MLK’s Legacy of Nonviolent Protest Is More Urgent Than Ever

During the 30 years since the United States began observing the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, the commemoration of the life and work of this remarkable man has mostly seemed like a backward look at a struggle that largely succeeded. Yes, there have been regular reminders of the unfinished business of the civil-rights movement and the dangers of backsliding on the country’s commitment to equality and justice. But the sense that we urgently needed to relearn the lessons King once taught us was often lacking — until now.

In 2026, the country is governed by a regime as aggressive in its reactionary demands to obstruct and reverse social change as the southern local and state governments that fought and jailed MLK were. White-supremacist sentiment is being proclaimed again after decades of being too disreputable to say out loud. Perversion of the Christian Gospel to justify hatred and violence is as widespread as it was when white churches defended racial segregation as holy. And now, as then, advocates for “law and order” regard protest as insurrection and protesters as terrorists (or as George Wallace used to call them, anarchists).

Millions of Americans seeking a way to cope with the Donald Trump administration and its excesses need to rediscover the legacy of nonviolent protest MLK embodied. Like his role model Mahatma Gandhi, King taught that firm but civil disobedience in the face of injustice is both powerful and difficult to defeat, in part because it denies oppressors the excuse of personal or institutional self-defense and exposes the brutality of those who seek to provoke violence. Although MLK was not present on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, many of his disciples were, and televised images of their being clubbed to the pavement and attacked by police dogs that day probably did more to advance the cause of civil-rights legislation than anything that happened during the many decades of Jim Crow. Today’s protesters need not be willing to make such sacrifices to learn that exchanges of blows with law enforcement mostly benefit those who equate dissent with civil war, rather than civil rights.

Aside from the strategy and tactics King adopted to move a long-complacent nation toward at least a semblance of racial equality (and had he not been murdered, perhaps economic equality), he also stood tall for universal values against the moral relativism of nationalists and nativists, who — then as now — show no respect for people outside their cult of blood and soil. In this he followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, who commanded love for the stranger, the prisoner, the despised outcast, even one’s enemies. King also understood that both the professed religious beliefs of most Americans and the civic creed of Americanism rely on a commitment to equality and a healthy disrespect for the idols of wealth and power. Most of all, MLK was firm in his conviction that true patriotism is aspirational, rather than a celebration of current or past “greatness.” He deeply believed in his country as a dream, rather than as a perfected society where criticism is treason.

Perhaps the future of this country isn’t as dark and forbidding as it can seem at the beginning of 2026. It’s possible the drift into police-state authoritarianism can be reversed. Maybe the wars and rumors of war breaking out almost daily won’t burst into an orgy of killing or plans for a new American empire. But for the time being, King’s example of courage and conviction remains very useful, particularly for those whose peaceful protests are met with armed repression.

It’s not a coincidence that one of MLK’s most important essays was titled “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” From behind bars, he argued that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” upbraided Christian ministers for their hypocritical demands for unjust peace, and expressed faith in his ultimate vindication. It’s a good time to reread his words and emulate his example. Keep in mind that the people now running the country have officially turned the civil-rights movement on its head by pretending the only victims of injustice worth defending are white men and the only refugees worth rescuing are white South Africans. Like Sisyphus in the Greek myths, Americans have watched the rock roll back down the hill during the long struggle for equality. MLK’s legacy inspires us to reject despair and keep up the fight.