One of the strengths of the Class of Nonviolence is its use of original writings: you don’t read about Gandhi — you read what he wrote. Even better, I think, is to peek at original documents. I stumbled into the FBI’s online “Vault“ where the heirs of J. Edgar Hoover have archived photocopies of THOUSANDS of their most requested files. Tucked away amid Bonnie & Clyde and the KKK you’ll find a few writers from the Class of Nonviolence: Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow and Erich Fromm. Many others of interest to scholars of peace and nonviolence are here as well: César Chávez, Marion Anderson, Edward Abbey, Jane Addams, W.E.B. DuBois, the Highlander Folk School, Malcolm X, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Friends Service Committee. There are 142 pages on Lucille Ball, described as “testimony at the 1953 House Select Committee on Un-American Activities hearings which reflected her registration to vote as a communist in 1936 due to the insistence of her grandfather.” Did I mention that this is cool? And do you remember where you were on March 16, 1972? If you were one of the United Farm Workers supporters picketing the Bexar County Republican HQ that day, you’ll get a kick out of this document from the César Chávez file:
