Why did Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders support nonviolence as a strategy for civil rights demostration?Help please, Ineed a short answer...

The first thing to remember about Martin Luther King, Jr.
and other Civil Rights leaders during that time, was that they were Christian ministers
and leaders.  I think that, above all other reasons, was why those leaders chose the
path of non violent resistance.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was an educated man and was
able to see how successfully peaceful, non violent protest worked with Gandhi in India
in their struggle for independence.  He knew that in order to succeed in gaining Civil
Rights for African Americans he would need the support of the general public within the
United States.  He knew that if he used violence, the general public would condemn his
movement.  Martin Luther King’s struggle for Civil Rights gained sympathy and support
when the public saw the violent reaction to his non violent
protests.

Also, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s own personal
beliefs played an important role in his use of non-violence.  First he believed that the
use of non violence was a courageous act, not a cowardly act. He believed that non
violence promoted understanding of one’s opponent, and was not meant to disgrace him. 
And, most importantly, he believed that non violence was so powerful that it could
replace love where before there was hatred and bitterness.  I think the success of his
movement proved him to be correct in all of these ideas.