Martin Luther King, Jr.'s account of the first successful large-scale application of nonviolence resistance in America is comprehensive, revelatory, and intimate. King described his book as the chronicle of fifty thousand Negroes who took to heart the principles of nonviolence, who learned to fight for their rights with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth.'' It traces the phenomenal journey of a community, and shows how the twenty-eight-year-old Dr. King, with his conviction for equality and nonviolence, helped transformed the nation-and the world.Introduction by Clayborne Carson Preface IReturn to the South IIMontgomery Before the Protest IIIThe Decisive Arrest IVThe Day of Days, December 5 VThe Movement Gathers Momentum VIPilgrimage to Nonviolence VIIMethods of the Opposition VIIIThe Violence of Desperate Men IXDesegregation at Last XMontgomery Today XIWhere Do We Go from Here? Appendix IndexMartin Luther King's early words return to us today with enormous power, as profoundly true, as wise and inspiring, now as when he wrote them fifty years ago.—Howard ZinnDr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(1929-1968), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was among the twentieth century's most influential figures. One of the greatest orators in U.S. history, King is the author of several books, includingStride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, The Trumpet of Conscience, Why We Can't Wait,andWhere Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?His speeches, sermons, and writings are inspirational and timeless. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
Clayborne Carson is professor of history at Stanford University, the founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Inl3(