[King understood that no single approach would be sufficient to
combat the interconnected evils of racism, economic exploitation and
militarism.]
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MARTIN LUTHER KING’S MULTIPLE LANES TO MULTIRACIAL DEMOCRACY  
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Maria J. Stephan
January 13, 2023
Waging Nonviolence
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_ King understood that no single approach would be sufficient to
combat the interconnected evils of racism, economic exploitation and
militarism. _

Martin Luther King Jr. on the Meredith March Against Fear in 1966,
(Stanford University Libraries/Bob Fitch)

 

On the heels of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 assault on U.S.
democracy and an eerily similar attack in Brazil
[[link removed]],
we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who helped
lead the greatest pro-democracy movement in U.S. history, otherwise
known as the civil rights movement. He understood that no single
approach would be sufficient to combat the interconnected evils of
racism, economic exploitation and militarism. 

“Anyone who starts out with the conviction that the road to racial
justice is only one lane wide will inevitably create a traffic jam and
make the journey infinitely longer,” he wrote in “Stride Towards
Freedom
[[link removed]]_,”_ his
book about the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the best organized and
most successful campaigns of the civil rights movement_._

King believed in the power of listening and dialogue to humanize,
educate, persuade and build alliances across differences. At the same
time, he understood that only by shifting power dynamics and raising
the costs of violent extremism and institutional racism — through
petitions, boycotts, walk-outs, sit-ins, strikes and countless
other forms of protest and noncooperation
[[link removed]] —
would harmful practices come to an end. Working for change within
institutions like courts and legislatures required mobilizing pressure
and changing incentives from outside those institutions.

Multiple approaches were necessary to educate people about the
injustices of Jim Crow segregation, to raise the social, political and
economic costs of maintaining the status quo, and to build the
broad-based coalitions needed to change laws and policies. At the
time, King’s embrace of boycotts, strikes and other forms of
nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation policies in the
South was criticized by white clergy and others, who insisted that he
reject confrontational tactics in favor of dialogue. For King, both
approaches were necessary. As he wrote in the Letter from a
Birmingham Jail
[[link removed]]:
“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster
such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to
negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize
the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

King’s strategic insights remain relevant today. Whereas Jim Crow
was a single-party authoritarian system anchored in the Democratic
Party and bolstered by churches, courts, media, the Ku Klux Klan and
other institutions, today’s authoritarian ecosystem has evolved. Now
the Republican Party has been captured by an extremist faction that
embraces lies, conspiracies and violence — culminating in a violent
attempt to overthrow the government. That party now holds the reins of
power in 27 states (covering 53 percent of the population) and one
body of Congress. 

Meanwhile, Evangelical
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and leaders have provided moral and material scaffolding for MAGA
extremism; corporations and financiers have funded it; media outlets
have amplified lies and conspiracies; and veterans’ groups
infiltrated by white nationalists have filled the ranks of the Proud
Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon. Dismantling this interconnected web of
support for authoritarianism in the U.S., in turn, requires a systemic
response involving many diverse actors employing different strategies
and approaches.     

There is no time for despair. Today, like earlier, multiple approaches
are needed to combat racism and white nationalism and to build a
multiracial democracy grounded in love and justice. Those approaches
include dialogue and direct action, inside and outside strategies,
working within and across groups and movements to build alignment
around the rejection of conspiracies, political violence and election
subversion — and around a reimagining of U.S. democracy grounded in
abundance, courage and universal flourishing.  

Many organizations across the country are experimenting with different
approaches to bringing various constituencies into a pro-democracy
movement — not based on party identity but grounded in a shared
willingness to build stronger communities free from violence and
extremism. There are plenty of onramps to pro-democracy work if we are
open enough to welcome in a broad cross-section of actors.  

People’s Action, [[link removed]] Showing Up for Racial
Justice, [[link removed]] United Vision for Idaho
[[link removed]], the Rural Digital Youth Resiliency Project
[[link removed]], and RuralOrganizing.org
[[link removed]] are pioneering ways to organize across
race and class, particularly in rural areas. The One America Movement
[[link removed]], Sojourners
[[link removed]], NETWORK [[link removed]], and
the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life
[[link removed]] and Faith for Black
Lives [[link removed]] are leading engagement
strategies with Christian communities. The Secure Families Initiative
[[link removed]] and the Mission Continues
[[link removed]] are
doing important work with veterans, while the Western States Center
[[link removed]] is conducting critical
analysis and organizing to counter white supremacist
violence. Leadership Now,
[[link removed]] Civic Alliance
[[link removed]] and local organizations like
the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy
[[link removed]] are galvanizing the
business community around democratic norms and practices.  

Alongside this important engagement work, other groups are turning to
the courts and other forms of pressure to raise the costs of
anti-democratic behaviors. Groups like Protect Democracy
[[link removed]] and the Brennan Center
[[link removed]], for example, have helped prepare
hundreds of legal cases to hold individuals responsible for spreading
dangerous conspiracies and violence accountable in the courts.

Making political violence and anti-democratic behaviors backfire
[[link removed]] requires
building the capacities to go on the offense with our movements,
something this paper helpfully describes. Finding the levers of
influence to make it more costly for politicians and other actors to
engage in anti-democratic behaviors takes solid analyses of where
their social, political, spiritual and financial support comes from.
And, in turn, linking that analysis to campaigns that target those
sources of power with tactics of pressure and engagement.

During the civil rights movement, the Montgomery bus boycott and the
Nashville lunch counter sit-ins were excellent examples of campaigns
that linked economic analysis (of revenue streams for white-owned
businesses upholding segregation) to campaigns that relied on tactics
of non-cooperation. Both campaigns involved significant training and
preparation, including (how to respond to anticipated violence and
harassment) and building parallel institutions like Black-run car
pools. (The Nashville segment of the documentary film “A Force More
Powerful
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highlights some of this preparation.) During the campaigns, intense
negotiations were happening between civil rights leaders, politicians
and business owners until shifting power dynamics made negotiated
agreements possible.     

During King’s time there was an acknowledgement of how difficult
this work is and how much investment in relationships, skills-building
and planning was required to dismantle a Jim Crow authoritarian system
built on racism and violence. Important victories like the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were the result of
multi-faceted strategies that involved diverse actors doing many
different things. The significance of intra-movement trainings to
building the size and effectiveness of the civil rights movement,
which were led by Rev. James Lawson, C.T. Vivian, Diane Nash, Bernard
Lafayette and others, cannot be overstated.      

Today, the challenges are no less significant or complex. While the
Jan. 6 insurrection may have failed in the short term, and some
election deniers may have been defeated during the midterms, U.S.
democracy continues to face deep existential threats. Everyone has a
role to play in stopping the slide into political violence and
extremism, and in strengthening democratic culture and institutions. 

There is a lane for everyone: Those skilled in educating the public
about the risks we face (such as the creators of this new graphic
novel about Jan. 6
[[link removed]]);
those who are engaging courageous conservatives (like Country First
[[link removed]] and Millions of Conversations
[[link removed]]); those conducting important
analyses (like the Bridging Divides Initiative
[[link removed]] and Political Research
Associates [[link removed]]); those experimenting with
different forms of dialogue (like Urban Rural Action
[[link removed]] and the Village Square)
[[link removed]]; those who are organizing
within and between communities and movements (like the Poor
People’s Campaign [[link removed]],
the Women’s March [[link removed]], the Social &
Economic Justice Leaders Project
[[link removed]] and
the 22nd Century Initiative
[[link removed]]); those who are
leading trainings in organizing, nonviolence and conflict resolution
(like Training for Change
[[link removed]], 350.org
[[link removed]], Beautiful Trouble
[[link removed]], the International Center on
Nonviolent Conflict [[link removed]], Pace e
Bene [[link removed]], East Point Peace Academy
[[link removed]] and Nonviolent Peaceforce
[[link removed]]); and groups
that are leading local and national experiments in racial justice and
healing as part of the national Truth, Racial Healing, and
Transformation Movement [[link removed]].

Strengthening our collective muscle to both resist the interconnected
injustices that King described and to build a democracy grounded in
love and justice requires being able to “see” one another, with
our different skills, relationships and levers, as core elements of a
shared pro-democracy ecosystem — in the U.S. and globally. That
takes recognizing that resurgent authoritarianism, misogyny and white
nationalism have deep transnational roots and can only be transformed
through global solidarity. May we continue to embrace King’s
powerful advice that we pursue multiple, connected lanes in order to
achieve racial justice and multiracial democracy. 

_Maria J. Stephan is the chief organizer and co-lead of the Horizons
Project [[link removed]], which is focused on
strengthening relationships and collaboration between the social
justice, peacebuilding and democracy communities in the U.S. and
globally. She is the co-author of "Why Civil Resistance Works: The
Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict," "Bolstering Democracy:
Lessons Learned and the Path Forward," and "Is Authoritarianism
Staging a Comeback?" Follow her on Twitter @MariaJStephan
[[link removed]]._

_Waging Nonviolence is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to
providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements
around the world. With a commitment to accuracy, transparency and
editorial independence, we examine today’s most crucial issues by
shining a light on those who are organizing for just and peaceful
solutions.  Donate [[link removed]]_

* Martin Luther King
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* multiracial alliances
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* democracy
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