frequently won their independence
in battle.
But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent
peace.
It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated
ones.
Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in
destruction for all.
It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent
rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert.
Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
It destroys
community and makes brotherhood impossible.
It leaves society in monologue
rather than dialogue.
Violence ends up defeating itself.
It creates bitterness
in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
Martin Luther King, Jr., speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize
