Principled Leadership

PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP

How could a person be punched, kicked, and spat upon, yet remain composed? How on earth could a group of people repeatedly absorb hateful taunts and ethnic slurs without retaliating in kind? What would motivate a person willingly to endure the emotional humiliation and physical abuse of an adversary?

In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. spelled out his peaceful strategy of non-violent resistance to racism in America.

“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.”

Martin Luther King’s principled leadership inspired a generation of young civil rights protestors to embrace the peaceful strategy of non-violent resistance—even when they endured violent acts of bigotry.

The history of the civil rights movement in America is filled with stories of heroism in the face of hatred. But perhaps no single incident tested King’s principle of non-violent resistance better than Bloody Sunday—the name historians have attached to a monumental protest march in Alabama.

On March 7, 1965, around 600 civil rights marchers planned to walk from Selma, Alabama to the state courthouse in Montgomery. In accordance to Dr. King’s strategy of non-violent resistance, they were peacefully protesting the harassments which prevented blacks from voting. On the outskirts of Selma, the marchers arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they encountered a blockade of state troopers and local patrolmen.

Despite warnings not to cross the bridge, the protestors forged forward and were viscously attacked. The troopers and patrolmen struck them with billy clubs, whipped them, stabbed them with cattle prods, and showered them with tear gas. Amazingly, the marchers chose not to fight back, and were beaten mercilessly. Journalists snapped horrific pictures of the violence to capture its brutality. Images of bruised and bloodied protestors quickly flooded the news outlets to give America a sickening glimpse of the assault.

By holding true to the principle of non-violence, the Selma marchers were able to prick America’s conscience with the moral justification of their cause. Their message of freedom and equality spoke loudly through their silence as they underwent painful beatings. By sacrificing their physical well-being, the protestors at Selma won a major moral victory for the cause of African-Americans in the United States.

Martin Luther King, through his unwavering belief that love was more powerful than hate, transformed the way we view race in America. His principled leadership of brave civil rights protestors helped to make the dream of equal rights a reality for blacks across the country.

For more thoughts on principled leadership, visit the Ivey Business Journal’s online site and browse Principled Leadership: Taking the Hard Right by authors Gerard H. Seijts and Hon. David Kilgour. http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/article.asp?intArticle_ID=688