King knew that he and all the members of the nonviolent campaign, would be met with a lot of violence and hate. One of the congressmen, John Lewis said: "They came toward us, beating us with night sticks, trampling us with
horses, releasing the tear gas. I was hit in the head by a
state trooper with a night stick. I had a concussion on the bridge and I
thought I was going to die."
This is just an example of the violence they were subjected to. King's non-violent movement was inspired by the teachings of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. He believed that that was better than an armed assault. One of his friends stated that if they had armed themselves and responded to violence with more violence, that they could have won, but America would not survive.
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