“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time:
the need to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.
The foundation of such a method is Love.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm Sweden, December 11, 1964. He was the youngest person at the time to win the Nobel Prize.
This Photo was taken at the jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where King was arrested on April 12, 1963 for demonstrating without a permit. During his 11 days in jail, he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to a letter published by Alabama clergymen that criticized King’s use of jail time to demonstrate civil injustice.
In the letter, Dr. King explains why he chose to use prisons as a tool in his civil rights movement. He writes, “I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law.”
He concluded: “Never before have I written a letter this long — or should I say a book? I’m afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?”