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.

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.

MLK's classic account of the first successful large-scale act of nonviolent resistance in America: the Montgomery bus boycott.

A young Dr. King wrote Stride Toward Freedom just 2 years after the successful completion of the boycott. In his memoir about the event, he tells the stories that informed his radical political thinking before, during, and after the boycott--from first witnessing economic injustice as a teenager and watching his parents experience discrimination to his decision to begin working with the NAACP. Throughout, he demonstrates how activism and leadership can come from any experience at any age.

Comprehensive and intimate, Stride Toward Freedom emphasizes the collective nature of the movement and includes King's experiences learning from other activists working on the boycott, including Mrs. Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin. It traces the phenomenal journey of a community and shows how the 28-year-old Dr. King, with his conviction for equality and nonviolence, helped transform the nation and the world.

This book was published with two different covers. Customers will be shipped one of them at random.

This classic story of nonviolent resistance in America--the Montgomery bus boycott--shows how much the movement can accomplish. King shares his inspirations for the resistance in a work that inspired many and will continue to bring hope for peaceful actions.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was among the twentieth century's most influential figures. One of the greatest orators in U.S. history, King is the author of several books, including Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, The Trumpet of Conscience, Why We Can't Wait, and Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? His speeches, sermons, and writings are inspirational and timeless. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

Clayborne Carson is professor of history at Stanford University, the founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, and director of the King Papers Project. The author and editor of numerous books, he is general editorial advisor to The King Legacy and lives in Palo Alto, California.

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