This paper attempts to deepen historical understanding of how non-violence became a vital force in modern US politics. It interrogates the indelible association between the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and non-violent action, arguing that Kingian origin narratives of non-violence obscure historical apprehension of the long process of intellectual, tactical, and spiritual experimentation that produced a new kind of weapon in the United States.
The history in this manuscript suggests that a legible non-violent praxis was developed in a partnership between A.J. Mustes Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and A. Phillip Randolphs all-black March on Washington Movement (MOWM) in the early 1940s. Despite the yawning divide between each movement on questions of race and war, this collaboration between the MOWM and the FOR launched a dialogical process of intellectual exchange and tactical experimentation that made legible a form of non-violence in US politics. Gandhis Quit India Campaign of 1942 inspired this collaboration, and the movement interpenetration between FOR and MOWM activists during the Gandhian Moment of 1942 hastened the development and diffusion of a non-violent praxis nearly two decades before the sit-in revolution swept across the United States in 1960.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03232015-131407 |
| Date | 25 March 2015 |
| Creators | Siracusa, Anthony Christopher III |
| Contributors | Dennis C. Dickerson, Samira Sheikh |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03232015-131407/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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