it
should come to a choice between submission and violence, violence was to
be preferred. Both stressed that nonviolent resistance was not to be an
excuse for cowardice. To the contrary, nonviolent resistance was the way
of the strong. It meant the willingness to accept suffering but not the
intention to inflict it.

King believed in nonviolent resistance both as a tactic and as a
philosophy--both as means and end:

"... the nonviolent approach does something to the hearts and souls of
those comitted to it. It gives them new self-respect. It calls up
resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had.
Finally, it so stirs the conscience of the opponent that reconciliation
becomes a reality."

On the philosophical level, King said that nonviolent resistance was the
key to building a new world. Throughout history, man had met violence
with violence and hate with hate. He believed that only nonviolence and
love could break this eternal cycle of revenge and retaliation. It was
his hope that the Negro, through utilizing the philosophy of nonviolent
resistance, could help to bring about the birth of a new day. To King,
nonviolent resistance implied that the resister must love his enemy:
"When we allow the spark of revenge in our souls to flame up in hate
toward our enemies, Jesus teaches, 'Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you.'"

To him, love, in the most basic and Christian sense, did not require that
the resister had to feel a surge of spontaneous sentiment, but it did
mean that he had made a deep and sincere commitment to the other person's
best interest. From this point of view, helping to free a racist from the
shackles of his own prejudice was construed to be in his best interest
and, therefore, a loving act. The Biblical injunction "Love your neighbor
as yourself" meant being as concerned for his well-being as for your own.
King believed that, if injustice could be attacked and overcome through a
policy of nonviolent resistance, it would then lead to the creation of
the "beloved community." This philosophy would become the means of
reconciliation and, to put it in religious terms, would be redemptive.

King made it clear that nonviolent resistance was concerned with morality
and justice and not merely with obtaining specific goals. When laws,
themselves, were unjust, nonviolent resistance could e