I've Been to the Mountaintop: Violence Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph.Sentence), not including audience responses.
Quote #1
And another reason I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. But now no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. (11.1–5)
Invented in the mid-20th century, weapons of mass destruction have made violence a riskier proposition than ever. As more and more countries obtained nuclear weapons, the threat of global annihilation became increasingly dire; we almost went the way of the dinosaurs, and without the consolation prize of being awesome dinosaurs. But, while we don't have frills or horns or teeth literally the size of your forearm, we do have big, juicy, smart human brains. And we gotta use 'em, Dr. K says, to think hard about the cost of violence and choose wisely.
Quote #2
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. […] Now we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window breaking. (15.1–2, 4–6)
Dr. King was frequently smeared by the white press as a troublemaker and a phony, and they jumped at the chance to do it again after his march with the Memphis sanitation workers. The papers got all in a tizzy about the looting and mob violence but "forgot" to mention the city's really scummy treatment of its workers. Funny how that works.
So, MLK says, the marchers shouldn't give their enemies anything to use against them. Indulging in violence, says King, does nothing but distract from the cause and place all the attention on "bad" behavior.
Quote #3
We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces. They don't know what to do. I've seen them so often. […] [W]e just went on before the dogs and we would look at them, and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it. And we'd just go on singing, "Over my head, I see freedom in the air." […] And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to. (17.1–4; 18.1–2, 7)
Okay, so Dr. King is exaggerating a bit—it's actually hard to be all nonchalant when you're getting sprayed with a fire hose—but he's trying to convey the sense of inner peace felt by nonviolent anti-segregation demonstrators in Birmingham. When you don't have to worry about how to respond because your principles insist on nonviolence, maybe there's less inner conflict. Bull Connor's minions had no idea how to deal with people like this.
Quote #4
We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles; we don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here to say to you that you're not treating His children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment where God's children are concerned." (23.1–5)
King's assumption is that people ultimately care more about their economic interests than their prejudices. Keep an eye on the news: we see this strategy on an international level when countries impose economic sanctions on troublesome states to keep them in check while avoiding violence. Boycotts hit people where it hurts.
Quote #5
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out, or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers. (44.1–2)
Unless you're really unlucky/annoying, your brother isn't someone who wants to kill you. But MLK calls some dudes who want to kill him his "brothers." What gives?
Well, he's following Jesus' instruction to "love your enemies." Brothers are people we tend to love even when they're total gremlins, and Dr. K had a thing for "brotherhood"—just check out his "I Have a Dream" speech. Maybe if those "sick white brothers" knew they were Dr. King's brothers, they wouldn't be quite so keen on having one less brother.