Non-violent Resistance & Truthfulness
Mahatma Gandhi was a great influence in Dr. King’s work. Here, he describes his discovery of Gandhi’s teachings:
“…One Sunday afternoon I traveled to Philadelphia to hear a sermon by Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University. He was there to preach for the Fellowship House of Philadelphia. Dr. Johnson had just returned from a trip to India, and to my great interest. He spoke of the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
“His message was so profound and electrifying that I left the meeting and bought a half-dozen books on Gandhi’s life and works. Like most people, I had heard of Gandhi, but I had never studied him seriously.
“As I read I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance…the whole concept of “Satyagraha” (Satya is truth which equals love, agraha is force; “Satyagraha,” therefore, means truth-force or love force) was profoundly significant to me.
“As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the area of social reform.
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…it was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months. ”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
(quote presented by the King Center in commemoration of Gandhi’s birthday)