Whenever a riot breaks out in America you are likely to hear: “a riot is the language of the
unheard.” Through repetition, in recent years this has become one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s
most popular quotes. Why? Many have used the quote to justify rioting. Activist journalist,
self-described “master race-baiter”, and Senior Writer at The Root used it in an
article advocating the effectiveness of violence after race riots in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And the socialist Jacobin Magazine published an article entitled “What Martin Luther King
Really Thought About Riots” by a philosophy professor and supposed expert on King’s political
philosophy which used the quote while arguing King “never denounced riots as immoral”. Is that true?
"I think for the Negro to turn to violence would be both impractical and immoral.” In reality,
King repeatedly and explicitly condemned riots, both on strategic and moral grounds.
“Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are
socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence
is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice.
I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve.
That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting
a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots,
and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to
affirm that there is another way.” This wasn’t just about rioting in the abstract.
He said those words in 1967 - the year of some of America’s most violent race riots. Just two years
earlier he flew to Los Angeles following the Watts Riots; he immediately told the press upon landing:
“Let me say first of all that I profoundly deplore the events that have occurred in Los Angeles
in these last few tragic days. I believe and have said on many occasions that violence is
not the answer to social conflict. Whether it is engaged in by white people in Alabama or by
Negroes in Los Angeles.” And he believed police power was necessary to stop rioting:
“... a mob does not respond to reason. Irrationality becomes the order of the day at that point and
I think at that time it was necessary, for police power to be used in order to restrain it.”
But King really did repeatedly say that “a riot is the language of the unheard.”
So what did he mean? “I think we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight
of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.” He was attempting to not let the rioting
he condemned distract from his work to improve conditions in the areas where the riots occurred.
“Violence is all the more regrettable in this period in light of the tremendous non-violent
sacrifices that both Negro and white people together have endured to bring justice to all men.
But it is equally clear, as President Johnson pointed out yesterday,
that it is a job of all Americans to right the wrongs from which such violence and disorder
spring.” To let rioting obscure the need to provide disadvantaged Americans with freedom,
justice, and opportunity, would go against King’s message.
This can’t be forgotten. But to support rioting or violence of any kind does the same.
King never had a monopoly on the tactics of black activists. But King became a part of American
history in a way his violent competitors didn’t for a reason; he was drastically more successful.
After King was assassinated, deadly riots broke out in the greatest wave of social
unrest in the United States since the Civil War. From as soon as King left us, people sought to
co-opt his brand while opposing his message. Today’s activists are doing the same thing.
What would King think of them? “I would like for all of us
to believe in non-violence, but I'm here to say tonight that if every Negro in the United States
turns against non-violence, I'm going to stand up as a lone voice and say, ‘This is the wrong way!’”
King believed that riots harmed both America and the very cause rioters wanted to promote.
To bring about real change, we must engage in passionate and
civil debate. If you believe in your ideas, make your argument with facts and reason.
I’m Bob Woodson, founder and president of The Woodson Center. Learn more about The Center at
WoodsonCenter.org. And if you liked this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe. Thanks for watching!