Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and death.

King’s philosophy of nonviolence defined the developments and achievements of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Bader demonstrates King’s perspective on nonviolent protest as a powerful strategy to fight racial discrimination and injustice, as well as an alternative to armed conflict and violent uprisings.

In his early years as a college student, King resolved to work for Black people’s progress, finding inspiration in the ideas of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi. King valued Thoreau’s practice of civil disobedience, which Bader explains as people’s right “to disobey unjust laws” (14). Gandhi’s activism resonated with King because of its emphasis on the power of “peaceful protests” to demonstrate the wrongs of discrimination. King’s family’s Christian faith and ideas of love and peace grounded him. Such values defined King’s approach to activism and his leadership in the movement as key principles of social action and dismantling racism and inequality.

In tracing King’s work in the movement, Bader illustrates the methods of nonviolent direct action that its leaders and demonstrators practiced in the South. Using his sermons to educate and galvanize the community for the civil rights cause, King organized and participated in many protests, including boycotts, marches, sit-in protests, and petitions.