Love in the Beloved Community Articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Quotes from Dr. King -


This love might well be the salvation of our civilization.... Not through violence; not through hate; no, not even through boycotts; but through love. It is true that as we struggle for freedom in America we will have to boycott at times. But we must remember as we boycott that a boycott is not an end within itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding good will that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.


As we move in this transition from the old age into the new we will have to rise up in protest. We will have to boycott at times, but let us always remember that boycotts are not ends within themselves. A boycott is just a means to an end. A boycott is merely a means to say, `I don't like it.' It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation. The end is the creation of a beloved community. The end is the creation of a society where men will live together as brothers. An end is not retaliation but redemption. That is the end we are trying to reach. That we would bring these creative forces together we would be able to live in this new age which is destined to come. The old order is dying and the new order is being born .


I must still believe that there is something within them that can cause them one day to come to themselves (That's right, Yes) and rise up walk back up the dusty road to the father's house. (Yes) And we stand there with outstretched arms. That's the meaning of the Christian faith.... I believe that the Ku Klux Klan can be transformed into a clan for God's kingdom. (Yes) I believe that the White Citizens Council can be transformed into a Right Citizens Council. (Yes) I believe that. That's the essence of the Gospel.

 "The word segregation represents a system that is prohibitive," he told a Nashville, Tennessee, church conference in 1962; it deprives the Negro of equal access to schools, parks, restaurants, libraries and the like. Desegregation is eliminative and negative, for it simply removes these legal and social prohibitions. Integration is creative, and is therefore more profound and far-reaching than desegregation. Integration is the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed participation of Negroes into the total range of human activities. Integration is genuine intergroup, interpersonal doing. Desegregation then, rightly, is only a short-range goal. Integration is the ultimate goal of our national community. What was at stake, King said, was the hope for civil community itself. "At the heart of all that civilization has meant and developed," he argued, is 'community'-the mutually cooperative and voluntary venture of man to assume a semblance of responsibility for his brother. What began as the closest answer to a desperate need for survival from the beast of prey and the danger of the jungle was the basis of present day cities and nations. Man could not have survived without the impulse which makes him the societal creature he is."