2020 Session #2/B: Dr. Martin Luther King

Session Three:  “We Were Warriors”

Music: "Ain't  Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around," The Roots, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ6mhRZ8LjM

Essential Questions:

• What contributions did MLK make in using non violence as a political strategy?

• How effective were these strategies?

• What were some of MLK’s assumptions about the use of non violence?

• What are the attributes of a non violent warrior?

Rick's Rap:

Gathering: "When I think of Dr. King, the following idea/image come to my mind.."

Videos: (1)“We Were Warriors”, from A Force More Powerful, 2000, www.aforcemorepowerful.com

(2) excerpt from “Freedom Riders,” PBS, 2010 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch
           • Reflective Sentence Debrief

Closing:

Readings: 

(1) “The King Philosophy,” Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non Violent Change, 1/24/17 http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy

(2) David Brooks, “Ideas behind the March,” NYTimes, 8/26/13       http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/opinion/brooks-the-ideas-behind-the-march.html
(3) Martin Luther King Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/kingweb/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf

Resources:
• John Dear, MLK, Peace Podcast, pace e bene, 1/4/20  link to site
• Martin Luther King, "Just versus Unjust Laws," Meet the Press, 1962 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBkgdGIBv00
• MLK 50: A Multimedia reading list to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
click here for link

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

                                  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.