If non-violence were universally effective, the police would be using it right now

[bigtree]

6. he wasn't a pacifist

...fully believed in defending himself and his young family.

Non-violence, however, was a political strategy intended to garner the support of enough white moderates to push his civil rights initiatives forward. It was largely successful, because the movement had a political agenda at its head, specific political goals which had MLK and Johnson huddling several times in the WH before their eventual success in the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

It was a strategy King never abandoned, as he pressed forward with his 'Poor Peoples' Campaign.'