While most of us are familiar with Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat for a white man in December, 1955, but that was just the beginning. That historic incident was followed by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which started on the day of her trial and was spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the NAACP.

As King drove through the streets of Montgomery on the morning of December 5, he saw very few blacks on the buses — and was elated. He describes what he saw that day in his book Stride Toward Freedom:

I jumped in my car and for almost an hour I cruised down every major street and examined every passing bus. During this hour, at the peak of the morning traffic, I saw no more than eight Negro passengers riding the buses. By this time I was jubilant. Instead of the 60 percent cooperation we had hoped for, it was becoming apparent that we had reached almost 100 percent. A miracle had taken place. The once dormant and quiescent Negro community was now fully awake.

In his well-known “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King said that one day the South would recognize its true heroes. He described the woman now known as Mother Pollard, who when asked if she was tired during the Montgomery Bus Boycott said, “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.”

What can the Black Lives Matter movement learn from those Civil Rights heroes? As a white person reflecting on not only current events but also what it was that made King successful in his efforts, I realize that I don’t come from a place of discrimination other than what I have experienced as a woman. However, I have also been affected by King’s work (haven’t we all?), and provide here my humble observations, and share those of some prominent black commentators, in the hope that Black Lives Matter would incorporate exactly what it was that made King’s efforts successful, to the end that justice would be achieved where it has been lacking.

Peaceful Demonstrations, Violent Protests

The Civil Rights Movement led by King was nonviolent. Throughout his Birmingham letter, King discussed how the protests must be peaceful: “Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.” He also called out the black nationalists who were full of “hatred and despair” and who believed “the white man is an incorrigible ‘devil.’” He insisted that “there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest.”

Over and over King said that while he may be called an extremist, as were others in the movement, he would be an extremist for love, not hate, and exhorted others to do the same.

The basis for King’s stance — his relationship with God as a whole-hearted Christian — influenced his life, his actions and his speeches. He called for peaceful demonstrations because of the influence of scripture on his life. His writing is replete with references to Scripture as support for the actions he took.

There is, of course, plenty of blame to go around for the powder keg that many of our inner cities have become. That being said, the Black Lives Matter movement has done much to foment an atmosphere conducive to violence — violence from protesters towards whites and even other blacks.

Two black commentators, Thomas Sowell and George Yancey, have much to say about recent events. According to Sowell, the atmosphere needed to create the kind of tension and violence we’ve seen has been created in large part by the Black Lives Matter movement:

Chief among those who generate this poisonous atmosphere are career race hustlers like Al Sharpton and racist institutions like the “Black Lives Matter” movement. All such demagogues need is a situation where there has been a confrontation where someone was white and someone else was black. The facts don’t matter to them.

Yancey had this to say:

I see no evidence that BLM promotes honest interracial communication. Instead I see a group that pushes its own racialized agenda and expects compliance instead of communication. This … is a recipe to maintain racial alienation, not eliminate it.

Peaceful Message

The message of the Civil Rights leaders was a peaceful showing of equality. Rosa Parks sat on the bus seat sending a message that she would not be relegated to the back as a second-class citizen. She didn’t destroy the bus, or harm its white occupants. The activists then acted in a productive manner in rallying around their cause: When they refused to sit in the back of the bus and then boycotted the bus, they didn’t demonize the driver or the white passengers.

In contrast, the Black Lives Matter movement incites hateful disrespect of whites, as a recent video shows a group of protesters refusing to allow an elderly white gentleman to walk down the sidewalk:

More alarming is the anger that the group provokes. A “day of rage” was called for July 15 by the group Anonymous as a “day of solidarity” with Black Lives Matter. Defense Department personnel were warned to stay away from the demonstrations, which were expected to be violent following recent shootings of two black men by police officers and five Dallas police officers by a black man.

The Black Lives Matter movement’s provocations arouse anger to no productive end. It seems to have no point of focus other than violence, as a group in Minnesota demonstrated when chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.” Should it surprise us that some imbalanced individuals, possibly influenced by such rhetoric, have even taken matters into their own hands? A case in point: the murder of Harris County sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth by a lone gunman, a murderer law enforcement have suggested was influenced by the vitriolic rhetoric of Black Lives Matter.

What Next?

Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and other Civil Rights leaders stand out not only because they were at the forefront of the movement and acted heroically, but because they did so with great character and grace. King chose to follow the character of Jesus. As he noted in his Birmingham letter: “Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’”

The Black Lives Matter movement cut its legs out from under itself with its hateful, extremist message. The only thing many of us hear from them are shouts calling for violence and blood, not purposeful and meaningful communication. It will continue to drive a wedge between the blacks and whites, not heal the lingering hurts.

The only answer to the violence and hatred in the culture of the Black Lives Matter movement is the antithesis to violence and hatred: Jesus Christ and a relationship with him. Martin Luther King, Jr., knew that and used his influence to spark a real change to that end.