Dr Martin Luther King outlined the principles of his non-violent philosophy, and the objectives of the campaign he was planning for this spring and summer, in an article appearing in the current issue of "Look" magazine. Dr King wrote:
"The policy of the Federal Government is to play Russian roulette with riots; it is prepared to gamble another summer of disasters. In spite of two consecutive summers of violence, not a single basic cause of riots has been corrected. All of the misery that stoked the flames of rage and rebellion remains undiminished. With unemployment, intolerable housing, and discriminatory education scourge in Negro ghettoes, Congress and the Administration still tinker with trivial, half-hearted measures. Yet only a few years ago, there was discernible, if limited progress through non-violence."
Each year a wholesale vibrant Negro-self-confidence was taking shape. The fact is inescapable that the tactic of non-violence which had then dominated the thinking of the Civil Rights movement has in the last two years not been playing its transforming role. Non-violence was a creative doctrine in the South because it checkmated the rabid segregationalists who were thirsting for an opportunity to physically crush Negroes. Non-violent direct action enabled the Negro to take to the streets in active protest, but it muzzled the guns of the oppressor because even he could not shoot down in daylight unarmed men, women, and children. This is the reason there was less loss of life in 10 years of Southern protest than in 10 days of Northern riots.
Dr King then wrote of the massive march he was planning to hold in Washington towards the end of this month. He said it would resemble Birmingham and Selma in duration – it could persist for two or three months.
Dr King then wrote: "We will place the problems of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.
"The nation has not yet recognised the seriousness of it. Congress hasn't been willing to do anything about it and this is what we are trying to face this spring. As committed as I am to non-violence, I have to face this fact: if we do not get a positive response in Washington, many more Negroes will begin to think and act in violent terms. I hope instead that what comes out of these non-violent demonstrations will be an economic Bill of Rights for the disadvantaged, requiring about ten or twelve billion dollars."
[Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on 4 April 1968]