Description
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.
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
