“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) is commonly remembered for his nonviolent approach to advocating for racial justice during the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1968. His activism took shape shortly after the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, nullifying the “separate but equal” doctrine. Dr. King’s work—including numerous books, letters, articles, and speeches—unfolded during the early years of national integration, a period marked by widespread anger, defiance, and violent resistance from those opposed to desegregation.
In his article, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice,” published on February 6, 1957, in Christian Century, a weekly religious magazine, Dr. King wrote: “True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force—tension, confusion or war; it is the presence of some positive force—justice, good will and brotherhood.” He explained that the era of Plessy v. Ferguson created what he called “a new kind of slavery,” which, although outwardly peaceful, was internally experienced by African Americans as inferiority, insult, and exploitation. This so-called “peace” was, in fact, a “negative peace,” one devoid of justice.
On April 3, 1957, at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, Dr. King delivered a lecture titled “Justice Without Violence,” as part of the Helmsley Lecture Series. He expanded on his earlier ideas, describing how the “separate but equal” era caused what he termed a “paralysis of mental slavery,” where African Americans “accepted this place assigned to him,” a place of perceived inferiority. During this period, a “racial peace” existed due to a lack of resistance, but it was, as Dr. King emphasized, “a negative peace . . . devoid of any positive meaning,” because, as he eloquently stated, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
In his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” written on April 16, 1963, Dr. King continued to criticize the notion of “negative peace.” He penned the letter after being imprisoned eight days for leading a march against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in violation of an injunction banning all racial protests in the city. In the letter, Dr. King condemned “white moderates” who preferred “order” over justice and sought “a negative peace which is the absence of tension” rather than “a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” He viewed this group as the “great stumbling block” to freedom, even more than overt racists, because their preference for maintaining order stifled the push for true justice.
The phrase, “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice” became a recurring theme in Dr. King’s writings and speeches. In these works, he explained how the “false peace” or “negative peace” was disrupted by several factors, including increased travel, the industrial revolution, and the decline of illiteracy among African Americans. These developments led to a growing sense of self-respect, replacing feelings of inferiority, and ultimately undermining the “negative peace” that coexisted with segregation.
A false peace, or “negative peace,” is characterized by nonviolence and order, but without justice. In contrast, a true peace, or “positive peace,” is defined by the presence of justice. The juxtaposition between a true and false peace is evident in Dr. King’s life: although his philosophy of nonviolence sought to achieve equal rights, it was met with violent threats against him and his family, culminating in his assassination. His commitment to nonviolence did not mean that violence ceased to exist around him. Similarly, the legal abolition of slavery and segregation did not guarantee racial peace.
Today, even though slavery is illegal, it still persists in various forms. The Human Trafficking Institute’s approach to decimating human trafficking recognizes the need for justice in order to truly have peace. When a trafficker is brought to justice, it prevents them from current and future exploitation of others and deters other traffickers from the same. True peace cannot be achieved by accepting a world that that settles for anything less than justice, as justice addresses the root causes of inequality.
