Dr. King’s inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi is very clear. In chapter 5 of Stride King declared that “nonviolent resistance had emerged as the technique of the movement while love stood as the regulating ideal. In other words, Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.” Influenced strongly by both the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr, and Gandhi, King describes his affirmation of non-violence:
My study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not non-resistance to evil, but non-violent resistance to evil. Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but he resisted with love instead of hate. True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power, as Niebuhr contends. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflictor of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.
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