Principle strategies of the MIA compared to Ghandian tactics.

 

      During the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King was the head of the Montgomery Improvement Agency.  This was a primarily black organization dedicated to getting more rights for the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama.  It employed strategies very similar to the those used by Mahatma Ghandi.

 

      One of the MIA's tactics that was a classical Ghandian tactic was the use of preparation.  For example, they always met to pray and to make sure that everybody was ready to go on a campaign.  These meetings also helped people to get over their fears.  This preparation helped to avoid violence.  One example was when the order to integrate the buses in Montgomery was given.  They held meetings to outline how they should behave on the newly integrated buses.  They also acted out incidents that could happen on the newly integrated buses (163).  They were shown what to do in a variety of different cases.  The leaders also handed out pamphlets outlining the same information.  These actions helped to reduce violence.  For example, when a black lady was struck by a white passenger, she did not retaliate.  She was convinced that what Martin Luther King had said about non-violence the night before was the right thing to do.  Without such preparations, there may have been more violence than there was.

 

      Another way that the MIA used Ghandian tactics was in it's encouragement of the people to walk.  Walking was a symbolic action, it allowed the people to feel like they were doing something.  The act of walking instead of riding the buses is like the use of the spinning wheel in india.  Both walking and spinning are actions that most people can do.  For example, people of all ages can participate in this act of rebellion.  One example of the determination is found in Stride Towards Freedom on page 78.  It gives an example of a car pool driver asking an old lady, who was walking along with great difficulty, if she wanted a ride.  She answered "I'm not walking for myself.  I'm walking for my children and my grandchildren."  People like her inspired other people to get involved.  Pretty soon everybody would be touched by this act of rebellion.  This might explain why the civil rights movement held itself together for so long.

 

      The most obvious Ghandian tactic that the MIA used was that of non-violence.  The use of this tactic was very well suited to the civil rights movement.  If violence had been used by the blacks, whites would have returned the violence.  This would result in an increase in tensions instead of a decrease.  For example, when Martin Luther King's house was bombed, many blacks were ready to seek revenge.  King called for non-violence and a riot was avoided.  On the other hand, if King had called for blood, the results would have been disastrous, maybe worse than Rodney King riots.  Massacres like the ones that occurred in India before separation could have occurred.  Luckily this was not the case, non-violent techniques were effectively used by the MIA and there was a minimum of conflict.

 

      The strategies of the MIA were very similar to those used by Ghandi.  They MIA used Ghandian techniques such as preparation and nonviolence quite effectively.  Without these techniques, the movement may have collapsed.

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