Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela claimed to have stuck to non violent tendencies when leading their group(s) of people. Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in many sit-ins, pickets, and rallies in which he kept one hundred percent violence-free. How did he do this? King created his own set of crucial philosophical principles in which he keeps his work nonviolent. Martin Luther King follows these principles in every action he takes. He even follows his non violent principles when he writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail." One of Martin Luther King's principles to non violence is to accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve the goal. Moreover this means accepting suffering is redemptive and helps the cause grow in, not only a spiritual way, but also a humanitarian dimension. This is obviously demonstrated considering King is writing from a jail cell he was thrown into for his acts of nonviolent assembly. The clergymen made it a point to mention that Martin Luther King and his peoples had a "willingness to break laws  (79), but in the next paragraph King describes that an unjust law is no law at all and segregation laws are simply unjust and degrading. King readily went to jail for his belief in civil rights displaying transcendentalist Thoreau's idea of civil disobedience which is also defined as a non violent approach; thus, following his first principle of leading a nonviolent life. King's next way to avoid violence is to attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil. This nonviolent approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reacting to one's opponents or their personalities. The following is an excerpt from King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. "...when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel wil