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King Legacy #1
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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.
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First published November 30, 1957
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Martin Luther King Jr.
412 books3,455 followersMartin Luther King, Jr. was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Here he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
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January 17, 2024
The strength and resolution of Martin Luther King Jr. are qualities that we of the present day may tend to take for granted – as if it was somehow predestined that the young preacher from Atlanta would win the Nobel Peace Prize, lead successful desegregation campaigns throughout the Deep South, and eventually stand next to President Lyndon B. Johnson for the signing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. But before any of those historical moments unfolded, Dr. King was a young minister in Montgomery, Alabama, facing long odds in a fight to undo segregation and other associated indignities in the city’s bus system, as he sets forth in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958).
The early passages of Stride Toward Freedom set forth the process by which Dr. King and his wife Coretta, with a variety of employment options in both North and South, came to choose the Deep South setting of Montgomery. The Kings knew that, in contrast to the subtle de facto discrimination they might face in the North, they would experience de jure segregation and discrimination in the South; but they felt that the segregationist South was exactly where they needed to be.
Dr. King interviewed with, and was invited to lead, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that served many of Montgomery’s leading African American citizens. In considering Dexter Avenue’s offer, Dr. King took into account perceptions of Dexter Avenue as a socially exclusive “big folks’ church”, disengaged from the struggles of poorer and less educated African Americans. In that connection, Dr. King writes that “Whenever the church, consciously or unconsciously, caters to one class, it loses the spiritual force of the ‘whosoever will, let him come’ doctrine, and is in danger of becoming little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity” (p. 26).
Dr. King knew that the Southern evangelical religious tradition, in its strong emphasis on the salvation of the individual human soul, made it easy for preachers, ministers, and other religious leaders to eschew any sort of involvement in social change. And he opposed any tendency, on the part of Southern churches, to stay on the proverbial sidelines during the Civil Rights Movement, writing that “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion. Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see – an opiate of the people” (p. 33).
Dr. King joined both the NAACP, with its emphasis on court action and legislation, and the Alabama Council on Human Relations, an organization that focused on changing people’s minds through education. Some of Dr. King’s colleagues found his interest in joining both of these organizations inconsistent, but he felt that both organizations complemented one another in their work: “Through education, we seek to change attitudes; through legislation and court orders, we seek to regulate behavior” (p. 31). Dr. King’s focus on finding practical and ethical means of bringing about positive change is evident throughout Stride Toward Freedom.
Having read some of Dr. King’s later books – Why We Can’t Wait (1963), Where Do We Go From Here? (1967) – I was struck by the logical and ethical consistency of his philosophy in this, his first book. Anyone who reads his setting-forth of the reasons behind race hatred, or any other form of hatred – “Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they do not know each other; they do not know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated” (p. 31) – is likely to find echoes of those early ideas in later works like the “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963, or the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech of 1968 that was Dr. King’s last public address.
The same can be said of Dr. King’s apt and courageous reply to a prominent white citizen of Montgomery who claimed that Dr. King and his fellow activists were wrecking a “long tradition” of “peaceful and harmonious race relations” in the Alabama capital. Dr. King replied that there had never been real peace in Montgomery – only “a sort of negative peace in which the Negro too often accepted his state of subordination. But this is not true peace. True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice” (p. 36). Here, I sensed a link with what Dr. King would later write in his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), a reply to a group of white Birmingham clergymen who claimed that his civil-rights activism was “extreme” and might provoke “violence.” As Dr. King accurately pointed out, the extremism and the violence were all coming from the segregationist side.
One of the ways in which Stride Toward Freedom is particularly informative is in describing how the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 came into being. It is already well known that the boycott had its origins in the arrest of Rosa Parks, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, but somehow the way in which Dr. King told this story had particular resonance.
At the same time, Stride Toward Freedom provides a wealth of additional information that is likely to be new to many readers. I had not known, beforehand, that Dr. King and his fellow activists initially hesitated at boycotting the Montgomery bus system. The reason for their hesitation was that, in many Deep South communities, boycotts had been a favorite tactic of segregationists! The “White Citizens’ Councils” that had been set up to maintain segregation regularly used boycotts to try to punish any businesses that sought to integrate. Integrate your business, or speak in favor of integration, and you might find that most of your customers suddenly started doing business elsewhere.
But Dr. King recalls reading the words of Henry David Thoreau regarding the importance of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, and describes an inner voice saying to him that “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it” (p. 44). And on that basis, the boycott of the bus system went forward.
The boycott began successfully, with virtually all of the African American population of Montgomery staying off the busses. In an effort to maintain the momentum of the boycott, activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, and Dr. King was elected as the association’s president. He had to prepare his first speech before the association in 20 minutes – the most important speech of his life so far. Dr. King describes being “possessed by fear”, “almost overcome”, “obsessed by a feeling of inadequacy” (p. 50).
I appreciated the honesty with which Dr. King describes the fears and insecurities that he felt at this point in his life. It’s easy to forget how hard this work was for him. One looks ahead to all the honors and awards he would receive – the National Day of Service in his honor, his magnificent memorial on the National Mall – and it all seems inevitable, preordained. It wasn’t. At the beginning, there was a young man, not quite 30 years old, praying to God at the outset of a task he wasn’t sure he could fulfill. It is something that could inspire us all in the difficult tasks that we face.
One of the most fascinating chapters was “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence.” In this chapter, King describes how his reading of various philosophers – Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill, Locke, Marx, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Niebuhr – contributed to the development of his own philosophy of nonviolence. King describes the tenets of that philosophy as follows:
1. “Nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist.”
2. “Nonviolence…does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.”
3. “The attack is directed against the forces of evil, rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil.”
4. “Nonviolent resistance is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back.”
5. “Nonviolent resistance…avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.”
6. “Nonviolent resistance…is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice.” (pp. 78-82)
Unsurprisingly, the segregationists of Montgomery fought back fiercely. On the official level, there was an arrest of Dr. King on a trumped-up charge (the first of many arrests he would experience), and an attempt by Montgomery authorities to declare the boycott itself illegal. On an unofficial level, there were death threats against Dr. King and his family, and even a bomb attack against the King family home.
Considering that, within 13 years after the Montgomery bus boycott, Dr. King would be assassinated in Memphis, I found it chilling to consider this passage from the book:
For the first time, I realized that something could happen to me. One night at a mass meeting, I found myself saying, “If one day you find me sprawled out dead, I do not want you to retaliate with a single act of violence. I urge you to continue protesting with the same dignity and discipline you have shown so far.” A strange silence came over the audience. (p. 102).
In response to these pressures, Dr. King prayed with particular intensity one night, telling God, “I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” Dr. King describes, movingly and eloquently, a moment of epiphany and grace that followed:
At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once, my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. (p. 103)
Subsequently, Dr. King sets forth the process by which civil-rights activists achieved a victory against the segregated bus system of Montgomery. There is an unusual quality to this triumph – two court decisions, following almost immediately upon one another, in which a preliminary setback is juxtaposed with a greater victory.
In the book’s final chapter, “Where Do We Go from Here?” (coincidentally, the chapter of Dr. King’s last book), Dr. King looks ahead to the future, addressing the segregationist systems that still existed at the time of the book’s publication in 1958, and asking what can be done by educators, labor leaders, religious leaders, the federal government, white Northern liberals, white Southern moderates, and African Americans. As he would do throughout his career, Dr. King calls upon religious leaders to engage in social action as a practical expression of their religious principles: “It is not enough for the church to be active in the realm of ideas; it must move out into the arena of social action. First, the church must remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Only by doing this can it be effective in its attack on outside evils” (p. 153).
Stride Toward Freedom is truly inspiring in its illustration of the positive change that can be wrought by a person of courage and conscience who is armed only with the power of a good idea. We see the beginning of Dr. King’s career of making the nation and the world a better place – and, inescapably, we ask ourselves what good we have not yet begun to do, but still might do.
The early passages of Stride Toward Freedom set forth the process by which Dr. King and his wife Coretta, with a variety of employment options in both North and South, came to choose the Deep South setting of Montgomery. The Kings knew that, in contrast to the subtle de facto discrimination they might face in the North, they would experience de jure segregation and discrimination in the South; but they felt that the segregationist South was exactly where they needed to be.
Dr. King interviewed with, and was invited to lead, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that served many of Montgomery’s leading African American citizens. In considering Dexter Avenue’s offer, Dr. King took into account perceptions of Dexter Avenue as a socially exclusive “big folks’ church”, disengaged from the struggles of poorer and less educated African Americans. In that connection, Dr. King writes that “Whenever the church, consciously or unconsciously, caters to one class, it loses the spiritual force of the ‘whosoever will, let him come’ doctrine, and is in danger of becoming little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity” (p. 26).
Dr. King knew that the Southern evangelical religious tradition, in its strong emphasis on the salvation of the individual human soul, made it easy for preachers, ministers, and other religious leaders to eschew any sort of involvement in social change. And he opposed any tendency, on the part of Southern churches, to stay on the proverbial sidelines during the Civil Rights Movement, writing that “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion. Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see – an opiate of the people” (p. 33).
Dr. King joined both the NAACP, with its emphasis on court action and legislation, and the Alabama Council on Human Relations, an organization that focused on changing people’s minds through education. Some of Dr. King’s colleagues found his interest in joining both of these organizations inconsistent, but he felt that both organizations complemented one another in their work: “Through education, we seek to change attitudes; through legislation and court orders, we seek to regulate behavior” (p. 31). Dr. King’s focus on finding practical and ethical means of bringing about positive change is evident throughout Stride Toward Freedom.
Having read some of Dr. King’s later books – Why We Can’t Wait (1963), Where Do We Go From Here? (1967) – I was struck by the logical and ethical consistency of his philosophy in this, his first book. Anyone who reads his setting-forth of the reasons behind race hatred, or any other form of hatred – “Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they do not know each other; they do not know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated” (p. 31) – is likely to find echoes of those early ideas in later works like the “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963, or the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech of 1968 that was Dr. King’s last public address.
The same can be said of Dr. King’s apt and courageous reply to a prominent white citizen of Montgomery who claimed that Dr. King and his fellow activists were wrecking a “long tradition” of “peaceful and harmonious race relations” in the Alabama capital. Dr. King replied that there had never been real peace in Montgomery – only “a sort of negative peace in which the Negro too often accepted his state of subordination. But this is not true peace. True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice” (p. 36). Here, I sensed a link with what Dr. King would later write in his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), a reply to a group of white Birmingham clergymen who claimed that his civil-rights activism was “extreme” and might provoke “violence.” As Dr. King accurately pointed out, the extremism and the violence were all coming from the segregationist side.
One of the ways in which Stride Toward Freedom is particularly informative is in describing how the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 came into being. It is already well known that the boycott had its origins in the arrest of Rosa Parks, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, but somehow the way in which Dr. King told this story had particular resonance.
At the same time, Stride Toward Freedom provides a wealth of additional information that is likely to be new to many readers. I had not known, beforehand, that Dr. King and his fellow activists initially hesitated at boycotting the Montgomery bus system. The reason for their hesitation was that, in many Deep South communities, boycotts had been a favorite tactic of segregationists! The “White Citizens’ Councils” that had been set up to maintain segregation regularly used boycotts to try to punish any businesses that sought to integrate. Integrate your business, or speak in favor of integration, and you might find that most of your customers suddenly started doing business elsewhere.
But Dr. King recalls reading the words of Henry David Thoreau regarding the importance of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, and describes an inner voice saying to him that “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it” (p. 44). And on that basis, the boycott of the bus system went forward.
The boycott began successfully, with virtually all of the African American population of Montgomery staying off the busses. In an effort to maintain the momentum of the boycott, activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, and Dr. King was elected as the association’s president. He had to prepare his first speech before the association in 20 minutes – the most important speech of his life so far. Dr. King describes being “possessed by fear”, “almost overcome”, “obsessed by a feeling of inadequacy” (p. 50).
I appreciated the honesty with which Dr. King describes the fears and insecurities that he felt at this point in his life. It’s easy to forget how hard this work was for him. One looks ahead to all the honors and awards he would receive – the National Day of Service in his honor, his magnificent memorial on the National Mall – and it all seems inevitable, preordained. It wasn’t. At the beginning, there was a young man, not quite 30 years old, praying to God at the outset of a task he wasn’t sure he could fulfill. It is something that could inspire us all in the difficult tasks that we face.
One of the most fascinating chapters was “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence.” In this chapter, King describes how his reading of various philosophers – Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Bentham, Mill, Locke, Marx, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Niebuhr – contributed to the development of his own philosophy of nonviolence. King describes the tenets of that philosophy as follows:
1. “Nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist.”
2. “Nonviolence…does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.”
3. “The attack is directed against the forces of evil, rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil.”
4. “Nonviolent resistance is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back.”
5. “Nonviolent resistance…avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.”
6. “Nonviolent resistance…is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice.” (pp. 78-82)
Unsurprisingly, the segregationists of Montgomery fought back fiercely. On the official level, there was an arrest of Dr. King on a trumped-up charge (the first of many arrests he would experience), and an attempt by Montgomery authorities to declare the boycott itself illegal. On an unofficial level, there were death threats against Dr. King and his family, and even a bomb attack against the King family home.
Considering that, within 13 years after the Montgomery bus boycott, Dr. King would be assassinated in Memphis, I found it chilling to consider this passage from the book:
For the first time, I realized that something could happen to me. One night at a mass meeting, I found myself saying, “If one day you find me sprawled out dead, I do not want you to retaliate with a single act of violence. I urge you to continue protesting with the same dignity and discipline you have shown so far.” A strange silence came over the audience. (p. 102).
In response to these pressures, Dr. King prayed with particular intensity one night, telling God, “I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” Dr. King describes, movingly and eloquently, a moment of epiphany and grace that followed:
At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once, my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. (p. 103)
Subsequently, Dr. King sets forth the process by which civil-rights activists achieved a victory against the segregated bus system of Montgomery. There is an unusual quality to this triumph – two court decisions, following almost immediately upon one another, in which a preliminary setback is juxtaposed with a greater victory.
In the book’s final chapter, “Where Do We Go from Here?” (coincidentally, the chapter of Dr. King’s last book), Dr. King looks ahead to the future, addressing the segregationist systems that still existed at the time of the book’s publication in 1958, and asking what can be done by educators, labor leaders, religious leaders, the federal government, white Northern liberals, white Southern moderates, and African Americans. As he would do throughout his career, Dr. King calls upon religious leaders to engage in social action as a practical expression of their religious principles: “It is not enough for the church to be active in the realm of ideas; it must move out into the arena of social action. First, the church must remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Only by doing this can it be effective in its attack on outside evils” (p. 153).
Stride Toward Freedom is truly inspiring in its illustration of the positive change that can be wrought by a person of courage and conscience who is armed only with the power of a good idea. We see the beginning of Dr. King’s career of making the nation and the world a better place – and, inescapably, we ask ourselves what good we have not yet begun to do, but still might do.
February 10, 2021
Martin Luther King, Jr. has made the improbable journey from periphery to national hero, embraced (at least verbally) by everyone from the left to the right. As a result, it has become difficult to understand King as he was: a radical and controversial figure. This transformation has required some omissions. While King is widely celebrated for his civil rights activism, his criticisms of economic inequality have attracted far less attention. In school it was not mentioned that King delivered his iconic speech at a protest that was for jobs as well as freedom.
Ironically, however, as the introduction by Clayborne Carson makes clear, King partially helped to create this more “acceptable” image of himself. For one, he is careful to distance himself from communism in this book. In the fascinating chapter on his intellectual development, King also takes care to emphasize his roots in Western philosophy, discussing Nietsche and Hegel, while downplaying the black tradition of activism that inspired him. In telling the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King even avoids any mention of the organizer Bayard Rustin, who was deemed too controversial for his homosexuality. (Rustin agreed to this omission.)
This book, then, should be seen as a work of advocacy as much as a straightforward narration of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. At the time of the Red Scare and of trenchant homophobia, King presents a slightly “sanitized” version of himself and his milieu, in order to further the cause of civil rights. One also suspects that King presents an overly rosy picture of the boycott’s success, as in reality the Supreme Court victory took years to translate into real integration. In short, this book is meant to inspire action.
This is not to say that the book is inaccurate. King still presents us with the essentials: a dramatic narrative of the bus boycott, as well as his own philosophy of nonviolence. Considering both the importance of the man and the event, this book is a rewarding read. It is especially valuable because it takes us into the hardships and the danger faced by the protesters.
King (or at least the sanitized version) is sometimes held up as an example of an “acceptable” protester by those hoping to discredit current-day movements, as if King had always been considered a hero. But as this book makes clear, in his own day King was anything but a hero to the white community. The boycott was designed to be disruptive, and it was. The protesters faced inconvenience, harassment, arrest, death threats, and real violence. King often—and eerily—contemplates the possibility of his own murder. Genuine protest, in other words, is never “acceptable.” As King repeatedly makes clear, non-violence is a philosophy of radical change, not of polite respectability.
Ironically, however, as the introduction by Clayborne Carson makes clear, King partially helped to create this more “acceptable” image of himself. For one, he is careful to distance himself from communism in this book. In the fascinating chapter on his intellectual development, King also takes care to emphasize his roots in Western philosophy, discussing Nietsche and Hegel, while downplaying the black tradition of activism that inspired him. In telling the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King even avoids any mention of the organizer Bayard Rustin, who was deemed too controversial for his homosexuality. (Rustin agreed to this omission.)
This book, then, should be seen as a work of advocacy as much as a straightforward narration of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. At the time of the Red Scare and of trenchant homophobia, King presents a slightly “sanitized” version of himself and his milieu, in order to further the cause of civil rights. One also suspects that King presents an overly rosy picture of the boycott’s success, as in reality the Supreme Court victory took years to translate into real integration. In short, this book is meant to inspire action.
This is not to say that the book is inaccurate. King still presents us with the essentials: a dramatic narrative of the bus boycott, as well as his own philosophy of nonviolence. Considering both the importance of the man and the event, this book is a rewarding read. It is especially valuable because it takes us into the hardships and the danger faced by the protesters.
King (or at least the sanitized version) is sometimes held up as an example of an “acceptable” protester by those hoping to discredit current-day movements, as if King had always been considered a hero. But as this book makes clear, in his own day King was anything but a hero to the white community. The boycott was designed to be disruptive, and it was. The protesters faced inconvenience, harassment, arrest, death threats, and real violence. King often—and eerily—contemplates the possibility of his own murder. Genuine protest, in other words, is never “acceptable.” As King repeatedly makes clear, non-violence is a philosophy of radical change, not of polite respectability.
January 20, 2025
Martin Luther King's Stride Toward Freedom
April 4, 2018, marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With the annual January holiday dedicated to his memory together with the commemoration of his death, King is receiving a great deal of attention this year. Among new books examining King is an anthology "To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr" (2018), (edited by Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry) in which philosophers concentrate on King's books and other writings to try to understand the nature of King's political thought. The book is far from exhaustive, and, even so, shows many different perspectives.
These considerations, particularly reading the new anthology, made me want to read or revisit King's books to try to look for myself more closely at King's thinking. I began with King's first book "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story", originally published in 1958 and reissued in 2010 as part of a collection of King's writings called "The King Legacy". This book tells the story of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. A young King became the leader of this movement, and it catapulted him quickly to national and international attention and to a leadership role in the civil rights movement.
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, under Montgomery's segregation ordinance. She was arrested and fined. Parks' arrest and conviction set the stage for the Montgomery bus boycott. King, a young minister who had been in Montgomery for about a year was chosen to lead the boycott. After a difficult boycott of over a year, the Montgomery buses were desegregated. There is still disagreement about whether the boycott or a decision of the Supreme Court invalidating segregation on the buses, was primarily responsible for the result. Undoubtedly both were important.
King's book is written crisply and passionately and tells the story of the boycott. He examines racial relations in Montgomery just before the boycott, Rosa Parks' action in refusing to give up her seat, the organization of the African American community, attempts at negotiation with the city, and the violence that erupted during the boycott and thereafter. The history has subsequently been told many times in greater detail than King provides. (Some critics find that King underplayed the role of women in the Montgomery bus boycott.) King's account remains invaluable as his own-first hand story.
The book includes much more than a history of the boycott. It gives a good deal of autobiographical information, including King's own understanding of his intellectual development and his commitment to civil rights and the philosophy of non-violence. King discusses books he read and authors he found important during his years in college and in the seminary. Among many other writers, he has important things to say about Thoreau, about the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and about the philosophy of personalism or personal idealism. Of the latter, King writes:
"I studied personalistic philosophy -- the theory that the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. This personal idealism remains today my basic philosophical position. Personalism's insistence that only personality -- finite and infinite -- is ultimately real strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality."
King further explains how relatively late in his studies he came in contact with the work of Gandhi and non-violence. King explains the importance he placed on non-violence and on peaceful resistance as opposed to violence and hatred. Much of King's history of the boycott revolves around his efforts to keep the protests and the boycott peaceful in the face of violence and threats. King's home, and the homes of other civil rights leaders, were bombed during the course of the boycott, and King and other leaders of the movement were arrested, briefly jailed, and tried and convicted of crimes.
Autobiographical, philosophical, and historical elements are combined in King's history of the Montgomery boycott. In the final lengthy chapter of the book, "Where do we go from here?" King puts the rising civil rights movement in a historical perspective. He talks about factors that gave the civil rights movement an impetus following WW II and of the resistance by segregationists. King adopts an exhortatory tone which tries to unite various groups, including northern liberals, well-meaning southerners, trade unions, people of faith, and African Americans themselves into a commitment to non-violent pursuit of a society based upon racial equality. In an age of secularism, King's own thinking was predominantly religious and Christian.
This book helped me in my understanding of King, his philosophical and religious thought, and the civil rights movement. It is worthwhile, fifty years after his death, with so much written and said, to approach King by reading his own words.
Robin Friedman
April 4, 2018, marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With the annual January holiday dedicated to his memory together with the commemoration of his death, King is receiving a great deal of attention this year. Among new books examining King is an anthology "To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr" (2018), (edited by Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry) in which philosophers concentrate on King's books and other writings to try to understand the nature of King's political thought. The book is far from exhaustive, and, even so, shows many different perspectives.
These considerations, particularly reading the new anthology, made me want to read or revisit King's books to try to look for myself more closely at King's thinking. I began with King's first book "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story", originally published in 1958 and reissued in 2010 as part of a collection of King's writings called "The King Legacy". This book tells the story of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. A young King became the leader of this movement, and it catapulted him quickly to national and international attention and to a leadership role in the civil rights movement.
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, under Montgomery's segregation ordinance. She was arrested and fined. Parks' arrest and conviction set the stage for the Montgomery bus boycott. King, a young minister who had been in Montgomery for about a year was chosen to lead the boycott. After a difficult boycott of over a year, the Montgomery buses were desegregated. There is still disagreement about whether the boycott or a decision of the Supreme Court invalidating segregation on the buses, was primarily responsible for the result. Undoubtedly both were important.
King's book is written crisply and passionately and tells the story of the boycott. He examines racial relations in Montgomery just before the boycott, Rosa Parks' action in refusing to give up her seat, the organization of the African American community, attempts at negotiation with the city, and the violence that erupted during the boycott and thereafter. The history has subsequently been told many times in greater detail than King provides. (Some critics find that King underplayed the role of women in the Montgomery bus boycott.) King's account remains invaluable as his own-first hand story.
The book includes much more than a history of the boycott. It gives a good deal of autobiographical information, including King's own understanding of his intellectual development and his commitment to civil rights and the philosophy of non-violence. King discusses books he read and authors he found important during his years in college and in the seminary. Among many other writers, he has important things to say about Thoreau, about the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and about the philosophy of personalism or personal idealism. Of the latter, King writes:
"I studied personalistic philosophy -- the theory that the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality is found in personality. This personal idealism remains today my basic philosophical position. Personalism's insistence that only personality -- finite and infinite -- is ultimately real strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality."
King further explains how relatively late in his studies he came in contact with the work of Gandhi and non-violence. King explains the importance he placed on non-violence and on peaceful resistance as opposed to violence and hatred. Much of King's history of the boycott revolves around his efforts to keep the protests and the boycott peaceful in the face of violence and threats. King's home, and the homes of other civil rights leaders, were bombed during the course of the boycott, and King and other leaders of the movement were arrested, briefly jailed, and tried and convicted of crimes.
Autobiographical, philosophical, and historical elements are combined in King's history of the Montgomery boycott. In the final lengthy chapter of the book, "Where do we go from here?" King puts the rising civil rights movement in a historical perspective. He talks about factors that gave the civil rights movement an impetus following WW II and of the resistance by segregationists. King adopts an exhortatory tone which tries to unite various groups, including northern liberals, well-meaning southerners, trade unions, people of faith, and African Americans themselves into a commitment to non-violent pursuit of a society based upon racial equality. In an age of secularism, King's own thinking was predominantly religious and Christian.
This book helped me in my understanding of King, his philosophical and religious thought, and the civil rights movement. It is worthwhile, fifty years after his death, with so much written and said, to approach King by reading his own words.
Robin Friedman
February 24, 2016
Lately many politicians have been preaching the politics of fear and hate. It may be time to have a look back and remember what history should have taught us. Hate begets hate, violence begets violence...
February 2, 2017
You know, I never read this before! The autobiographical account of the Montgomery bus boycott story. MLK's writing is really lovely so it is a literary treat and not just an account of a passive resistant movement that worked. Reading it - plus The Autobiography of Malcolm X - also led me into reading comparative thoughts about MLK and Malcolm X.
September 10, 2020
While this first of Martin Luther King’s books primarily deals with the details of the Montgomery bus boycott, which he helped lead and later thrust him into the national spotlight, it also has a variety of instantly recognizable themes that would be a feature of King’s public life. From economic inequality, systemic racism, love and compassion for your oppressor while never passively accepting oppression, this book is an early marker of the man King would become over the rest of his all too short life.
There were so many passages here that if you substituted the words “bus boycott” for “police brutality”, you would feel as if this book was written in 2020 instead of the 1950’s. It’s a sobering fact in that for as far as we have come as a nation (and we shouldn’t lose sight of that despite the progress that remains to be made) we seem to have so far to go. That I nod my head in acknowledgement when King in 1955 writes that Black Americans fo not feel safe in a society that seeks to deny their very humanity, or that organized religion remains by and large silent on matters of racial injustice, seems to me, infinitely sad. I relate to everything King writes here because it is still very much a part of the world I live in now.
The only quibble I have with this book, and it is a minor one, is that King is not entirely truthful about the origins of the bus boycott. He mentions the teenager who refused to relinquish her seat months before Rosa Parks did, but omits the fact that civil rights workers and the NCAAP at the time considered her unfit to be the test case for overturning segregated busing due to her being pregnant at the time.
King further denies that Rosa Parks was anything but a tired woman who simply didn’t want to stand up.
History unfortunately tells us that this isn’t exactly true. Parks was quite active in the NCAAP at the time and records seem to indicate that she was seen as a good person to put forward in a legal case going forward. There is nothing wrong with Parks being active in civil rights at the time, and it is quite likely that she was in fact tired when she got on the bus that day. One imagines most black Americans at that time were mentally and physically exhausted living in such a society.
At the risk of making excuses however, perhaps King was sensitive to the charges that he was an “agitator” and that his movement was not always completely organic, so he felt the need to obscure its origins.
I also was a little troubled by the role of women in the movement. While some women certainly seemed to have positions of influence, King frequently cites as the most important role women play, including his wife, as keeping a good home and raising children.
Yes it was the 1950s and King was a Baptist minister. These are two things that didn’t exactly lend themselves to the broadest views of gender equality. While I didn’t enjoy from the perspective of 2020 reading King describe women as he did, it doesn’t detract from the overall importance of the themes of this book and the remarkable accomplishment he achieved.
January 21, 2019
This was fascinating. The Civil Rights Movement generally gets only a few pages in one's history book, which means the Montgomery bus boycott is reduced to a sentence or two. Hearing a detailed account of the logistics and all of the challenges along the way made me better appreciate what an undertaking it was. It's amazing that MLK Jr. survived the entire year of the boycott — he received constant death threats, his house was bombed once (and there was a failed second attempt), and he genuinely had to decide whether he was foolishly putting himself and his family in danger by continuing to be involved. Every aspect of their planning was challenged legally, from the willingness of the black taxi drivers to take the same fare as the buses (they were required to take a higher minimum fare), to the "unauthorized" carpools organized in support of the boycott, to the legality of the boycott itself under an existing anti-boycott law.
What's maybe most interesting to me is that the boycott ended not because it was hurting the bus company financially to the point that they agreed to integrate the buses, but because the organizers of the boycott also filed a lawsuit that eventually led to bus segregation being ruled unconstitutional. This raises the question of whether the year-long boycott with all of its challenges was, in the long run, actually necessary. That is probably a question for another book, but I couldn't help but wonder that once I learned how things actually shook out in the end.
I also didn't know that the organizers of the boycott never asked for fully integrated buses; instead, they asked that whites fill available seats starting from the front and "Negros" from the back until all seats were taken. This would have been an improvement over the current system, where there were strictly delineated sections so that black passengers sometimes had to stand over empty seats in the "white" section. However, the bus company refused this seemingly minor change, with the end result that they were eventually forced to fully integrate the buses by the court decision.
Of course, this book is not just a history of the boycott, though those were the parts I found most interesting. It's also a treatise on non-violence, carefully folded into a message intended to make the author and his fellow organizers seem as sympathetic as possible to whites and others outside the region. King lays out why he thinks non-violence is the not only the most effective way to create change but also the only correct moral path for Christians. Most of his explanations are couched in Christian language, I think both because of his background as a minister and because he judged that appealing to his fellow Christians through their faith would be the most effective way to bring them to his side. Even if King was careful about which facts he included and which he excluded to cast himself and others in the most favorite light possible, I still found his arguments about non-violence to be compelling.
There are definitely times where the line between promoting non-violence and promoting respectability politics is very blurry, and I do not feel qualified as an outsider to the black community to determine what falls on which side. (There is a section at the end, though, that pretty clearly veers into respectability politics, asking black people to practice good hygiene and not be too loud and boisterous so as not to be viewed poorly by whites.) King's views on women are also very indicative of the times when he says that women's working to support their family "does violence against motherhood" or some such thing. That didn't necessarily take away from the book for me because, hey, it's 1957, but just be aware going in that there's a whole section at the end that stretches far beyond King's beliefs on non-violence in relation to civil rights.
Many of King's most famous quotations are in this book. (Perhaps they show up elsewhere too, but there were a lot of them here.) It's not a terribly long read, and it provides valuable context for a part of history that is just a blip in our education for most of us, so I definitely recommend the read. I particularly liked the audiobook narrator, who did his best to emulate King's voice so that you feel like he is speaking to you himself, which was very powerful.
What's maybe most interesting to me is that the boycott ended not because it was hurting the bus company financially to the point that they agreed to integrate the buses, but because the organizers of the boycott also filed a lawsuit that eventually led to bus segregation being ruled unconstitutional. This raises the question of whether the year-long boycott with all of its challenges was, in the long run, actually necessary. That is probably a question for another book, but I couldn't help but wonder that once I learned how things actually shook out in the end.
I also didn't know that the organizers of the boycott never asked for fully integrated buses; instead, they asked that whites fill available seats starting from the front and "Negros" from the back until all seats were taken. This would have been an improvement over the current system, where there were strictly delineated sections so that black passengers sometimes had to stand over empty seats in the "white" section. However, the bus company refused this seemingly minor change, with the end result that they were eventually forced to fully integrate the buses by the court decision.
Of course, this book is not just a history of the boycott, though those were the parts I found most interesting. It's also a treatise on non-violence, carefully folded into a message intended to make the author and his fellow organizers seem as sympathetic as possible to whites and others outside the region. King lays out why he thinks non-violence is the not only the most effective way to create change but also the only correct moral path for Christians. Most of his explanations are couched in Christian language, I think both because of his background as a minister and because he judged that appealing to his fellow Christians through their faith would be the most effective way to bring them to his side. Even if King was careful about which facts he included and which he excluded to cast himself and others in the most favorite light possible, I still found his arguments about non-violence to be compelling.
There are definitely times where the line between promoting non-violence and promoting respectability politics is very blurry, and I do not feel qualified as an outsider to the black community to determine what falls on which side. (There is a section at the end, though, that pretty clearly veers into respectability politics, asking black people to practice good hygiene and not be too loud and boisterous so as not to be viewed poorly by whites.) King's views on women are also very indicative of the times when he says that women's working to support their family "does violence against motherhood" or some such thing. That didn't necessarily take away from the book for me because, hey, it's 1957, but just be aware going in that there's a whole section at the end that stretches far beyond King's beliefs on non-violence in relation to civil rights.
Many of King's most famous quotations are in this book. (Perhaps they show up elsewhere too, but there were a lot of them here.) It's not a terribly long read, and it provides valuable context for a part of history that is just a blip in our education for most of us, so I definitely recommend the read. I particularly liked the audiobook narrator, who did his best to emulate King's voice so that you feel like he is speaking to you himself, which was very powerful.
January 20, 2019
I cannot adequately summarize--let alone "review"--this book. But I highly recommend it.
January 16, 2023
This is book 1 in the King Legacy Series. A combination of Dr. Martin Luther King’s writing, speeches, and sermons with additional thoughts from scholars and activists.
Like many, most of my knowledge about Dr. King came from small unit studies during school. While I have gradually learned more over the years, I realize that the information so far has been superficial at best and lacking most of the context needed to appreciate the short quotes posted to the net each year near January 15th.
I think the first thing that struck me is that when the year-long Montgomery bus boycotts started, Dr. King was only 26 years old. While this seemed ancient to 9 year-old me in 4th grade history, as someone who is now closer to 50 – it fills me with great awe. Next would be… *year long*. While it’s impossible for traditional education to fully cover every moment in history, the “bites” we get the 3 times US History is covered, sometimes do it a gross disservice.
Dr. King’s approach in this book is a mixture of historical (the events/situations/culture leading up to the protests), autobiographical, “current” events (this was penned merely 2 years after the boycott ended), sermon, and hope for the future. I was impressed with King’s breadth of reading, experiences, perspectives and faith. I appreciated his ability to closely examine both short term and long term goals for the Black community, Montgomery, the nation as a whole, and those who wished to be allies in the struggle for integration.
I believe that his wisdom reaches beyond the decades since these events and appreciate feeling challenged by his words and approach. I won’t be waiting until next January to listen to more of the series.
Narration:
I own both the ebook & audiobook versions of this. I think they’re both excellent. There are some photographs included in the ebook that, while they can be found easily on the net, paired with the text offer specific historical context. On the other hand JD Jackson’s narration is impeccable. I can’t imagine what an undertaking it is to bring the writings of such an important figure, one who was known as a great orator himself, to life. In my humble opinion, Jackson does Dr. King’s words, emotions, and personality justice. I’m happy he’s at the helm for other books in the series.
Like many, most of my knowledge about Dr. King came from small unit studies during school. While I have gradually learned more over the years, I realize that the information so far has been superficial at best and lacking most of the context needed to appreciate the short quotes posted to the net each year near January 15th.
I think the first thing that struck me is that when the year-long Montgomery bus boycotts started, Dr. King was only 26 years old. While this seemed ancient to 9 year-old me in 4th grade history, as someone who is now closer to 50 – it fills me with great awe. Next would be… *year long*. While it’s impossible for traditional education to fully cover every moment in history, the “bites” we get the 3 times US History is covered, sometimes do it a gross disservice.
Dr. King’s approach in this book is a mixture of historical (the events/situations/culture leading up to the protests), autobiographical, “current” events (this was penned merely 2 years after the boycott ended), sermon, and hope for the future. I was impressed with King’s breadth of reading, experiences, perspectives and faith. I appreciated his ability to closely examine both short term and long term goals for the Black community, Montgomery, the nation as a whole, and those who wished to be allies in the struggle for integration.
I believe that his wisdom reaches beyond the decades since these events and appreciate feeling challenged by his words and approach. I won’t be waiting until next January to listen to more of the series.
Narration:
I own both the ebook & audiobook versions of this. I think they’re both excellent. There are some photographs included in the ebook that, while they can be found easily on the net, paired with the text offer specific historical context. On the other hand JD Jackson’s narration is impeccable. I can’t imagine what an undertaking it is to bring the writings of such an important figure, one who was known as a great orator himself, to life. In my humble opinion, Jackson does Dr. King’s words, emotions, and personality justice. I’m happy he’s at the helm for other books in the series.
August 11, 2025
Stride Toward Freedom is Martin Luther King Jr.’s detailed account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, offering both a chronological history of events and his reflections on leadership, strategy, and nonviolent resistance. Written in 1958, it provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the planning, challenges, and moral convictions that shaped one of the most significant movements of the Civil Rights era. While I’ve read many of King’s speeches and shorter works, this was my first time reading one of his full-length books. I was engrossed by the perspective he offers—one that only he could provide. I read this while traveling in Arkansas and simultaneously reading about the Little Rock Nine, and in both cases, history has often been condensed into a tidy narrative: a happy ending to a relatively short struggle. King’s account disrupts that notion, offering a more authentic portrayal of the event and its long-lasting challenges. Having previously read historian accounts that emphasize the central role of Black women, as well as primary sources from Rosa Parks and JoAnn Robinson, I found it illuminating to place King’s own words alongside those narratives. True to his legacy, his writing is powerful, thought-provoking, and deeply moving, leaving a lasting impression.
Recommended for: Readers interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, or leadership rooted in moral conviction.
Recommended for: Readers interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, or leadership rooted in moral conviction.
February 13, 2014
The excellence of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writing--his vocabulary, the cadence, the way he exposes injustice after injustice without ever ranting angrily--makes this book a delight to read.
Rosa Parks was not sitting at the front of the bus at the time of her arrest. She was in the black section but was expected to get up and stand when a white man stepped onto the bus and found the white section full. At that time, black people had to step onto the bus through the front door to pay their dimes, and then walk around outside to the back door. It was not unheard of for the bus driver to forget about the person walking to the back door and take off before he or she made it into the bus.
On the first day of the boycott, MLK and his wife excitedly looked out their window to the bus stop and were overjoyed to see no blacks on the first three buses of the day. Throughout Montgomery, black people congregated at bus stops to cheer whenever they saw empty buses go by.
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was the organization of black community leaders that was hastily established to manage the boycott, had three demands: (1) courteous treatment by bus operators, (2) both blacks and whites to be served on a first-come, first-served basis, with whites filling seats starting at the front and blacks filling seats starting at the back (!!!), and (3) that black bus drivers be assigned to bus routes in black neighborhoods.
Bus riders were 75 percent black.
City officials put together their own committee to work out a solution to the boycott and invited MIA representatives to take part. The committee was mostly made up of staunch segregationists who felt the boycott was illegal and unjustified, and just wanted the blacks to back down. After MLK became (justifiably) angry during a committee meeting, he called a white representative to apologize.
There were a few black-owned taxi services in Montgomery. At the start of the boycott, the black taxi companies agreed to lower their fares and charge just 10 cents per ride (matching the bus fare). The police commissioner put a stop to that, telling the taxi companies that lowering the fares was illegal. Then the MIA put together a network of volunteer drivers. The pickups for domestic workers in white residential neighborhoods were initially hard to plan, since no one was familiar with driving through those neighborhoods.
Negro drivers in the car pool were stopped by police to verify their licences, insurance and place of work. Some were ticketed for imaginary traffic violations. Insurance carriers canceled the black drivers' coverage (but they got new policies through Lloyd's of London).
MLK was tailed by a cop on a motorcycle while driving a car full of boycotters. As soon as his passengers exited, he was arrested on the charge of driving 5 miles over the limit and spent the night in jail.
In spite of his arrests, having his house bombed twice, and being disappointed time after time by unfair actions from city representatives and the judicial system, MLK always urged people to remain peaceful. He didn't advocate passivity, but demonstrating through love that their cause was just in order to change opponents' minds and hearts. That loving nonviolence is expressed in the MIA's document "Integrated Bus Suggestions," which advised blacks on how to behave on newly-integrated buses. An equally astonishing historical document is the city commissioner's statement following the court-ordered end of bus segregation: "The City Commission, and we know our people are with us in this determination, will not yield one inch, but will do all in its power to oppose the integration of the Negro race with the white race in Montgomery, and will forever stand like a rock against social equality, inter-marriage, and mixing of the races under God's creation and plan."
Rosa Parks was not sitting at the front of the bus at the time of her arrest. She was in the black section but was expected to get up and stand when a white man stepped onto the bus and found the white section full. At that time, black people had to step onto the bus through the front door to pay their dimes, and then walk around outside to the back door. It was not unheard of for the bus driver to forget about the person walking to the back door and take off before he or she made it into the bus.
On the first day of the boycott, MLK and his wife excitedly looked out their window to the bus stop and were overjoyed to see no blacks on the first three buses of the day. Throughout Montgomery, black people congregated at bus stops to cheer whenever they saw empty buses go by.
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was the organization of black community leaders that was hastily established to manage the boycott, had three demands: (1) courteous treatment by bus operators, (2) both blacks and whites to be served on a first-come, first-served basis, with whites filling seats starting at the front and blacks filling seats starting at the back (!!!), and (3) that black bus drivers be assigned to bus routes in black neighborhoods.
Bus riders were 75 percent black.
City officials put together their own committee to work out a solution to the boycott and invited MIA representatives to take part. The committee was mostly made up of staunch segregationists who felt the boycott was illegal and unjustified, and just wanted the blacks to back down. After MLK became (justifiably) angry during a committee meeting, he called a white representative to apologize.
There were a few black-owned taxi services in Montgomery. At the start of the boycott, the black taxi companies agreed to lower their fares and charge just 10 cents per ride (matching the bus fare). The police commissioner put a stop to that, telling the taxi companies that lowering the fares was illegal. Then the MIA put together a network of volunteer drivers. The pickups for domestic workers in white residential neighborhoods were initially hard to plan, since no one was familiar with driving through those neighborhoods.
Negro drivers in the car pool were stopped by police to verify their licences, insurance and place of work. Some were ticketed for imaginary traffic violations. Insurance carriers canceled the black drivers' coverage (but they got new policies through Lloyd's of London).
MLK was tailed by a cop on a motorcycle while driving a car full of boycotters. As soon as his passengers exited, he was arrested on the charge of driving 5 miles over the limit and spent the night in jail.
In spite of his arrests, having his house bombed twice, and being disappointed time after time by unfair actions from city representatives and the judicial system, MLK always urged people to remain peaceful. He didn't advocate passivity, but demonstrating through love that their cause was just in order to change opponents' minds and hearts. That loving nonviolence is expressed in the MIA's document "Integrated Bus Suggestions," which advised blacks on how to behave on newly-integrated buses. An equally astonishing historical document is the city commissioner's statement following the court-ordered end of bus segregation: "The City Commission, and we know our people are with us in this determination, will not yield one inch, but will do all in its power to oppose the integration of the Negro race with the white race in Montgomery, and will forever stand like a rock against social equality, inter-marriage, and mixing of the races under God's creation and plan."
July 6, 2019
A powerful and eloquent witness showing how self-sacrificing love can change hearts filled with hate. It’s worth buying the book just to read the chapter, “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence” (which is also reprinted in “Radical King”) explaining how MLK came to believe in the theory of nonviolent resistance.
The list of books that should be required reading for students keeps getting longer...
The list of books that should be required reading for students keeps getting longer...
November 9, 2015
This book gave me a good overview of the Montgomery bus boycott and a solid introduction to the basic concepts of nonviolent resistance. I especially enjoyed the bits where King talked about his philosophical and theological influences. It was clearly written and very accessible.
January 11, 2022
Today, in all too many northern communities, a sort of quasi-liberalism prevails, so bent on seeing all sides that it fails to become dedicated to any side. It is so objectively analytical that it is not subjectively committed. A true liberal will not be deterred by the propaganda and subtle words of those who say, “Slow up for a while. You are pushing things too fast.”
Dr. King's account of the Montgomery bus boycott: how it started, the people involved, how he got involved, and the tactics and types of resistance they used, his thoughts on race and racism in America in the 1950s, his brand of pacifism and how it developed. My first book by him, and I really liked it; it made me more emotional than I expected, especially when he talks frankly and sanguinely about the possibility of his death. I also appreciated the introduction by Clayborne Carson, which lets you know right off the bat about some of the limits of King's POV and some things he might have omitted and why. I don't think I need to get into his philosophy because, I mean, it's widely enough known. And I respect it so much and agree with him (to a point). The strides he made with non-violent protest are amazing. I really liked this for some of the simple minutiae that it provided about the lives of black people in that era, what they did to survive and thrive and keep their dignity in a world that very literally hated them.
There's some stuff about capitalism and communism that made me go 'uh... sure', but I guess I can't be surprised, it was the 50s. It definitely tells its age with some of the mores that he held. I really didn't care for the bit in the last chapter where he gives advice to fellow black people (about the ways they could do better) because most of it was so trivial and seemed to cater directly to white people and what they might have wanted to hear. Kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
Listened to the audiobook by JD Jackson, who thankfully didn't try to emulate or imitate Dr. King, but gave a great performance nonetheless. This was really good! A piece of non-fiction that I'm really happy to have finally read.
True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice.
August 22, 2020
I wish every American in 2020 would read this book.
King knows the evil of racism, calls on each of us to do more, and also rejects the hate and violence that can come with either side’s frustrations.
His foundations are profoundly inspiring and his heart and compassion for others are deeply needed today.
The more I read in this book, the more I’m inspired. King’s impact on history and his place in the pantheon of great Americans is properly celebrated by reading his story and admonitions.
King knows the evil of racism, calls on each of us to do more, and also rejects the hate and violence that can come with either side’s frustrations.
His foundations are profoundly inspiring and his heart and compassion for others are deeply needed today.
The more I read in this book, the more I’m inspired. King’s impact on history and his place in the pantheon of great Americans is properly celebrated by reading his story and admonitions.
December 12, 2021
Very good book. Would give 10 stars if I could. A great read for those interested in noncooperation movements and campaigns, and moral nonviolence. Relevant today to the ongoing struggle to make real multiracial democracy in America.
January 24, 2019
4.5 stars (liked a lot)
I picked up the Audible audio version of this book when it was on sale on M.L.K. Day and am really glad I did. I thought it was an exceptionally well-written and well-narrated account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the concept of non-violence in the struggle for civil rights. Although I was already familiar with the Boycott, this book provided a more complete picture from MLK's viewpoint. In clear and concise detail, he reviews the planning and implementation as well as describes the attitudes and techniques of the opposition. He additionally explains how religion and intellectual thinkers, such as Gandhi and Thoreau, shaped his perspective regarding resistance for social justice. The principles of non-violence he employed were effective then and, likewise, have universal and modern-day applications. Overall, the book is a compelling view of the event, the place it holds in history, and his integral role. What impressed me most was his conscientious and resilient character, his strategic interpersonal skills, his command of the inter-connected issues, and his ability to craft language into messaging that is inspiring and powerful. He was truly one of a kind.
I picked up the Audible audio version of this book when it was on sale on M.L.K. Day and am really glad I did. I thought it was an exceptionally well-written and well-narrated account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the concept of non-violence in the struggle for civil rights. Although I was already familiar with the Boycott, this book provided a more complete picture from MLK's viewpoint. In clear and concise detail, he reviews the planning and implementation as well as describes the attitudes and techniques of the opposition. He additionally explains how religion and intellectual thinkers, such as Gandhi and Thoreau, shaped his perspective regarding resistance for social justice. The principles of non-violence he employed were effective then and, likewise, have universal and modern-day applications. Overall, the book is a compelling view of the event, the place it holds in history, and his integral role. What impressed me most was his conscientious and resilient character, his strategic interpersonal skills, his command of the inter-connected issues, and his ability to craft language into messaging that is inspiring and powerful. He was truly one of a kind.
February 9, 2022
Incredibly powerful account of King’s experience as a pastor and activist during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and a great deal of challenging content, particularly regarding capitalism and non-violence. I often find that the most quoted sayings of his tend to sugar coat his opinions, particularly regarding theology, and it was refreshing to gain some more detailed insight into his own beliefs.
It was somewhat disappointing to see so little mention of Bayard Rustin and of the many Black women involved in this movement, especially Coretta Scott King. Although they are acknowledged, there is the sense that the book is of its time and is therefore aiming to be palatable in order that it might communicate the cause of racial equality more effectively to its contemporary audience. There is no doubt that the anti-communist rhetoric, homophobia and misogyny placed restrictions on what was deemed appropriate to include, and this is perhaps most evident in King’s denunciation of communism. Nevertheless, there is far more good and powerful in this book than not, and I feel especially grateful to have been able to know just a little of what this gruelling struggle for equal rights was like for those who were elected as its representatives.
It was somewhat disappointing to see so little mention of Bayard Rustin and of the many Black women involved in this movement, especially Coretta Scott King. Although they are acknowledged, there is the sense that the book is of its time and is therefore aiming to be palatable in order that it might communicate the cause of racial equality more effectively to its contemporary audience. There is no doubt that the anti-communist rhetoric, homophobia and misogyny placed restrictions on what was deemed appropriate to include, and this is perhaps most evident in King’s denunciation of communism. Nevertheless, there is far more good and powerful in this book than not, and I feel especially grateful to have been able to know just a little of what this gruelling struggle for equal rights was like for those who were elected as its representatives.
April 15, 2019
The soulful words of wisdom will take the reader through the progression of the Civil Rights Movement, recognizing and acknowledging the strategies used to strive over the hurdles America came to grips with the real horrors of racism.
This is a powerful read especially for our current time to learn the struggle for equality in America is continuously an evolution forged in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
This is a powerful read especially for our current time to learn the struggle for equality in America is continuously an evolution forged in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
January 8, 2024
A Masterpiece that every American should read, especially now.
March 6, 2023
There is one aspect of this book that I would like to comment about. All of it is marvelous, but this one aspect of it might easily be taken in without much consideration. Here is a summary of the timeline:
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on Montgomery’s Cleveland Avenue bus. And for this, she was arrested.
On Friday, December 2, E. D. Nixon, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. agreed that a bus boycott was the best response. The three men organized a meeting at King’s church that evening, and they invited religious and civic leaders to discuss the boycott. More than forty people attended. Despite the meeting’s lack of coherence, a committee was formed to draft and distribute leaflets to invite the entire community to a meeting about the boycott in the evening on December 5, with instructions not to ride the buses beginning the morning of 12/5/1955. The committee also decided to make arrangements for alternate means of transportation with the taxi companies.
On Saturday, December 3, 7,000 leaflets had been prepared and “by eleven o’clock an army of women and young people had taken them off to distribute by hand.” The media caught wind of this, and publicized the protest.
By December 4, all the taxi companies that were contacted had agreed to transport protesting passengers to and from work for ten cents, the ordinary bus fare, on December 5.
On the morning of Monday, December 5, 1955, the buses were empty. Instead, sidewalks were crowded with people who walked to and from work. That same morning, Rosa Parks was found guilty at trial for disobeying the bus ordinance, and fined her $10 plus court costs. Rosa Parks appealed the conviction. In the evening of December 5, a city-wide mass meeting took place.
To organize and execute all this within days is an incredible feat! It’s not enough to assume success up to this point was guaranteed. It is a mistake to overlook the fact that the masses, though motivated, are comprised of individuals, each possessing unique opinions. Even if peer pressure was a factor, it is an amazing achievement of leadership to have organized and executed so much in such a short time.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on Montgomery’s Cleveland Avenue bus. And for this, she was arrested.
On Friday, December 2, E. D. Nixon, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. agreed that a bus boycott was the best response. The three men organized a meeting at King’s church that evening, and they invited religious and civic leaders to discuss the boycott. More than forty people attended. Despite the meeting’s lack of coherence, a committee was formed to draft and distribute leaflets to invite the entire community to a meeting about the boycott in the evening on December 5, with instructions not to ride the buses beginning the morning of 12/5/1955. The committee also decided to make arrangements for alternate means of transportation with the taxi companies.
On Saturday, December 3, 7,000 leaflets had been prepared and “by eleven o’clock an army of women and young people had taken them off to distribute by hand.” The media caught wind of this, and publicized the protest.
By December 4, all the taxi companies that were contacted had agreed to transport protesting passengers to and from work for ten cents, the ordinary bus fare, on December 5.
On the morning of Monday, December 5, 1955, the buses were empty. Instead, sidewalks were crowded with people who walked to and from work. That same morning, Rosa Parks was found guilty at trial for disobeying the bus ordinance, and fined her $10 plus court costs. Rosa Parks appealed the conviction. In the evening of December 5, a city-wide mass meeting took place.
To organize and execute all this within days is an incredible feat! It’s not enough to assume success up to this point was guaranteed. It is a mistake to overlook the fact that the masses, though motivated, are comprised of individuals, each possessing unique opinions. Even if peer pressure was a factor, it is an amazing achievement of leadership to have organized and executed so much in such a short time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2020
Wow, I was not surprised by the amazing story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as much as I was about why and how the civil rights era begun with this one town and this one man. Martin Luther King’s ideas are as radical and neglected as they were 60 years ago and they hold the key to the civil rights movement. While this idea can be summed up in two words the length of its effects are still stretching into today: Nonviolence resistance.
MLK talks about how he arrived at this conclusion, mainly through a study of Jesus and Ghandi and is summarized with this amazing quote “I had come to see early that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available to the Negro in his struggle for freedom.”
I recommend this to anyone who is curious what Dr. King truly believed in and how he was so instrumental in the civil rights movement.
This book was personally inspiring as it taught me what real “agape” love is as king states that it is “loving other for their sake” and calls all of us to make the personal sacrifice to love those around us before they love us back and in disregard of their hate for us. This is the only true way to convert the situation into real relationship as the oppressor eventually becomes shameful that his oppressing is wrong and changes his feelings.
Just a random tidbit: King states multiple times how he was so close to being overtaken by anger and hate for “the white man” and these were the times in which he experienced the most what sacrificing and loving others first means. For every person to look in the mirror and see this in himself, was the key behind any success at peace and justice for all people 60 years ago and that still remains true today.
MLK talks about how he arrived at this conclusion, mainly through a study of Jesus and Ghandi and is summarized with this amazing quote “I had come to see early that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available to the Negro in his struggle for freedom.”
I recommend this to anyone who is curious what Dr. King truly believed in and how he was so instrumental in the civil rights movement.
This book was personally inspiring as it taught me what real “agape” love is as king states that it is “loving other for their sake” and calls all of us to make the personal sacrifice to love those around us before they love us back and in disregard of their hate for us. This is the only true way to convert the situation into real relationship as the oppressor eventually becomes shameful that his oppressing is wrong and changes his feelings.
Just a random tidbit: King states multiple times how he was so close to being overtaken by anger and hate for “the white man” and these were the times in which he experienced the most what sacrificing and loving others first means. For every person to look in the mirror and see this in himself, was the key behind any success at peace and justice for all people 60 years ago and that still remains true today.
March 8, 2020
An exceptional account of what community and solidarity is when acted out in real life in an American struggle that has ongoing for centuries. It is also an honest personal account of feeling fear, nearly giving up, of deep crisis and of great success - it much more than a historical account.
The depth and foresight of King jr. are illustrated by a quote from the book that points directly into our current world situation of non-sustainable neoliberalist capitalism - and mind you this was experienced in the mid-50s and written in 1958.
”Although modern American capitalism had greatly reduced the gap through social reforms, there was still need for a better distribution of wealth. Moreover, Marx had revealed the danger of the profit motive as the sole basis of an economic system: capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity—thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism.” P.82.
I read the Danish translation from 1964 bought as a decommissioned book from a local library. In addition, I found the US edition in PDF available online.
I recommend the original as the Danish edition does not have the introduction (17p) by Clayborne Carson.
The depth and foresight of King jr. are illustrated by a quote from the book that points directly into our current world situation of non-sustainable neoliberalist capitalism - and mind you this was experienced in the mid-50s and written in 1958.
”Although modern American capitalism had greatly reduced the gap through social reforms, there was still need for a better distribution of wealth. Moreover, Marx had revealed the danger of the profit motive as the sole basis of an economic system: capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity—thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism.” P.82.
I read the Danish translation from 1964 bought as a decommissioned book from a local library. In addition, I found the US edition in PDF available online.
I recommend the original as the Danish edition does not have the introduction (17p) by Clayborne Carson.
June 13, 2025
King's personal account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott discusses most aspects of the movement that you could want to read, from the philosophy behind the use of nonviolence to the nuts and bolts of organising ride-shares as a replacement service.
It is written with admirable clarity and is well paced, although it is not a long book besides.
Although the events were long ago, the lawless violence which the boycotters faced and the restraint they showed in return was astonishing. King doesn't need to use emotive rhetoric to give the reader emotional highs and lows, simply recounting what happened plainly does that.
It would be a piety to say that things are too similar today from then. What is interesting to me are the dissimilarities, in particular the role of the churches as moral and political leadership (the appendix lists the members of the various committees formed at this time, many of them enjoying a 'Rev.' before their names). In our Internet-centric mass culture, I think this is lost. As for lessons, I think the sheer difficulty and granularity of the sustained campaign is what should be brought away. This is not a romantic book: it is about hard graft, intelligence, discipline, and facing the possibility (even probability) of death.
It is written with admirable clarity and is well paced, although it is not a long book besides.
Although the events were long ago, the lawless violence which the boycotters faced and the restraint they showed in return was astonishing. King doesn't need to use emotive rhetoric to give the reader emotional highs and lows, simply recounting what happened plainly does that.
It would be a piety to say that things are too similar today from then. What is interesting to me are the dissimilarities, in particular the role of the churches as moral and political leadership (the appendix lists the members of the various committees formed at this time, many of them enjoying a 'Rev.' before their names). In our Internet-centric mass culture, I think this is lost. As for lessons, I think the sheer difficulty and granularity of the sustained campaign is what should be brought away. This is not a romantic book: it is about hard graft, intelligence, discipline, and facing the possibility (even probability) of death.
August 26, 2017
This audible book was recorded just recently although the original book was published in 1958 about the 1955–56 events in Montgomery Alabama. The book is predominantly about the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the Supreme Court decision ruling that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. More importantly I thought the book covered the beginning of the career of Martin Luther King Junior and his determined commitment to nonviolence. The narration of the Montgomery events were presented in a very readable fashion. I thought the last chapter (Approximately one hour) was less lucid and a more complex thought piece as he reflected on the events after the story was over. As a person who identifies as a pacifist I enjoyed reading about how King approached nonviolence in his first real world application and how he tried to apply it in circumstances that involved an entire community of people. His reporting of the circumstances indicates that he felt it was respected and implemented by the majority of the oppressed black community. This in spite of bombings of several churches and homes of leaders.
February 18, 2017
Another enthralling and inspiring book from MLK! Some of the highlights here are passages enumerating why he adheres to a philosophy of nonviolence and how to carry it out, paragraphs critiquing the "white moderate" as perhaps the most frustrating element of racial injustice (that certainly hasn't changed) and the overarching narrative dedicated to telling the story of how the Montgomery bus project managed to transform a society. It's crazy to think how black people in the Civil Rights Era found the courage to keep pressing on given the amount of unfair imprisonments, threatening phone calls and bombings they endured. The injustice seeps through the pages. Additionally, King's thoughts on Christianity as both a personal AND social religion are among the most succinctly profound I've ever read. Every page conveys the man's great intelligence, oceanic compassion and all-encompassing humility. I'm a really cynical person but I finished this book ready to engage in social action, enlivened to pursue justice and compassion in every sphere of life and proud to call King a personal hero.
May 1, 2025
This was a lot more accessible in language, density of information and required historical background knowledge than I expected - however, I don’t know why I expected that I’m certainly aware of King’s way with words and talent to make things graspable and palatable to comprehend. A very emotional read, particularly the scenes he describes of joy and success in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of waking up every morning for months and months and seeing his people continuing to walk, to car-pool, to boycott - to resist. Reading about the hardships that were thrown the movement’s way at an untiring pace and frequency and persisting to remain strong in their nonviolent believes really does tend to put your own problems and worries into perspective.
A few chapters felt a little harder to comprehend when they were more grounded in the theoretical inspirations of King’s message rather than the recounting of events. The introduction also did a good job of situating some of the contents mentioned in the historical context and critically naming some of the silence’s in this historical artefact.
A few chapters felt a little harder to comprehend when they were more grounded in the theoretical inspirations of King’s message rather than the recounting of events. The introduction also did a good job of situating some of the contents mentioned in the historical context and critically naming some of the silence’s in this historical artefact.
January 22, 2025
An inspiring testament to what ordinary people can accomplish if they believe in the cause, act courageously, and never give up. Rev. King's account of his visionary role--and that of the unsung heroes--is must-read history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
This book is a spellbinding chronicle of the effort's struggles, opposition, and moments of near-defeat, ultimately culminating in heart-pounding triumph. Even more so, those who participated in this peaceful protest were victorious in spirit, as King relates, because they were were liberated from fear. King beautifully articulates how the movement was rooted in the Sermon on the Mount as a real, practical, political strategy: that of persistent, brave, self-giving love, which conquers violence, fear, and force.
Required reading for every American, and especially followers of Jesus.
This book is a spellbinding chronicle of the effort's struggles, opposition, and moments of near-defeat, ultimately culminating in heart-pounding triumph. Even more so, those who participated in this peaceful protest were victorious in spirit, as King relates, because they were were liberated from fear. King beautifully articulates how the movement was rooted in the Sermon on the Mount as a real, practical, political strategy: that of persistent, brave, self-giving love, which conquers violence, fear, and force.
Required reading for every American, and especially followers of Jesus.
September 25, 2020
A great book that includes not only the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but also some of Dr. King’s philosophy on nonviolent resistance and integration. It gives a helpful vision of what things were like in Montgomery during the protest. “Stride Toward Freedom” not only shows us what race relations were like 65 years ago in the south, but also helps us understand that today’s race relations didn’t come out of a vacuum.
January 4, 2018
It's sad that so much of what MLK wrote about is very appropriate for today. His words are so inspiring and forced me to look at my own feelings of retaliation when faced with oppression rather than focusing on healing. I loved his descriptions of non-violence as active not passive. "It's either non-violence or non-existence." I look forward to reading his other works.
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