What did MLK say about nonviolence?

Nonviolence was not merely a tactic I adopted for convenience — it became, as I wrote in Stride Toward Freedom, “a commitment to a way of life”. Let me draw out the three pillars I returned to again and again. First, nonviolence is not cowardice. People misread it as passivity, but as I put it in Stride Toward Freedom, “It is not passive nonresistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil”. The resister is passive physically but fiercely active spiritually — constantly pressing on the conscience of the opponent. Second, the goal is never to humiliate. A boycott, a march, a demonstration — none of these are ends in themselves. They are instruments to awaken moral shame. The true end, as I wrote in Stride Toward Freedom, is “redemption and reconciliation” and what I called the "beloved community." Third, we resist evil, not persons. The tension in Montgomery was never between Black people and white people. It was, at bottom, between justice and injustice — between light and darkness. A victory for justice is a victory for everyone. I also believed, as I told the Meet the Press panel, that “a turn to violence on the part of the Negro at this time would be both impractical and immoral”. Hate begets hate. Someone must have the moral courage to break that chain — and love is the only force sufficient to do it.