"You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."
(1st page, 5 paragraph in "Letters from Birmingham City Jail"
What really strikes me from this passage is the way MLK talks about his procedure on how to get a reaction out of the people. He's saying that you cannot simply negotiate. You have to create some tension so that they understand that there is a problem to even begin with. Without this tension, the whites have the benefit of not knowing what is going on. When I read this, I realized how much thought had to be put into this. His thought process has been used for numerous other issues in history. The reason that people do protests nowadays is to create the this "tension" that MLK is talking about.
MLK had to have realized that there was something done wrong consistently in the past; so much so, that there was little to no change or outcome. He had to change the way they attack the problem. According to this passage, MLK assumes that most people think that the best way to get a reaction is to go straight to negotiation. This is why I believe and assume MLK was the one to brain storm this whole new idea of protest and changing ideas internationally.
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