Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In early 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., set out to write about the Montgomery bus boycott. 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.''
Released the next year, Stride Toward Freedom was lauded by the general public and literary critics, often labeled must reading. Unavailable for almost a decade, King's unparalleled historical account of the first successful large-scale application of nonviolent resistance in America is now must reading for a new generation of readers. In this revelatory work, King shares ideas of the thinkers, like Gandhi, who profoundly influenced him, and why.
About the Author
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (19291968), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and an architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was among the twentieth centurys most influential figures. An eloquent advocate of nonviolence, Dr. King is the author of several books, including
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? In addition to receiving degrees from Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, he was awarded more than two hundred honorary degrees by colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. One of the greatest orators in U.S. history, his speeches, sermons, and writings are inspirational and timeless. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
Clayborne Carson, the general editorial advisor to the King Legacy, is professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. He is also King Distinguished Professor at Morehouse College and executive director of that institutions King Collection. In 1985 he was invited by Coretta Scott King to direct a long-term project to edit and publish the definitive multivolume edition, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Carson has written or edited numerous books, including the award-winning In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Clayborne Carson
Preface
I Return to the South
II Montgomery Before the Protest
III The Decisive Arrest
IV The Day of Days, December 5
V The Movement Gathers Momentum
VI Pilgrimage to Nonviolence
VII Methods of the Opposition
VIII The Violence of Desperate Men
IX Desegregation at Last
X Montgomery Today
XI Where Do We Go from Here?
Appendix
Index