3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

than a "diversionary tactic," and wondered how appropriate it could really be in
Montgomery. "I do not know of any instance where a racial group or minority, so
situated as we arc here in the United States, has ever won full freedom or full citizenship
by simply using the tactic of nonviolence," he wrote . He lauded the rebellious Hindustani
for "twisting the lion's tail" in India in the 1930's, and admired nonviolence as "a most
valuable tactic" in liberating the Indian subcontinent from British domination ; but the
American South, he surmised, was quite different from the Near i ast.~ "Figuratively, he
[the Negro] must be prepared when the occasion demands to put his fist in somebody's
face if he is going to win respect." 2
He wondered, while listening to King speak at a convention of the National
Council of Negro Women in Washington, how many of those present, all cheering King,
"would actually offer his life, his home, or his church ."~ Blacks, he felt, could not adhere
to true nonviolence ; that is, the kind Gandhi advocated . `"fhe zeal, self-sacrifice, and
training necessary to make a program of peaceful resistance . . . simply does not seem to
exist among Negroes, North or South," Prattis stated . "Nor is there the unity required."~
He felt that King overestimated his people's capacity to persevere . "Despite his most
extraordinary achievements in one community [Montgomery], the Negroes there arc not
~P. L . Prattis, "Nonviolence [first of a five-part series]," The Pittsbur Courier,
November 30, 1957 .
2Prattis, "Nonviolence--Q," The Pittsburgh Courier, December 7, 1957 .
'Prattis, "Nonviolence--QI ;' The PittsburghCourier , December 14, 1957.
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