Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other participants of the civil rights movement were strongly influenced by which pillar of Eastern religion?
Explanation
Answer: B - Nonviolence (or ahimsa, in Buddhism) was central to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s faction of the civil rights movement. Mahatma Gandhi’s use of nonviolent means during his social leadership in India from the 1920s to 1940s informed King’s school of thought. Gandhi was, in turn, informed by the writings of Russian Leo Tolstoy and American Henry David Thoreau, primarily for his essay Civil Disobedience. King was likewise guided by the same influences and was adamant that nonviolent civil disobedience was paramount to the success of the civil rights movement, which was why so many demonstrations began peacefully and remained peaceful on the demonstrators’ side. They created a stark contrast between themselves and the violent and unjust tactics of their opposition. Later factions of the movement did not adhere to the tenet of nonviolence. Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers all called for the use of violence in certain situations.
