Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are among the most venerated figures of the twentieth century. Though worlds apart–South Africa, India and the United States–their fight for social justice and human rights are integral to how the world  has come to view the fight against oppression, discrimination and injustice. Through an unshakable faith in  a universal truth, a transcendental love—ahimsa for Gandhi, agape for King—the two leaders have transformed the lives  of millions. With nothing more than conviction and unbreakable courage, they fearlessly battled injustice with nothing but nonviolent resistance–satyagraha and civil disobedience campaigns. As a result they’ve restored hope, dignity and self-respect to millions of oppressed peoples around the world.

Public Transportation, Indignity, and Seeds of Protest

South Africa,  1893

In  April 1893 Mohandas Gandhi, a young lawyer from the northwestern  Indian state of Gujarat, sailed to South Africa to work for an Indian firm [1]. His first  foray into the law profession in his native country had been a dismal failure, and he jumped at the chance to practice his profession abroad for a year.  About a week after arriving in the coastal city of Durban, in what was then the colony of Natal, he boarded a train  for the 333-mile trip northwest  to Pretoria, in the  republic of the Transvaal.  Though holding a first-class ticket he was unceremoniously told to leave the compartment for an inferior one [2]. He refused and was kicked off the train. Indian contacts arranged a berth for him on a train the following day. To complete his journey  he was required to transfer to a stagecoach. There, he was denied  seating in the compartment, and was forced to  sit outside next to the driver. The coachman took his seat with the other passengers in the compartment.   Later, the coachman decided to smoke and climbed out, sat next to the driver, and instructed Gandhi to sit inside, on the floor.  Gandhi refused, and a commotion ensued.

After reaching his destination, Gandhi discussed his hardships with his hosts, and found that the indignities he suffered were not unusual. He  convened a meeting among prominent Indians in Pretoria (Transvaal).  In his first public address he discussed the condition of Indians in that region.  He also suggested the formation of an association  that  would  be responsible for representing the hardships encountered by the Indian population to the authorities. The seeds of protest in South Africa and later, India,  were planted.

Montgomery, AL, 1955

On the evening of Thursday, December 1^st, 1955,  Mrs. Rosa Parks was riding in the colored section at the back of a municipal bus, on her way home from her job as a seamstress at a  local department store. The White section, up-front, was full. A White man entered. Black riders were compelled to give up their seats to a White passenger when the White section was full [3]. Three Black passengers near Mrs. Parks  stood so the White man could sit. Mrs. Parks, a volunteer for the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused.  The police were called. She was taken off the bus and arrested. In response, Black residents of the city agreed to boycott the Montgomery bus lines the following Monday. A group  was formed, and elected to extend the boycott until  a list of conditions, designed to mitigate the humiliation and indignities suffered by Black commuters, were met. They chose a twenty-six-year-old  pastor recently arrived from Atlanta, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to  lead the protest. The seeds of the modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States were planted.

Mohandas Gandhi

Truth (Satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement ‘Satyagraha’, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence…This then was the genesis of the movement which came to be known as Satyagraha, and of the word used as a designation for it. — Mohandas K. Gandh [4].

South Africa

By 1900, there were about 62,000 Indians living in South Africa.  Most worked as indentured labourers in the British-controlled, coastal colonies of Natal and the Cape, and the Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State (OFS) [5].

The Second Boer War, between the British and Boers over South African territory, occurred between 1899 and 1902. The British were victorious, and the former Boer-controlled republics of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR (later called the Transvaal) and the Orange Free State—both in the interior of the  country–came under British control [6]. (See a map of South Africa  with the provincial breakdown  for reference.)

By April 1894, Gandhi had completed  the  year of employment originally agreed to with his employer. Members of the Indian community  asked him to remain to assist in the  struggles against the blatant discriminatory laws and other injustices faced by his fellow countrymen of Indian descent. Gandhi agreed;  his legal practice then adopted a dual purpose—his ‘private’ practice, for which he was paid, and his ‘public’ practice, which he  contributed free of charge[7]. In  his private practice,  Gandhi represented  Indian merchants as well as dispossessed Indians, winning many of  the cases designed to deprive them of their property. The legal victories also enhanced his stature among his fellow Indian countrymen[8]. In May 1894,  as part of his ‘public’ practice,  he organized the Natal Indian Congress [9] which began a campaign to combat anti-Indian discrimination and  to publicize actions taken  to address those  issues. He  later invested much of his personal finances into the journal, Indian  Opinion launched in 1904, which acted as a communication organ for the Natal Indian Congress.

At the beginning of his public practice in 1894 Gandhi became aware of  the Indian Franchise Bill — proposed legislation ‘designed to  deprive Indians the right to elect members of the Natal Legislative Assembly’ [10]. He helped organize opposition to this bill. Newspapers in India and in Britain carried the story, supporting Gandhi’s efforts. This case, together with Indian Opinion and his leadership of the Natal Indian Congress,  brought the young lawyer to national—and international—prominence [11].

The ‘Black Act’ and the Birth of Satyagraha

In 1906  the Transvaal government introduced the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance—dubbed ‘The Black Act’. Every Indian  residing in the Transvaal was required to register with the local government. This applied to all Indians eight years of age or older. All identification marks as well as a thumb and fingerprint were  to be taken.  The certificate of registration was to be presented  to  any law enforcement officer at his discretion [12].

Gandhi met with leading members of the Indian community to defy the ordinance. Of the 13,000 Indians in the Transvaal only 500 obeyed the ordinance.  The leaders of the movement, including Gandhi, were jailed [13]. The resistance also took a financial toll on the protesters. In response Gandhi purchased a piece of land,  with the help of a wealthy backer, where  those participating in the civil disobedience could live.

Gandhi had previously used ‘passive resistance’ to describe the actions his fellow  Indians used to protest what they considered unjust laws. He believed, however, that the term did not adequately describe their movement. He offered  a prize, published in Indian Opinion,  to anyone who could  suggest a name that would more accurately describe the movement. One contestant created the term ‘Sadagraha’ meaning ‘firmness in a good cause’. Gandhi felt that the term did not fully convey the meaning of their struggle and modified it to the Sanskrit and Hindu term, Satyagraha [14].

After the Black Act,  additional pieces of legislations were passed to limit the rights of Indians. In 1907, the Transvaal Immigration Restriction Act placed limitations on Indians entering the  prosperous Transvaal from other provinces, affecting Indians all over the country [15]. Gandhi launched a satyagraha campaign in protest. He was put on trail and sentenced to two moths in jail. A compromise was reached and he was released. He called off the Satyagraha. The British reneged on the compromise and Gandhi relaunched the campaign [16].

Satyagraha and The Marriage Act

The Marriage Act – In 1913 a judgment was handed down  that rendered any marriage, not  adhering to Christian rites, illegal [18]. This was an insult to many Indians,  rendering  Hindu, Muslim, and other non-Christian  women, in effect,  ‘concubines.’   Indian women, including Gandhi’s wife, Kasturba, resisted, and were imprisoned. 

The imprisonment of Indian women angered Indians who had not previously participated in the satyagraha movement and motivated them to join [19]. Among those prompted by the women’s imprisonment were  mine workers in the Natal city of Newcastle  who had long suffered  poor working conditions that rendered  them dependent on the mine owners.  Emboldened by the women’s actions, the mine workers went on strike, and solicited Gandhi’s assistance. The strike spread throughout all South Africa [20]. Gandhi was arrested multiple times in support of the Satyagraha [21].

Finally, the British government, represented by one General (Jan Christiaan) Smuts, created a commission to study the Indians’  situation. Gandhi submitted a letter to Smuts, outlining the conditions for putting Satyagraha to an end.  The recommendations were met, resulting in the Indian Relief Bill. It recognized non-Christian marriage, addressed the issues of the mine-workers, abolished the Black Act and relaxed requirements of the Transvaal Immigration Restriction Act [22].

In July 1914, eight years after the implementation of the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance was introduced, Gandhi left South Africa forever, and returned to India [23].

India

Satyagraha and the Viramgam Railway Passengers

In 1915 Gandhi was asked to intercede on behalf of  railway passengers in Viramgam, a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, approximately 585 km north of Bombay (now Mumbai).Third class passengers were ‘treated’ not as people but as ‘sheep’ [24]. After investigating the issue for himself Gandhi concluded that the charges had merit. He  enlisted the support  of  British authorities and made speeches referencing the use of Satyagraha to remedy the situation. Within days of  meeting with the authorities the Viramgam customs were abolished. Gandhi refers to this as the first use of satyagraha in India [25].

Satyagraha and the Indian Immigration Act

Iin  1917  Gandhi launched a campaign to end the practice of  Indians emigrating to foreign countries as  indentured laboured,  a practice he describes as ‘semi-slavery’  [26]. Gandhi met with leaders throughout the country to organize an end to the practice.  On July 31^st, the  government stopped the practice [27].

Satyagraha for the Champaran Tenant Farmers

In 1917 Gandhi was contacted to assist in improving the working conditions of tenant farmers/peasants in the Champaran region. Champaran is located  in the state of Bihar, near the Himalayas, on the India-Nepal border [28]. Upon examining the conditions of the peasants firsthand, Gandhi contacted the British authorities.  They responded by ordering him to leave the area, which he refused to do. The authorities soon backed down when crowds gathered in support of Gandhi [29]. His refusal to comply with the British orders was his ‘first act of civil disobedience against the British.’ Gandhi writes, ‘[m]y desire was to establish the principle that no Englishman had the right to tell me to leave any part of my country where I had gone for a peaceful pursuit…It became the method by which India could be made free’ [30]. He was then given a position on a committee created to examine the peasants’ complaints.  Ultimately the committee found in favour of the tenant farmers and recommended landowners ‘refund a portion of extractions…which [were] found to be unlawful, and that the [overall] system should be abolished by law.’  Ultimately an Agrarian Bill was passed abolishing the conditions under which the tenant farmers had endured for over a century [31].

Satyagraha for the Mill Workers of Ahmedabad

In 1918 Gandhi took up the cause of cotton mill workers in the city of Ahmedabad, approximately 530 km north of Bombay. The labourers had long agitated for better working conditions and higher wages. A strike was called and for the first time Gandhi embarked on a fast. Four days later an arbitrator was appointed [32].

Satyagraha for the Kheda Farmers

In 1918 he intervened on  behalf of  farmers in the town of Kheda, approximately 500 km north of Bombay, who were forced to pay  a government tax even though crops had failed for many due to famine [33]. Violence broke out however and Gandhi called off the Satyagraha. He realized the non-violent protest had to be led by trained Satyagrahi [34].

Satyagraha and the Rowlatt Acts

In 1919 the Rowlatt Acts were passed.  These laws were holdovers of legislation instituted during World War I to counter revolutionaries and German-inspired threats.  In 1919 the Rowlatt Acts extended theses laws which allowed for ‘certain cases to be tried without juries, and the internment of suspects without trial’ [35]. Gandhi and other leaders called for a nationwide strike, and a suspension of business, the first all-India Satyagraha. However a group of  protesters took to the streets.  Police opened fire on the protesters and rioting ensued. Gandhi  then called off the Satyagraha.

Satyagraha and Bardoli Farmers

In 1928  the local government in the Bardoli region in Gujarat instituted a 30% increase in land assessment taxes on farmers in the region. This was based on the perception that the land values had increased due to the creation of a local railway line.  The farmers reached out to Sardar Patel, a  member of the Indian National Congress [36] and a colleague of Gandhi who had worked on the  Kheda Satyagraha.  Patel,  under Gandhi’s leadership, organized a Satyagraha. The farmers refused to pay the taxes and stopped working the farms. Indian and British publications sided with the farmers.  Finally the government settled, reducing the tax increase  significantly and returning land that had been confiscated during the protest. While the resolution primarily benefited  farmers who were landowners, it did little to assist farmers who were not.

Satyagraha and The Great Salt March

In March of 1930, Gandhi and almost eighty men and women  embarked on a two hundred-mile, twenty-four-day march to protest  India’s salt laws. Salt was a lucrative product in India, monopolized by the British. Indians were prohibited from producing or selling salt independently and were instead forced to buy the product that was heavily taxed. Gandhi and many followers defied the laws by openly collecting salt. By the end of the year, Gandhi,  the young charismatic leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, and 60,000 others had been arrested. Upon his release  in March of 1931 Gandhi negotiated an end to the Satyagraha, in exchange for the Indians’ right to produce salt for domestic use [37].

Satyagraha in the 1930S and  1940s

In the 1930s and 1940s Gandhi continued  the fight for social justice  on numerous fronts. In 1931, while in prison, he started a ‘fast until death’  in opposition to separate electoral seats for Dalits, or ‘untouchables.’ He believed such a division would weaken India’s bid for independence. The fast ended after the British accepted the ‘Yerwada Pact .’  In 1933 he converted an Ashram into a centre for the removal of untouchability and toured India to end  the class division [38].

 In 1942 Gandhi led the ‘Quit India’ satyagraha, a campaign to achieve full independence from Britain.  Before the campaign even started, in August, the leaders of the Indian National Congress, including Gandhi, were imprisoned.  Detaining the leaders however did not deter a mass uprising. Protests spread throughout India, to large cities, towns and villages.  Students and labourers went on strike. Symbols of British authority– police stations,  courts and post offices–were attacked.  In some areas, bridges were blown up, telegraph wires cut, and  railway lines ripped apart. The British ultimately quelled the rebellion, arresting some 60,000 people.  However the protest signalled a clarion call for Indian independence, which persisted after the crackdown. In February 1944, Gandhi’s wife Kasturba died in prison. Three months later, Gandhi himself was released, due to declining health [39]. This would be the last in a long line of Gandhi’s incarcerations, which began in the first decade of the  century [40].

Rift Between Hindus and Muslims

After World War II, Gandhi devoted more time to mend the riffs between Hindus and Muslims. He strongly opposed the partitioning of India between  the two religions. In 1946 and 1947 he traveled to Bengal and other areas to quell tensions and to preserve an independent India united across religious lines.  However, in August of 1947, India was partitioned into what is now a predominantly Hindu India, and Muslim Pakistan (later Pakistan and Bangladesh).  Mass violence broke out. Gandhi prayed for peace, but there are estimates that up to two million people were killed [41].

Gandhi’s Influence in the United States

By the 1920s Gandhi’s exploits in India  had earned world-wide publicity, and had gained widespread admiration in the Black press in the United States [42]. Early in Gandhi’s career, this admiration—at least, for black Africans–was not reciprocated.  Gandhi is reported to have  harboured racist views of Africans  in the 1890s while in South Africa [43].

These views had clearly dissipated by the 1920s. In Satyagraha in South Africa he empathizes with Black Americans, and spoke respectfully of one  African American in particular:

Even in the United States of America, where the principle of statuary equality has been established, a man like Booker Washington who has received the best Western education, is a Christian of high character and has fully assimilated Western civilization, was not considered fit for admission to the court of President Roosevelt, and probably would not to be so considered even today. The Negroes of the United States have accepted Western civilization. They have embraced Christianity. But the black pigment of their skin constitutes their crime, and if in the Northern States they are socially despised, they are lynched in the southern States on the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing [44]. In 1924 Gandhi wrote in the journal, Young India, that it ‘may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of  Non-violence will be delivered to the world’ [45].

In the 1920s notable religious and civil rights leaders had begun to take note of Gandhi’s exploits.  John Haynes Holmes, a Unitarian minister and a co-founder of  the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), quoted Gandhi in his sermons [46].  W.E.B DuBois, himself a founding member of the NAACP, was an admirer of Gandhi [47]. The Black press carried stories on his activities protesting British  treatment of Indians; articles appeared in Black U.S. publications such as  The  Chicago Defender and in the NAACP journal, The Crisis. In 1929  W.E.B Dubois , editor of  the publication, requested an article from Gandhi. Gandhi declined, but responded with a ‘love letter’ instead:

Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is no dishonour in being slaves. There is dishonour in being slave-owners. But let us not think of honour or dishonour in connection with the past. Let us realise that the future is with those who would be truthful, pure and loving. For, as the old wise men have said, truth ever is, untruth never was. Love alone binds and truth and love accrue only to the truly humble. M. K. Gandhi, May 1^st, 1929

Gandhi and African American Intellectuals

By early 1956  the non-violent resistance character of the Montgomery Bus boycott had already begun to take shape. While this was the first major instance of non-violent resistance in the United States, it had been well known among religious intellectuals, including African American thinkers,  for years.  Three of these luminaries are presented here. They all knew King personally and  profoundly influenced his view of non-violence. They all made  pilgrimages to India:  Drs. Howard Thurman and Benjamin Mays met separately with Gandhi in 1936, and Dr. Mordecai Johnson met with members of Gandhi’s family and associates  in 1949, almost two years after the Mahatma’s assassination.

Dr. Howard Thurman

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came from a family of preachers, including his father and grandfather…While Daddy King guided him into the ministry, his most important theological influence, without a doubt, was a man named Howard Thurman. Howard Thurman dedicated his ministry to writing, preaching and teaching, not only in this country but abroad. His teachings would profoundly shape Dr. King’s prophetic ministry, and his non-violent approach to protest. – Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr [48].

In 1935, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)  and Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA),  on behalf of the World Student Christian Federation, extended an invitation to Howard Thurman, his wife, Sue Bailey Thurman,  and two colleagues, Reverend Edward Carroll and his wife Phenola Carroll [49]. They were to be guests of the Student Christian Movement of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar) and India, on a ‘pilgrimage of friendship’  to the Indian subcontinent [50]. Thurman would become the first African American to meet with the Mahatma [51].

Howard Thurman was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1899.  There were no public high schools for Blacks in Daytona Beach, so Thurman went north to Jacksonville and attended Florida Baptist Academy [52].  In 1917 he attended his first conference hosted by the YMCA.   The annual conference was held for Black colleges and teachers’ colleges in the South. The following year he began a  lifelong friendship with Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, a graduate of what would become Morehouse College.

In 1919 Thurman was granted a partial scholarship to Morehouse College [53]. While at Morehouse Thurman continued his involvement with the YMCA. He was president of the  campus chapter.  At the time of  Thurman’s involvement at Morehouse, the YMCA was still a segregated organization, but it  proved an invaluable training ground for future Black leaders. The organization also afforded members like Thurman a place on a speaking circuit, where they addressed Black as well as interracial audiences [54].

Thurman graduated valedictorian from Morehouse in 1923 and soon entered Rochester Theological Seminary [55]. In 1926 While at RTS several of his essays were published and he was invited to speak at YMCA conventions and at other seminaries [56]. 

By the mid-1920s Thurman was a ‘prominent’ member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the ‘preeminent’ Christian pacifist organization [57].

Thurman graduated valedictorian  from RTS in 1926 [58]. He started his career as pastor at a Baptist church in Oberlin, Ohio, [59]. He remained in demand as a speaker.  In 1926 Mordecai Wyatt Johnson became the first African-American president of Howard University and invited Thurman to speak there regularly [60]. In 1928 he resigned his position at  Oberlin and moved to Atlanta, to teach at Morehouse and Spelman colleges. Also, in Atlanta, his first wife, Katie Kelley, then battling tuberculosis, could be near her family [61]. In June 1932, after his wife’s death,  Thurman married long-time friend Sue Bailey and moved to Howard University to  work with his mentor, Johnson, at the school’s faculty of religion [62].

Pilgrimage of Friendship

In February 1936, after traveling through Burma and Ceylon, the Thurman delegation arrived in India. They met with the Nobel-prize winning writer and  personal friend of Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, at his university. Tagore was responsible for giving Gandhi the title, ‘Mahatma’ or ‘Great Soul, [63].  Later that month Thurman and his companions arrived at Gandhi’s ‘bungalow tent’  near the town of Bardoli, in the state of Gujarat.  As their car approached his tent, the mahatma came out to meet them. Gandhi’s secretary turned to Thurman and said, ‘This is the first time in all the years that we have been working together that I’ve ever seen him come out to greet a visitor so warmly’ [64].

For three hours Thurman and his colleagues met with Gandhi on the floor of the bungalow tent [65]. Thurman writes:  ‘He had questions.  Never in my life have I been a part of that kind of examination:  persistent, pragmatic questions about American Negroes. About the course of slavery,  and how we had survived it’  [66].  Gandhi enquired why the slaves had not become Moslems, because ‘the Moslem religion is the only religion in the world in which no lines are drawn within the religious fellowship. Once you are in, you are all the way in. This is not true in Christianity, it isn’t true in Buddhism or Hinduism’ [67]. Gandhi, Thurman writes,  questioned him on voting rights, lynching, discrimination, public school education,  the churches and how they functioned [68].

The conversation also included a discussion of the guiding principle of Gandhi’s movement,  ahimsa. Ahimsa meant ‘love’, but because there were different kinds of love in the English language, Gandhi had to specify the type he meant, which was love expressed by non-violence. ‘Non-violence was a term I had to coin in order to bring out the root meaning of ahimsa,’ he is recorded as saying [69]. It is, he adds, the only true force in life, the only permanent thing. Thurman then asked, ‘how are we to train individuals or communities in this difficult art?’ Gandhi replied, ‘living the creed in your life which must be a living sermon.’ This requires ‘great study, tremendous perseverance, and thorough cleansing of one’s self  of all impurities….For if this is the only permanent thing in life, if this is the only thing that counts, then whatever effort you bestow on mastering it is well spent. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and everything else shall be added unto you. The Kingdom of Heaven is ahimsa’ [70].

The delegation asked why  Gandhi’s movement had failed  to achieve its primary objective,  to rid India of British rule?  Thurman recollected Gandhi’s response, as best he could:

‘The effectiveness of a creative ethical ideal such as nonviolence, ahimsa, or no killing depends upon the degree to which   the masses of the people are able to embrace such a notion and have it become a working part of their total experience. It cannot be the unique property or experience of its leaders; it has to be rooted in the mass assent creative push’ [71].

Gandhi  added that initially the movement failed because it lacked ‘vitality’ [72] which was manifested in two ways:  Under British conquest the Indian people were prohibited from manufacturing much of their own goods. Secondly, they had lost their self respect—not because of the British, but because of  Hinduism and the untouchables [73]. To combat the first issue, Gandhi encouraged his people to lessen their dependence on the British by  ‘living off the land’ and spinning their cotton [74].  To confront the issue of the untouchables, Gandhi adopted into his family an ‘outcaste’ and referred to him as ‘Harijan’, ‘A Child of God’ [75]. In so doing, he [Gandhi] spearheaded a movement ‘for the building of a new self-respect’, a fresh self-image for the untouchables in Indian society [76]. He felt that this new self image would release the energy required for non-violent direct action [77].

The delegation asked, under  what circumstances would he visit America as a guest of ‘Afro-Americans?’, Gandhi replied:

The only conditions under which I would come would be that I would be able to make some helpful contribution towards the solution of racial trouble in your country. I don’t feel that I would have the right to try to do that unless or until I have won our struggle in India.  He added that after that is accomplished, he would have some suggestions to resolve racial issues in the United  States and around the world [78].

Before Thurman and his friends departed, Gandhi made one final request. He asked them to sing the Negro spiritual, ‘Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)?’.  “This song,” Gandhi continued, “gets to the root of the entire experience of the entire human race under the spread of the healing wings of suffering’ [79]. Thurman then asked Gandhi: ‘What do you think is the greatest handicap to Jesus Christ in India?’ Gandhi replied: “Christianity as it is practiced, as it has been identified with Western culture, and Western civilization and colonialism. This is the greatest enemy that Jesus Christ has in my country…’ [80].

Years later, in 1953 Thurman became  professor of Spiritual Disciplines and Resources at Boston University. It was at this institution  where Thruman ‘met informally’ with King, then a doctoral student.

Thurman’s status as one of the foremost African-American religious intellectuals of the twentieth century is secure, not only due to a stellar academic career, but because of his contributions as a pastor and an author. He co-founded and was co-pastor of an integrated   church in San Francisco, the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. He was also the  author of  numerous books,  the best known of which is perhaps Jesus and the Disinherited.

In this  classic work, Thurman draws similarities between  Jesus’  experience as a member of an underprivileged class, yes, even a despised minority, with the lives of African Americans.  He describes four basic principles of Jesus’ life he argues are applicable to the lives of African-Americans.  According to King friend and colleague, Andrew Young, this little book was a favourite of Dr. King’s:

Martin Luther King Jr. always traveled with Jesus and the Disinherited…clean underwear, shirt, and he’d have Howard Thurman in his briefcase. — Andrew Young, Jr. [81].

Dr. Benjamin Mays

In February 1956, a Montgomery County grand jury found the boycott of the city buses illegal. Close to a hundred protesters were indicted.  King was  with his parents in Atlanta. Daddy King had  called close and influential family friends to determine  what his son’s next actions should be. Among them was Morehouse College president Dr. Benjamin Mays. Initially there was broad agreement that MLK Jr. should not return to Montgomery. King recalls the discussion in his memoir,  Stride Toward Freedom:

There were murmurs of agreement in the room, and I listened as sympathetically and objectively as I could while two of the men gave their reason for concurring. These were my elders, leaders among my people. Their words commanded respect…I looked at Dr. Mays, one of the great influences on my life. Perhaps he heard my unspoken  plea. At any rate, he was soon defending my position strongly[to return to Montgomery] [82]. The following morning King returned to Alabama.

Benjamin Mays was born on August 1, 1894, in Epworth, South Carolina, to former slaves. He attended Virginia Union  University Bates College where he received a BA. An ordained Baptist minister, hr earned  a master’s degree and PhD from the University of  Chicago [83]. Mays accepted an offer from  Howard University president Mordecai Johnson to become the university’s dean of divinity in 1934, where he served for six years. He then accepted  the presidency of Morehouse College.  When King entered Morehouse in September 1944, Mays was president [84].  King developed a close relationship with Dr. Mays, often discussing theology and current events. Mays would frequently have Sunday dinners at the King family home [85].

Benjamin Mays was selected to attend a conference of the YMCA in Mysore, India, in January 1937.  Over 200 official delegates representing thirty-five countries were invited. Of the thirteen Americans, there was one other African American, Dr. Channing Tobias,  a professor of Bible literature,  long-time official of the YMCA, and a future board member of the NAACP [86]. (Tobias later interviewed Gandhi separately on this trip [87].)

Mays arrived in Bombay on Christmas Eve, 1936, ten months after Thurman and his delegation met with Gandhi. He attended the All-India Congress, which was conducting ongoing discussions on obtaining Indian independence from Britain [88]. Mays met briefly with Jawaharlal Nehru, the president of the Congress, and other officials.  The main reason for attending the  Congress, Mays admits, was to meet Gandhi. He was able to secure a meeting with the Mahatma on December 31^st [89]. 

Most of the ninety minutes Mays had with Gandhi were spent with Gandhi answering two of Mays’ questions: The first was, what did ‘non-violence mean to him? The Mahatma replied that ‘non-violence’ is not passive resistance but an ‘active force’.  ‘Nonviolence must never be practiced as a technique or strategy  because one is too weak to use violence. It must be practiced in absolute love and without hate. It is better to be violent than be a coward.’ In addition ‘the welfare of the opponent must be taken into consideration. If the method of nonviolence tends to destroy one’s opponent, it is to be called off. If a nonviolent campaign becomes too arduous for  one’s adherents, it should be called off unless one is willing to die for the cause’ [90].

Gandhi touched on several other aspects of nonviolent resistance. He explained that while violence is immediately ‘visible,’  its effect is transitory; whereas the effects of  nonviolence will persist and are likely to grow with time [91].  Mays had believed that nonviolence was a meaningful tool for individuals, but was doubtful of its effectiveness for a mass movement. Gandhi replied that while the nonviolent resistance may at first seem to be ineffective for many,  an unconscious  effect will nonetheless have been planted. Given time, the ‘active’ effect of  the resistance will travel with ‘extraordinary velocity’ — the ‘mass mind is affected first unconsciously, then consciously’ [92]. Gandhi also touched on the ability of non-violent resistance to deprive the oppressor of one of his most potent weapons, the ability to instill fear. Non-violent resistance requires, or perhaps  instills, extraordinary courage and a loss of fear. ‘And when an oppressed race ceases to be afraid, it is free’ [93].

Dr. Mays’ second question was,  why did Gandhi not declare war on the caste system as well as make an attack on untouchability? [94]. Gandhi condemned the caste system as it was practiced, one where ‘one caste had no social concern for anyone outside its own group.’ Gandhi  identified with those on the lowest rung of the social order: the untouchables. The untouchables had no rights which anyone was bound to respect.  ‘All men could with impunity step on and spit upon the untouchables’ [95].

Comparing the untouchables in India with the plight of  African Americans, Mays noted that ‘untouchability’ was abolished in India  upon Indian independence in 1947, whereas legalized segregation in U.S. schools did not occur until the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and the Civil Rights Act ten years later [96].

After his visit with Gandhi, Mays was invited to speak at a school for ‘untouchable’ students. He was introduced as ‘an untouchable who had achieved distinction’…that he had suffered ‘every indignity they had suffered’ and that they too could become ‘somebody worthwhile’ despite being a member of a depressed class…At first I was horrified, puzzled, angry at being called an untouchable, but my indignation was short lived as I realized, as never before, I was  truly an untouchable in my native land, especially in the Southern United Sates [97].

Back at Morehouse, Mays often referred to his experiences in India  at chapel  services, and wrote about them, notably for Howard University [98]. It would not be far-fetched to believe that young, impressionable students at Howard, and at Morehouse,  including a young Martin Luther King Jr., may have become acquainted with May’s admiration of the Mahatma.

King has referred to Mays as his spiritual mentor, [99] and his acknowledgement of the importance Dr. Mays’ support meant in his decision to return to Montgomery and face certain arrest, illustrates the great respect the young civil rights leader accorded the Morehouse president.

Another example of the great respect Dr. King had for Dr. Mays occurred in April 1968, when Dr. Mays was given the honor of delivering the eulogy at King’s funeral. There he drew a direct comparison between Gandhi and King in the nonviolent resistance against injustice. King did not embrace nonviolence out of fear or cowardice,  Mays said. ‘Moral courage was one of his noblest virtues. As Mahatma Gandhi challenged the British Empire without a sword and won, Martin Luther King Jr. challenged the interracial wrongs of his country without  a gun. And he had faith to believe that  he would win the battle for social justice…When Martin Luther King disobeyed an unjust law, he accepted the consequences of his actions. He never ran away, and he never begged for mercy’ [100].

Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

While a student at Crozer Theological Seminary near Chester, Pennsylvania,  King traveled to Philadelphia to hear a sermon by Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, then president of Howard University.

 ‘Dr. Johnson had just returned from a trip to India, and, to my great interest, he spoke of the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. His message was so profound and electrifying that I left the meeting and bought a half dozen books on Gandhi’s life and works’ [101].

Mordecai Wyat Johnson was born in Paris, Tennessee, on January 12, 1890.  He earned several degrees from various institutions, including BAs  from what is now Morehouse College and from the University of Chicago, a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) from Rochester Theological Seminary, a Master of Sacred Theology (STM) from Harvard University,  and Doctors of Divinity degrees (DD) from  Howard University and Gammon Theological Seminary. He was an ordained Baptist minister and served as pastor of the  First Baptist Church in Charleston West Virginia [102].

In September 1916, Johnson accepted a position as student secretary of the YMCA. The position provided an opportunity to ‘travel widely’, gain experience as a speaker, and meet  people of national prominence. He resigned  his position within a year however after the organization refused to support him when a hotel  in which he  was attending a conference, refused  to allow him to board with his White colleagues [103].

While at Rochester Theological Seminary,  Johnson was influenced by the teachings of Walter Rauschenbusch, one of the early pioneers of the ‘social gospel’ [104].

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson’s shadow looms large among African American intellectuals.  In 1926 he became the first Black president of Howard University, a position he held for thirty-four years.  During his tenure  a number of the institution’s schools and colleges received accreditation, including the Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, and the Schools of Medicine, Religion, and Law.[105]. At this period in its history, the early 1930s, Howard Law School trained  almost one quarter of  black law students in the United States–future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall among them. Johnson attracted accomplished African Americans to the faculty. Some later became nationally and internationally respected in their fields of expertise.  Notable examples include Dr. Ralph Bunche, a U.N. diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner; Dr. Charles Drew,  surgeon, who pioneered the storage of blood plasma for surgery; historian John Hope Franklin,  academics Dr. Benjamin Mays and Dr. Howard Thurman; and lawyer and educator Charles Hamilton Houston,  the first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review. Houston later became special counsel to the NAACP, where he challenged  Jim Crow laws and argued several civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court [106]. In 1957 Dr. Johnson offered Martin Luther King Jr. the  deanship at Howard University’s School  of Religion.  King declined, stating that his work in the South was ‘not yet complete’.

As early as 1930 Mordecai Johnson drew similarities between African Americans’ struggle for basic civil rights in the United States, and  Gandhi’s fight against British imperialism. In 2005, Dennis Dickerson, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University, delivered a paper in which he quotes from Gandhi follower and California State professor,  Dr. Sudarshan Kapur:

[Mordecai Wyatt] Johnson promoted Gandhi as an appropriate subject of black religious inquiry and pushed African Americans to emulate his efforts in the United States. He called Gandhi’s fight against British imperialism “the most significant religious movement in the world, in his effort to inject religion into questions of economics and politics.”  The Indian  leader, said Johnson, was deserving of the Negro’s careful consideration [107].

In his book, The Seminarian, where he covers King’s years at Crozer Theological Seminary, Patrick Barr provides background on Johnson’s trip to India:

On November 23, 1949, Howard University president Mordecai Wyatt Johnson flew to Calcutta, India, to learn all he could about the late Mohandas Gandhi and his nonviolent resistance movement, which had won India its independence from Great Britain just two years before. Johnson was there to evaluate, as one newspaper put it, “the possibilities of using the techniques developed by Mahatma Gandhi in an effort to obtain and preserve peace in the world [108].

‘It was with this goal in mind that he gave a talk at Philadelphia’s Fellowship House on a Sunday afternoon in early 1950. As he spoke, a twenty-one-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. sat in the audience, ready to listen [109].

Mordecai Johnson’s sermon triggered an interest in Gandhi that King had not had before. After  Johnson’s sermon, and his subsequent study of Gandhi and exposure to his followers, King’s perspective on  the love espoused by Jesus transitioned from one that was limited to relationships between individuals, to a viable tool for a mass, social movement [110].

Fellowship of Reconciliation

Christian pacifists created the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) at the outbreak of World War I,  as a means to foster peace during the conflict. The  U.S. chapter was created in 1915.  From the 1920s onwards the organization was active in the fight for workers’ rights,  civil rights, and against racist and segregationist policies.  Several members of  FOR  during the 1940s and 1950s — future activists such as James Farmer, Bayard Rustin, Glenn Smiley, and James Lawson — were ardent followers of  Gandhian tactics.  Rustin visited India in the 1940s,  Lawson in the 1950s.  In 1942 Farmer, along with other members of FOR, founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).  From the 1940s CORE utilized  their knowledge of Gandhian philosophy in integrated sit-ins, freedom rides and other nonviolent resistance tactics [111]. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Smiley and Rustin conducted workshops on methods of non-violent resistance when violence was visited upon protestors. Lawson was ‘influential’ in the founding  conference of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). During the early 1960s SNCC organized  freedom rides and sit-ins  across the South [112].

Martin Luther King Jr.

The following passage on  Gandhi’s influence on King’s pilgrimage to nonviolence, is taken from the King Papers at the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

Like most people, I had heard of Gandhi, but I had never studied him seriously. As I read I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance. I was particularly moved by the Salt March to the Sea and his numerous fasts. The whole concept of “Satyagraha” (Satya is truth which equals love, and agraha is force: “Satyagraha,” therefore, means truth-force or love force) was profoundly significant to me. As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the area of social reform. Prior to reading Gandhi, I had about concluded that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationship. The “turn the other cheek” philosophy and the “love your enemies” philosophy were only valid, I felt, when individuals were in conflict with other individuals; when racial groups and nations were in conflict a more realistic approach seemed necessary. But after reading Gandhi, I saw how utterly mistaken I was.

Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale. Love, for Gandhi, was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months. The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social-contracts theory of Hobbes, the “back to nature” optimism of Rousseau, the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.

King Timeline – Before  Montgomery

(The chronology of events outlined below, unless otherwise indicated,  is based on information at the  Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources/major-king-events-chronology-1929-1968 ).

In 1944 historically Black colleges were experiencing difficulties enrolling  young Black men because many were being drafted  into the military. As a result Morehouse College began accepting Grade 11 students.  Martin Luther King Jr. was one of them.  On September 20, at age 15, he entered Morehouse as a Freshman [113].  Dr. Benjamin Mays was president.

In June 1948,  MLK Jr., aged 19, received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Morehouse. Earlier that year he  was ordained an assistant pastor at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

In September 1948, MLK Jr. entered Crozer Theological Seminary near Philadelphia, PA [114].  For the first time, MLK Jr.  attended classes with White students.  Here he studied under Dr. George Washington Davis, an admirer of Gandhi, and was introduced to the  theologian, Walter Rauschenbusch,  author of Christianity and the Social Crisis, considered by many to be the classic work on the ‘Social Gospel’ in the United States [115].

In May 1951, MLK Jr. graduated from Crozer with a Bachelor of Divinity degree, and delivered the valedictory address.

In September 1951 MLK Jr. began graduate  studies in systematic theology at Boston University.  Dr. Howard Thurman was a professor at Boston U at that time [116].  At Boston U., MLK Jr.  met Coretta Scott, then a student at the New England Conservatory of Music [117]. In 1953 MLK  Jr. and  Coretta Scott were married. In September 1954, he. accepted a pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. In June 1955 he was awarded a doctorate in systematic theology. Five months later, MLK Jr. and Coretta welcomed their first child, Yolanda ‘Yoki’.

King Timeline — Montgomery Boycott

In August 1955, Emmett Till, a Black fourteen-year-old from Chicago, IL, was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a White woman. In September, his accused killers were acquitted by an all-white jury. Years later, Rosa Parks was asked why she refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery, AL  bus. She replied: ‘I thought of Emmett Till and I couldn’t go back’ [118].

In 1955, Montgomery, AL was a city of approximately 126,000 residents, of whom 50,000 were Black [119]. Racial segregation was the law, as it was throughout the South. While both Blacks and Whites used the same shopping centres, sometimes Blacks were required to  wait until Whites were served. There were separate taxi systems based on race. Whites entered the public buses from the front and sat at the front; Blacks paid their fares, stepped out, re-entered from the back doors, and sat at the back–if all Whites were seated–otherwise Blacks nearest the ‘white section’ were required to move to another seat—or stand– so that White passengers could sit [120].

Sixty years had passed since Mahatma Gandhi was kicked off a South African train while traveling from Durban to Pretoria. When Mrs. Parks refused to surrender her seat on the Montgomery city bus  that Thursday evening, she was arrested and taken to jail. After being processed she called home. Her mother answered and quickly asked: ‘Did they beat you?’ E.D. Nixon, a  former head of the local NAACP chapter was called.  Nixon phoned the jail and asked the reason for her arrest. He was told it was none of his ‘damn business’. He phoned a White friend, attorney Clifford Durr. Durr enquired. The charge: violating Alabama’s bus segregation laws[121]. Nixon posted bond for Mrs. Parks. In Mrs. Parks’ arrest, he saw the opportunity to test the constitutionality of the Montgomery segregation laws. Durr agreed [122].

Later that evening word of Mrs. Parks’ arrest reached a ‘few influential women’ of the community, members of the Women’s Political Council,  affiliated with the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church [123]. They  suggested a  bus boycott to Nixon, who agreed [124].  Jo Ann Robinson was  one of the leaders of the Women’s Political Council, and a professor of English at Alabama State College. That night, she and  a group of colleagues surreptitiously used the college’s machines to mimeograph thousands of leaflets that were used  the following day to notify Montgomery Blacks of the planned boycott [125].

Early the following morning, Friday December 2,  Nixon made several calls to leaders in the Black community, among them were King, and Ralph Abernathy, active in the NAACP and pastor of  the First Baptist Church. They agreed to gather a group of Montogomery’s ‘leading Negroes’  at King’s church that evening to organize Mrs. Parks’ defense, and  the boycott  [126]. That evening more than forty men and women  crowded the church meeting room. ‘Virtually every organization of the Negro community was represented’ [127]. Additional leaflets were printed endorsing the Monday boycott,  copied on church mimeograph machines [128]. The  group overwhelmingly approved the proposed one-day boycott for the following Monday, and the clergymen agreed to inform their  congregations from their pulpits the day before [129]. They also agreed to a  ‘city-wide’ mass meeting  on Monday evening   to determine  how long they would stay off the buses. They chose the  Holt Street Baptist as the venue for the meeting because of its size and  central location [130].

By Sunday, word  of the planned boycott had leaked to the press, specifically, the Montgomery Advertiser. The newspaper equated the planned boycott with the actions of a White group originating in Mississippi — the White Citizens Council — that had taken up various methods, including boycotts, to intimidate Blacks as well as Whites in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision the previous year [131]. This comparison elicited  serious reflection on King’s part. He was  convinced however that the two situations were entirely different: while the White Citizens  Council’s actions were  created to terrorize  those who had dared to comply with a just decision, the Montgomery action was designed to bring justice to a humiliating, evil system of segregation. ‘Our concern,’ he writes, ‘was not to put the bus company out of business, but to put justice in business’ [my italics] [132].

The following Monday, the buses ran empty. At rush hour sidewalks were crowded as laborers and domestic workers walked to their jobs. Some hitchhiked, others took cabs or  were able to get  rides in private cars. King noted that some people rode mules  or  traveled by horse and buggy [133].

At her trial that morning, Mrs. Parks was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $10 plus court costs, $14 in all. Later that day , Nixon,  King, Abernathy, and other influential leaders of the community gathered to prepare for the mass meeting scheduled for later that evening. An organization was required to spearhead the protest going forward. They chose the name, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and  unanimously elected King as president [134]. They agreed that, at the meeting later that evening, they’d recommend the protest continue past the one-day action originally planned.

As leader of the new organization, King set about preparing the address he would deliver  that evening.  He usually required fifteen hours to prepare a sermon, now,  he had a mere twenty minutes to put together what would be the most consequential speech of  his life to that point. He was gripped with fear. He prayed, and asked God to be with [him] now when he needed [His] guidance more than ever [135].

That evening the church was packed, with an overflow of three to four thousand people outside [136]. Pastors from multiple churches spoke. Then King took to the pulpit.  He recounted Mrs. Parks’ story, and the humiliations and injustice Blacks  had endured for too long. Continuing the protest was justifiable on both legal and moral grounds. No one, however, would be coerced into joining the boycott. Instead they should be guided by their ‘conscience’.  ‘[O]ur actions must be guided by the deepest principles of our Christian faith. Love must be our regulating ideal. Once again we must hear the words of Jesus echoing across the centuries: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.” If we fail to do this our protest will end up as a meaningless drama on the stage of history, and its memory will be shrouded with the ugly garments of shame. In spite of the mistreatment we have confronted we must not become bitter, and end up by hating our white brothers. ’If you will protest courageously , and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, “There lived a great people—a black people—who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.” This is our challenge and overwhelming responsibility’ [137].

After the applause, Abernathy read the MIAs resolutions—three  demands that must be met before the boycott was ended: guaranteed courteous service by drivers; passengers seated on a first-come, first-served basis, Blacks from the back, Whites from the front (this implied that a Black passenger would not have to relinquish his/ her seat for a White passenger when there were insufficient seats in the White section); Negro drivers on predominantly Negro routes. The motion was carried unanimously. ‘Negroes’ agreed to refrain from riding the buses until the conditions were met [138].

King  left the meeting that evening exhilarated. The Negro attendance, the unanimous acceptance of the resolutions to continue the fight meant that, in a way, they had already won.  Reflecting later, he wondered why now, why Montgomery, the cradle of Confederation?  There was a ‘divine dimension’ to this action, he writes. ‘It seems as though God had decided to  use Montgomery as the proving ground for the struggle of triumph of freedom and justice in America’ [139].

Seventy-five percent of the  Montgomery bus ridership were ‘colored’ [140].  It was clear that a prolonged boycott would have a serious economic impact on the bus company and on  the city. A group of Montgomery ‘city fathers’–including Mayor W.A. Gayle (D)–and representatives of the bus company, agreed to meet with the MIA [141].

Two days after the Monday night ‘mass meeting’,  a MIA negotiating committee, with King as its spokesperson, walked into the commissioner’s chambers at city hall [142]. Weeks of negotiations followed. The mayor and his commissioners refused to accept two of the MIA’s three requests, namely the first-come first-served seating arrangement, and the hiring of Negro drivers on predominantly Negro routes. The MIA then amended the request on drivers to allow for  Negro drivers to be added to Negro routes when opportunities became available [143]. They  also revised their first come first-served seating request to one where both races would have to continuously move to either end of the bus as seats became available, Whites to the front, Blacks to the back [144]. The city rejected both concessions. The bus company, they argued, was a private enterprise and could not be forced to hire Negro drivers. They rejected the seating amendment by simply stating it was illegal [145].

Negotiations reached an impasse.  Members of the  mayor’s office  suggested calling off the boycott while negotiations were ongoing [146]. They then attempted to  weaken the MIA, to  ‘divide and conquer’ the leaders [147]. They spread rumors about  MIA leadership, including the lie that King had purchased a brand-new  Cadillac, that  King was the impediment to  reaching a settlement [148]. In mid-January the MIA  learned that a story was about to be published that a settlement had been reached without their knowledge. After desperately digging into the story, the MIA executive  learned that no one in their organization had made such an agreement. It was a story concocted by the mayor and three Black ministers unaffiliated with the protest. The MIA ministers were able to warn their respective congregations of the fraudulent story before it was published. The boycott continued [149].

The protesters were resolute. Women were the unsung heroes of the  boycott. They baked pies, cooked meals  for cash which they’d then donate to the movement.  Maids would walk to and from work, sometimes as much as ten miles a day, rain or shine.  Black taxi drivers picked up passengers and not request a fare. Shoes were donated from all over the country. Young boys accompanied schoolgirls home from school for protection. Teachers refrained from giving homework on Mondays so that families could attend the Monday night meetings.  Churches would take up collections to buy ‘shiny new’ station wagons. They called them ‘Rolling churches.’  Dances were held to raise money. A radio DJ announced  daily carpool pickup locations [150].

After suffering successive failures to halt the boycott, and enduring the humiliation of the failed plot to trick the MIA into abandoning the protest, Mayor Gayle and his ‘city-fathers’ all but abandoned negotiations and instituted what King refers to as a ‘get tough policy.’  The mayor called upon White employers to stop providing rides to their employees [151]. Police were told to ‘toughen up’ on Negroes waiting for rides.  Carpool drivers were harassed—arrested and sometimes jailed [152].   Businessmen voluntarily laid off Black employees [153].  Jo Ann Robinson, who initially suggested the boycott, was targeted. A rock was tossed through a window of her home, and acid was  thrown on her car [154]. Rosa Parks was fired from her department store job weeks earlier, during boxing week, on the premise that business was slow. She received death threats, and the KKK walked past her home replete in robes and carrying torches. Young White men urinated in balloons and tossed them at carpool vehicles as they drove by [155].

King  sometimes took the desperate step  of taking his phone off the hook  for relief from the constant threats and harassment . By the middle of  January  he was receiving between thirty and forty calls a day [156].

At about the same time King became personally impacted by the authorities’ harassment. Driving home one afternoon he was arrested for driving five miles over the speed limit.   He was gripped with panic as he was driven to what appeared to be a secluded location. King prayed to God that he would be able to endure whatever they had planned for him.  Fortunately, they delivered him to the city jail, which, unbeknown to King at the time, was located some distance away from the downtown area, and not near the city center as he had thought. Later that evening he was released on bond paid by the MIA, which then disallowed him  from driving. The experience made him even more determined to continue the struggle [157].

The threatening letters and phone calls continued unabated.  A White friend informed King that there were rumors circulating that he would be killed. On January 27^th,  late at night, King received a particularly frightening call.  Despondent, he thought about giving up.  In the silence of the night he turned to God: “’I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before  them without strength and courage, they too will falter. 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.’” He felt the presence of the Divine like never before. He seemed to hear a quiet reassuring voice: ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.’  Almost at once, his  fears left him. He was ready for anything [158].

Three nights later, on January 30^th, King was at a church meeting. Several sticks of dynamite were tossed on his front porch and exploded. King rushed home. Coretta and the baby were inside but were not hurt. An angry group of  followers gathered outside his damaged home, ready to retaliate. King met with them outside. He raised his hand for attention : “Violence must not come from any of us. We will have walked in vain. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the White man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society that can live with its conscience, a society at peace with itself.” [159].

Two days later, on February 1^st, attorneys Charles Langford, and Fred Gray, part-time minister and the MIA’s chief legal counsel, filed a lawsuit challenging segregation within the Montgomery AL, transportation system.  Browder v. Gayle was a federal court case filed in the U. S. District Court for the Northern (Montgomery) Division of the Middle District of Alabama. It was filed on behalf of four plaintiffs, one of whom was sixteen-year-old Claudette Colvin. All the plaintiffs had either been arrested for refusing to give up their seats to White passengers or harmed by being forced to comply with segregation codes. (Mrs. Parks was not a plaintiff to avoid the perception that she may be attempting to get around her prosecution on other charges.) The defendants included Mayor W. A. Gayle, several of his city commissioners, the bus company,  the chief of the Montgomery police department, and James Blake, the bus driver who had called the police on Mrs. Parks.

Later that evening a stick of  dynamite exploded at E.D.  Nixon’s home. Nixon had bonded Mrs. Parks out of jail at her original arrest on December 1^st , and was a member of the MIA executive board.  No one was hurt in the blast [160]. Days later, attorney Fred Gray had his minister’s deferment revoked, was later arrested and charged with barratry. Rumors surfaced that the MIA leadership would  soon be arrested under a thirty-five-year-old statute prohibiting boycotts without a just cause or legal excuse [161]. Surely enough, on February 13^th, a grand jury of ‘seventeen Whites and one Negro’ was empanelled. A week later they found the boycott illegal, paving the way for mass arrests. Close to one hundred people, including King, were indicted [162].

If the indictments were designed to crush the spirits of the protesters, it didn’t. It had the opposite effect.  It garnered national and international attention, and additional funds, boosting morale. And prominent individuals outside Montgomery, were now willing to join the protest.

Bayard Rustin and Glenn Smiley

Novelist Lillian Smith was a member of the board of directors of  FOR. Smith, one of the earliest White supporters of the  Montgomery boycott, contacted King and recommended Bayard Rustin, a former member of FOR,  as an advisor to the MIA on Gandhian nonviolent techniques. A. Philip Randolph —  the famed union organize, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and  mentor to Rustin — supported Smith’s recommendation [163]. Smith’s  position in  FOR–a respected group in social justice circles–no doubt carried  considerable weight.  Randolph’s support would have provided additional heft, particularly with E. D. Nixon, himself  a union organizer and a Pullman Porter. On February 21^st, three weeks after Fred  Gray filed suit,  Rustin arrived in Montgomery  [164]. 

By 1956, Rustin had established an international reputation as a pacifist and a purveyor of nonviolent resistance.  He had also developed a professional relationship with James Farmer, a former member of FOR and co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1947 Rustin collaborated with Farmer and another member of FOR, George Houser, to lead  nonviolent protests targeting restrictive housing policies in the North [165]. They organized ‘freedom rides’ to challenge segregation on interstate buses, which the U.S.  Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional in a 1946 decision.  Rustin’s exploits had become so well known that Mahatma Gandhi himself  invited him  to participate in an international pacifist conference scheduled for February of 1949 [166].  The Mahatma was assassinated in January of 1948, but the invitation remained, and Rustin made the trip to India [167].

Mary King, an award-winning author and political scientist, states in her book, Mahatma Gandhi and Matin Luther King Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action,  Rustin’s mission in Montgomery was to ‘help King develop the steely discipline demanded by Gandhian approaches and to widen the Montgomery  action into a sophisticated, political usage of nonviolence in a broad-based movement’ [168]. Rustin ‘spent a week in Montgomery…and shared his expertise in nonviolent theory and practice during strategy meetings of the Montgomery Improvement Association.’ He assisted with press releases, organized carpools, secured legal assistance, and arranged bail. It was Rustin, she adds, who advised the  MIA on a key Gandhian principle: to accept arrest not as a shameful, degrading experience, but as a celebration, a proud symbol of resistance [169].

On the heels of the grand jury indictment, mass arrests ensued. Gandhian principles of willingly submitting to arrest were immediately put to the test.   On Rustin’s advice, E.D. Nixon did not wait to be picked up, but walked into the county courthouse voluntarily [170].  King was in Tennessee, then Atlanta,  at his father’s house at the time. Daddy King had assembled a group of  his influential friends to persuade his son to stay out of Montgomery. King argued that he had to return. As mentioned above, Dr. Benjamin Mays, the esteemed president of Morehouse College,  was the only voice  who initially agreed with Martin Jr. The following morning, King returned to Montgomery and walked into the county courthouse [171]. There, he found the Gandhian principle–the jiujitsu tactic of accepting arrest for a just cause a badge of honor and not a mark of shame–prevalent in the county jail. ‘Negroes had gone voluntarily to the sheriff’s office to see if their names were on the list, and were even disappointed when they were not. A once-fear-ridden people had been transformed. Those who had previously trembled before the law were now proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom.’  King was processed, and after his bond was paid by a church member, left for home [172].

While a brilliant strategist, controversy soon swirled around Rustin’s presence in Montgomery.  Allegations surfaced that the openly gay civil rights activist had misrepresented himself as a journalist for two foreign publications, allegations Rustin addressed in a letter to King.  A week after arriving  in Montgomery, Rustin left for Birmingham, where he continued to advise the MIA [173]. He was replaced by the national field secretary of FOR, Glenn Smiley.  Smiley, a White Methodist minister and a colleague of Rustin, was also an avid student of Gandhian nonviolent techniques. Both Rustin and Smiley recommended books on Gandhi. They included The Power of Nonviolence, by David Greed, and War Without Violence, by Krishnalal Shridharani [174].

On March 19, King was put on trial for his role in the boycott. He was found guilty and fined $500 or a year in prison. As King left the courtroom, he realized he was now a convicted criminal, but he was proud of his crime. He was convicted of ‘joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice…of seeking to instill in my people a sense of dignity and self-respect…of desiring for my people the inalienable right of truth, justice and the pursuit of happiness…of seeking to convince my people that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral duty as cooperation with good’ [175].

 By now King had become a national symbol, and the NAACP agreed to finance the legal fees for the movement, for King’s defence, and for the Browder v. Gayle case [176]. As if in retaliation, on June 1, the Alabama Attorney General obtained a court order prohibiting the NAACP from raising funds, collecting dues, or soliciting for new members, effectively banning the organization in that state [177].

On June 5, 1956, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled  in favour of the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle. It found that based on the equal protection guaranteed citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment ‘the enforced segregation of Black and White passengers on motor buses operating in the City of Montgomery violates the Constitution and laws of the United States.’  The defence immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and the buses remained segregated pending the appeal.

Throughout the summer, the violence and intimidation continued. In August, Robert Graetz, a Lutheran minister and the only White member of the MIA executive board,  joined the list of protesters whose houses were bombed.

On November 13, an injunction was granted to halt the carpools. The City of Montgomery had sued in state court for the stoppage, claiming it infringed on the bus company’s exclusive franchise [178]. The following day, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the lower court opinion in Browder v. Gayle, declaring Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws unconstitutional.The city and state filed an appeal  for the Court to reconsider their decision. On December 17^th, the Court denied the appeal and three days later the city of Montgomery was ordered to integrate their bus system. That day, the MIA voted to end the 381-day  action of nonviolent resistance. The following day, Montgomery City Lines resumed full bus service, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was among the first to ride the  buses, sitting next to Glenn Smiley, his White advisor, and behind  his friend , Rev. Ralph Abernathy [179].

King Timeline – Post Montgomery

Mere days after the Supreme Court decision, in the waning days of December 1956, a shotgun blast shattered the windows  of the King parsonage [180]. Days later buses began to be fired upon. A young girl was beaten, and a pregnant woman shot. The violence escalated to the point where bus service was stopped after 5 pm [181].

In early January, King called for a group of Negro leaders to meet in Atlanta.  At 2 am on the day of  the conference, January 10^th, Abernathy received a telephone  call from his wife back in Montgomery. Their house had been bombed. This was the first act in a reign of terror that extended for the remainder of the month. Four churches, including Abernathy’s, were bombed. The house of  Robert Graetz–the only White member of the MIA executive board, whose house was bombed the previous summer–was bombed again. Six sticks of  dynamite were thrown on King’s porch but, fortunately, did not detonate [182]. King again pleaded for a nonviolent response to the terror [183]. Finally, several White ministers and organizations condemned the bombings, as well as the local newspaper [184].  Five  men were  eventually indicted for the bombings.  Two of the defendants were found not guilty; King makes no mention of the other three [185].

The Montgomery action of nonviolent resistance was just the opening chapter in the struggle for civil and human rights in the United States. Below is a snippet of subsequent actions  taken by King and others in the Civil Rights struggle.

The SCLC, January 1957  — After interrupting his conference to return to Montgomery when Abernathy’s house was bombed, King quickly returned  to Atlanta and rejoined the gathering. The objective of the meeting was to establish  an organization to  implement the Supreme Court’s decision against bus segregation throughout the South, using nonviolent means [186]. Out of this conference grew an organization that became the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King became its first president [187].

Washington, D.C., May 1957 — On the third anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, over 20,000 persons assembled on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  Speakers urged both political parties to do more to fulfill the Court’s landmark decision. King demanded both parties ‘Give Us the Ballot,’ where he exhorted them to combat a slew of  ‘conniving’ methods to prevent African Americans from voting.  In attendance were Bayard Rustin, one of the event’s organizers, and such luminaries as  A. Philip Randolph, New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., NAACP president Roy Wilkins, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and entertainer Harry Belafonte.

India, February 3, 1959  — King, his wife Corretta, and biographer, Lawrence Reddick, traveled to India for a month-long visit. There they were greeted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (who had sent King a welcome letter the month before),  members of the Indian government, and several of Gandhi’s relatives.  According to King, the Indian newspapers had covered the Montgomery boycott with ‘a better continuity of our 381-day bus strike than did most of our papers in the United States.’  He spoke at public meetings and before university groups. The Indian people were particularly interested in the race problem in the United States and so the meetings were usually packed [188].

In 2009, National Public Radio (NPR)  broadcasted portions of a long-lost speech Dr. King made while in India. In it he reaffirms his admiration for Gandhi, and his belief that nonviolent resistance is the ‘most potent weapon  available to oppressed people in the struggle for justice and human dignity.’ Find portions of Dr. King’s speech embedded in the NPR broadcast here.

Birmingham,  AL, April 1963 and September, 1963  — In April 1963, King participated in the Birmingham Campaign, to protest segregationist policies in that city. He and Abernathy disobeyed an injunction against the protest and were imprisoned in the City Jail. Behind bars, King penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail. It was addressed to seven clergymen who had published a letter critical of the protest. In his message, King described  his rationale for protest, the steps taken to determine if a protest was warranted,  provided a strident defence on why we can no longer ‘wait’ for justice, and reaffirmed his belief in nonviolent resistance as a vehicle to correct injustice,  for ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’   While King and Abernathy were incarcerated, the civil disobedience campaign continued: mass meetings, lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall, and a boycott of downtown merchants. By May, negotiators reached a compromise-drinking fountains were desegregated, and plans were initiated to desegregate lunch counters, ‘upgrade’ Black employment, and to release jailed protesters.

Segregationists retaliated with violence. Black millionaire and businessman, A.G. Gaston,  who had bailed King out of the Birmingham jail, was targeted. Pro-segregationist bombed his motel. The following day they bombed the home of King’s brother, Alfred.  In September, after a  federal court issued an order to admit the first five Black students to three different public schools [189], Governor George Wallace ‘persuaded’ the mayor to close the schools. Segregationists continued  the reign of violence, bombing the home of Arthur Shores, an eminent Black Alabama attorney and a member of King’s legal team.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was a prominent fixture in the Black community, hosting mass meetings and rallies during the Campaign. At 10:22 A.M. on Sunday, September 15^th,  a bomb ripped through one side of the building.  Four little girls were in the basement, attending Sunday School [190].  Denise McNair,  age 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all age 14, were killed. Addie Mae’s younger sister, Sarah, lost her right eye in the explosion [191]; she was among twenty others who were injured.  In the unrest that  followed, a Black youth was killed by police and another was murdered by a White mob. Three days after the bombing, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. eulogized three of the girls [192].  In 1977 the first of the perpetrators was put on trial and convicted.  After several  trials, two more suspects were convicted, in 2001 and 2002, and sentenced to life in prison. A fourth suspect died before he was brought to justice [193]. 

Washington, D.C., August 1963 –Several major labor, religious, and civil rights organizations, along with more than 200,000 demonstrators, attended The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the peaceful demonstration was  held to pressure the Kennedy administration to initiate a new civil rights bill.  The March on Washington has become  one of the defining events in the quest for civil rights–not only in the United States but around the globe–and King’s I Have a Dream speech has attained almost a mythical status in modern American oratory. Nearly a year later, on July 2, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  It ‘prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction’[194].

Selma, AL, March 1965 — In 1963,  just 242 out of  15,000 eligible Black residents in Dallas County in central Alabama, were registered to vote. Frustrated with registration efforts, in December 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) initiated a voter registration drive [195].  The Dallas County Voters League requested the SCLC’s assistance in organizing a protest and to register voters. The three organizations also began a campaign to pressure the initiation of a Voting Rights Bill. By mid-February at least 2,000 demonstrators were jailed, and one protestor, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot by police, and later died. King and the  SCLC organized a march from Selma, the Dallas County seat, to Montgomery, the Alabama capital, to protest the killing, and the growing violence visited on the protesters.  Governor George Wallace forbade the march. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, 600 marchers started out from Selma to Montgomery. King had not yet joined the march. The protesters were stopped at the Edmund Pettus bridge by sheriff James Clark’s deputies and dozens of state troopers. In the brutal violence that ensued more than fifty protesters suffered injuries that required them to be hospitalized.  The carnage law enforcement visited on the protestors were broadcast all over the United States and around the world.  The following Tuesday, King led a  group of 2,000 to the bridge once again, led them in prayer, and turned around. However, that night, three White clergyman who supported the protest were  assaulted. One died of his injuries. Lawyers for the SCLC went to court to again jumpstart the demonstration.   A week later, a judge ruled the fifty-mile march could be staged. On March 21, King led thousands of marchers out of Selma; four days later they arrived in Montgomery. On August 16, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law.

Views on Vietnam, April 1967 – King delivered his ‘Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence’ speech, voicing his opposition to the Vietnam War. He condemned U.S. involvement while domestic problems were still so prevalent. In 1963, he had delivered his iconic  ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Four years later, in a NBC interview, King conceded that, for him, the optimism extant in his famous speech had diminished, that his dream had ‘at many points turned into a nightmare.’ A nightmare because of three evils within the U.S: racism, economic exploitation/ poverty, and militarism. The war in Vietnam made it more difficult for the nation to focus on issues of  equality and social uplift. The three were tied inextricably together, ‘we can’t get rid of one without getting rid of the other.’  (See the full interview here. Dr. King addresses the ‘nightmare’ comment at around the 21-minute mark.)

Memphis, TN, March – April 1968 – On March 28, King led a march of 6,000 protesters in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, TN. The march descended into violence and looting, and King was rushed from the scene. On April 3rd he delivered his final public address, the prophetic ‘I’ve Been to The Mountaintop’ speech.

Philosophical Comparisons of  Gandhi and King

Fundamental Beliefs

Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for social justice and human dignity, and against tyranny  and racial bigotry, with no weapon other than an unshakable, uncompromising  belief in a universal form of love, a love that  demanded respect for all human beings. It was not the mawkish,  banal, sentimental emotion that dominates popular culture. This love, for them, was a fundamental, universal truth. They were  resolute and determined to disobey social laws and norms that defied that truth, and were prepared to suffer the consequences of their actions. There were differences, in their practice of  this universal love, however. Gandhi called it Ahimsa—not causing harm to other living things: human or animal. For King it was, Agape, a transcendental form of love for people–a love that demands nothing in return.

Influences

Gandhi developed his ideas on nonviolence from several sources. The ancient Hindu divine  poem The Bhargavi Gita, struck him as a book of ‘priceless worth’ [196]. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount ‘went straight to [his] heart’ and ‘delighted [him] beyond measure. ’ [197]. Unto This Last, a critique of classical economics, by the writer John Ruskin,  influenced Gandhi’s early thinking on self-reliance [198]. Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You, a treatise on non-violence based on Christ’s teachings, ‘overwhelmed’ him [199].

In Stride Toward Freedom  King lists Jesus’ teachings on brotherly love as the force behind his beliefs on nonviolent resistance. Gandhi’s Satyagraha, which influenced his thinking during and after the Montgomery boycott,  was the vehicle used to put Jesus’ teachings into action [200]. He also lists theologians Walter Rauschenbusch [201] and  Reinhold Niebuhr as influences [202].

Tools of Protest — Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience

King and Gandhi used civil disobedience and non-violent resistance to put their perceptions of love into practice when faced with evil,  evil manifested by unjust laws. For Gandhi, banning non-Christian marriages, or  prohibiting Indians from producing a lucrative product like salt, or denying Indian’s self-determination from Britain, were violations of  Ahimsa. For King, robbing African Americans  of  their basic human dignity by forcing them to enter a  bus from the rear, sitting at the back, and standing so that a White person could sit, was a violation of Agape. While they utilized similar forms of protests, there were differences as well. In addition to the civil disobedience tactics later utilized in the civil rights movement, Gandhi personally incorporated fasting, and encouraged his Satyagrahis to be economically self-sufficient. He  purchased land where Satyagrahis could spin their own cotton and grow their own crops. In fact, Gandhi reached out to the  famous African-American scientist, George Washington Carver for advice on developing a vegan diet for his followers, and to lessen Indians’ dependence on British food and companies [203]. Carver responded with a series of pamphlets to assist the Mahatma.

Tools of Protest – Media and Protest Marches

Both Gandhi and King relied on widespread publicity  to further their cause. The very first protests in South Africa garnered  national, then international attention. The outside world was made aware of  the conditions  that ignited the protest through sympathetic coverage, especially in India and Britain. Gandhi sank much of his money into the publication arm of his movement, Indian Opinion. This too  informed the public on his people’s struggles, and the forces determined to ensure their defeat. In the United States, the Montgomery  Boycott garnered national and international coverage, so much so that journalists from several foreign countries eventually covered the protest. The bloody marches in Selma, with water hoses and dogs set upon the  nonviolent protesters, opened a window on the fight for civil rights. These images, in print and later on television, were all highly effective in pressuring  politicians and other government officials to put an end to the protests by granting many of the protesters’ demands.

Costs of Non-violent Resistance

For his numerous satyagraha campaigns, Gandhi was arrested over a dozen times and  served almost six years, cumulatively, in prison, over a span of thirty-six years. His longest  imprisonment was for sedition, for writing three articles in the journal Young India. For this, he served 673 days of  a six-year sentence [204]. His wife, Kasturba,  was also arrested several times and died behind bars in 1944 [205].

Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested  thirty times, beginning in 1956 during the bus boycott. Both leaders, like many of their followers,  have turned the  idea  of imprisonment on its head. Incarceration became an honour,  a stand in defiance of an unjust social, legal and political system.

As noted earlier, King and others who dared to participate in non-violent  resistance protest suffered severe retribution at the hands of law enforcement and civilians alike. Protesters lost jobs, were arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges, their homes were shot at and/ or bombed, churches were bombed or set on fire, adults and children alike were murdered. Few perpetrators were brought to justice, and fewer still  were made to pay for their crimes.

Despite such brutal acts of  violence, the leaders refused to respond with in kind.

Loss of Fear and Acquisition of Dignity and Self-worth

Both leaders were successful in pressuring their respective governments to either change existing laws, or to introduce legislation to address  injustice. The results however run much deeper. First, protests eradicated the fear used by the powerful to intimidate and coerce the oppressed. Once  the fear of incarceration was eliminated, the ruling class lost their primary weapon to control the oppressed. Second,  protests instilled a sense of basic human dignity. Preferring to walk miles–sometimes in the rain, to a place of employment–instilled a sense of  personal dignity and pride that was unattainable when vacating your seat and standing for another human being, simply because of their skin color. Likewise, gaining the ability to produce salt in your own country instead of purchasing it from your rulers at inflated prices, for no reason other than your ethnicity, had to have been incredibly self-affirming.

Legacy

Ultimately, both Gandhi and King—and many of their followers–paid for their beliefs with their  lives. Gandhi was assassinated at 78, King at just half that age. Nonetheless, their respective legacies and influence, have grown consistently over time.

Their legacies are profound. These icons demonstrated to the despised and oppressed how to asset their dignity and humanity. Affirming your dignity and self-worth, and forcing your oppressor to accept that worth as well, is an inescapable result of non-violent resistance to an unjust system. This after all is the essence of universal love—ahimsa and agape.

© Weldon Turner, 2021. All rights reserved.

Images

Mahatma Gandhi

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Description: Studio photograph of Mohandas K. Gandhi, London, 1931.

Date: 1931

Attribution: Elliott & Fry

License: Public domain

Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma-Gandhi,_studio,_1931.jpg

File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Mahatma-Gandhi%2C_studio%2C_1931.jpg

Rosa Parks

Source: Wikimedia Commons from Ebony Magazine

Description: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King jr. (ca. 1955)

Date 1955

Attribution: Unknown author

License: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosaparks.jpg

File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Rosaparks.jpg

Kasturba Gandhi

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Attribution:  Unknown author

License: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Page URL:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kasturba_Gandhi.jpg

File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Kasturba_Gandhi.jpg

W.E.B. DuBois

Source: Library of Congress

Title W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, 1868-1963

Summary Photo shows W.E.B. Du Bois, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right.

Contributor Names Battey, C. M. (Cornelius Marion), 1873-1927, photographer

Created / Published c1919 May 31.

Subject Headings   Du Bois, W. E. B.–(William Edward Burghardt),–1868-1963

Source Collection:  Biographical File filing series (Library of Congress)

Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/2003681451/

Howard Thurman

Source: Getty Images

Dr. Howard Thurman. Jesus is A Companion: News Photo

Credit: Dick Darrell / Contributor

Collection: Toronto Star

Date created: 18 July, 1964

Getty license: Editorial (used with permission)

Benjamin Mays

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Description: Benjamin Mays, portrait at the University of Chicago, 1921

Date      3 January 1921

Source  Benjamin Elijah Mays: a Pictorial Life and Times (2006), First Edition. Photo scanned from text.

Attribution: Carrie M. Dumas and Julie Hunter

License: Public Domain

Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Mays_Portrait_1921.png

File URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Mays_Portrait_1921.png

Mordecai Johnson

Source: Library of Congress

Title: Mordecai Johnson

Contributor Names:  Harris & Ewing, photographer

Created / Published:  [1937 or 1938]

No known restrictions on publication

URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016873245/

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Source Wikimedia Commons

Description: Martin Luther King, 1964

Date: 1964

Attribution: Nobel Foundation

License: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Page URL https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King,_Jr..jpg

File URL https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr..jpg

Bayard Rustin

Source: Library of Congress

Title: [Bayard Rustin at news briefing on the Civil Rights March on Washington in the Statler Hotel, half-length portrait, seated at table] / [WKL].

Summary: Photograph shows Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2021)

Contributor Names: Leffler, Warren K., photographer

Created / Published: 1963 Aug. 27.

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688133/

Footnotes

[1] Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform), 2013,  p75

[2] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p82. 

[3] History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks.

[4] M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume Two, Translated from the Gujarati by Valji Govindji Desai, © Navajivan Trust, 1968 pp106-107 https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/satyagraha_in_south_africa.pdf

[5] Global Nonviolent Action Database, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914

[6] South African History Online,  https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/heritage-and-identity-provinces

[7] Weldonturner.com, https://www.weldonturner.com/gandhi-part-1/ accessed May 14, 2021.

[8] Weldonturner.com, https://www.weldonturner.com/gandhi-part-1/ accessed May 14, 2021 

[9] MkGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/africa.htm

[10] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 2013,  p105.

[11] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p108

[12] M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume Two,   pp 96-7 https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/satyagraha_in_south_africa.pdf

[13] M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, pp141-142

[14] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Satyagraha.” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 12, 2015. https://www.britannica.com/topic/satyagraha-philosophy.  

[15] Global Nonviolent Action Database, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914, accessed Sunday, September 20, 2020.

[16] MkGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/africa.htm  accessed May 17, 2021

[17] MkGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/africa.htm  accessed May 17, 2021

[18] M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, P255

[19] M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, P255

[20]  Global Nonviolent Action Database, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914, accessed Sunday, September 20, 2020.

[21]  M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gadni, Volume Two,. p260

[22] Global Nonviolent Action Database,  https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914, accessed Sunday, September 20, 2020.

[23] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm

[24] Gandhi Sevagram Ashram, https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/on-nonviolence/satyagraha-at-viramgam.php, accessed June 14, 2021.

[25] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p300

[26] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p323.

[27] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p323.

[28] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p325  

[29] Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi, Vintage Books, 1983 p122

[30] Gandhi, The Essential Gandhi p123

[31] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p339

[32] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p345

[33] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p349

[34] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm 

[35] Encyclopedia Britannica Online,  Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s. v. “Rowlatt Acts”, http://www.britannica.com/event/Rowlatt-Acts, accessed September 23, 2020.

[36] Gandhi, The Essential Gandhi, p238

[37] Weldonturner.com, https://www.weldonturner.com/gandhis-experiments-with-truth-part-2, accessed June 17, 2021.

[38] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm 

[39] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm, accessed June 17, 2021.

[40] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.htm, accessed June 17, 2021.

[41] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm 

[42]  Quinton Dixie, Peter Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World: Howard Thurman’s Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence,  Beacon Press, 2011, p96.

[43] Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gandhi-on-Africans/articleshow/48839120.cms, accessed September 28, 2020.

[44] Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa www.mkgandhi.org  pp 91-92.

[45] Gandhi, The Essential Gandhi, p280

[46] FORUSA.org, https://forusa.org/2020/09/29/gandhis-influence-on-the-civil-rights-movement-in-the-united-states/, accessed July 13, 2021. 

[47] Dixie and Eisenstadt, Visions of a New World, p96.

[48] The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song. A 2021 documentary hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Produced by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dyllan McGee., McGee Media, LLC , Inkwell Media, LLC and WETA Washington, DC, 2021  (At about the 33:19 mark)

[49] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/Mahatma-Gandhi-and-Martin-Luther-King-Jr.html, accessed May 4, 2021.

[50] Howard Thurman, With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman, Harvest Books, 1981, p103

[51] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, inside dust jacket.

[52] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p12. 

[53] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p15

[54] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p21

[55] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p23.

[56] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World pp32-33. 

[57] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p59.

[58]. Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World, p25

[59] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World p43 

[60] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World p45.

[61] Quinton and Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World pp51-52.

[62] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p88

[63] Youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpZwCRInrgo. Accessed May 24, 2021. 

[64] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p131

[65] Thurman, With Head and Heart, P131.

[66] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p132. 

[67] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p132 

[68] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p132

[69] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., p221.

[70] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., p222

[71] Thurman, With Head and Heart, Thurman, With Head and Heart, pp 132-133

[72] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p133 

[73] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p133.

[74] Thurman, With Head and Heart,  p133. 

[75] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p134.

[76]Thurman, With Head and Heart, p134

[77] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p134.

[78] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p132.

[79] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p134.

[80] Thurman, With Head and Heart, p135

[81] The Black Church: this is Our Story, This is Our Song, (at about the 35:00 minute mark)

[82] Martin Luther, King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, Beacon Press, 2010, pp136-137

[83] Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/mays-benjamin-elijah accessed April 5, 2021.

[84] Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources/major-king-events-chronology-1929-1968 accessed April 5, 2021.

[85] Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University,  https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/mays-benjamin-elijah accessed April 5, 2021

[86] Benjamin Mays, Born to Rebel, University of Georgia Press, 2003, p149.

[87] O Joyce Smith,  “Channing H. Tobias: An Educational Change Agent in Race Relations” (1993)., Dissertations. 3269, Loyola University Chicago, pp 44-45.

[88] Mays, Born to Rebel, p155.

[89] Mays, Born to Rebel, p155. 

[90] Mays, Born to Rebel, p156

[91] Mary King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action, UNESCO Publishing, 1999,  p224

[93] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. p226-2276.

[94] Mays, Benjamin E., Born to Rebel, University of Georgia Press, 2003. p156

[95] Mays, Born to Rebel, p157

[96] Mays, Born to Rebel, p157

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[110] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., pp 95-96.

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[118] Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/emmett-till-with-his-mother/  accessed June 4, 2021.

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[140] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p99. 

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[142] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p97

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[148] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p112

[149]  King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, pp115-6

[150]  Mighty Times: The Legacy of  Rosa Parks – HBO Documentary. 2002 Tell the Truth Pictures and  The Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cPWqhbigo, accessed June 9, 2021.   They called them ‘Rolling churches.’  27:20 Dances were held to raise money 28:25

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[152] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p116   

[153] Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963,  p158. 

[154] Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/robinson-jo-ann-gibson, accessed July 14, 2021.

[155]  Mighty Times: The Legacy of  Rosa Parks – HBO Documentary. 2002 Tell the Truth Pictures and  The Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cPWqhbigo, accessed June 9, 2021, accessed June 9, 2021, at approximately the 26-minute mark

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[157]  Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963,  p160

[158] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p125

[159]The Legacy of Rosa Parks, about the  35:00-minute mark

[160] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p131

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[162] Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963,  p175

[163] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., pp 119-120.

[164] Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/bayard-rustin-1, accessed June 9, 2021. 

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[167] Rustin, Time on Two Crosses, location  170

[168] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., p120.

[169] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., pp 121-122.

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[171] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p137.

[172] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p138

[173] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., p123.

[174] King, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., p124.

[175] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p141.

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[199] Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, p104.

[200] King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p72.

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[203] Carver, George W., and Gandhi, M.K., 24 February 1929 – 27 July 27 1935. Courtesy of World Food Prize. https://iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/primary-source-sets/population-and-land-use/letter, accessed September 28, 2020.

[204] MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.htm

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Links

History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks.

M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume Two, Translated from the Gujarati by Valji Govindji Desai, © Navajivan Trust, 1968 https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/satyagraha_in_south_africa.pdf

Global Nonviolent Action Database, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914

South African History Online,  https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/heritage-and-identity-provinces

Weldonturner.com, https://www.weldonturner.com/gandhi-part-1/

MkGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/africa.htm

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Satyagraha.” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 12, 2015. https://www.britannica.com/topic/satyagraha-philosophy.  

Global Nonviolent Action Database, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/indians-south-africa-wage-satyagraha-their-rights-1906-1914

MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/india.htm

Gandhi Sevagram Ashram, https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/on-nonviolence/satyagraha-at-viramgam.php

Encyclopedia Britannica Online,  Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s. v. “Rowlatt Acts”, http://www.britannica.com/event/Rowlatt-Acts

Weldonturner.com, https://www.weldonturner.com/gandhis-experiments-with-truth-part-2

MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.htm

Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gandhi-on-Africans/articleshow/48839120.cms

FORUSA.org, https://forusa.org/2020/09/29/gandhis-influence-on-the-civil-rights-movement-in-the-united-states/

MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/Mahatma-Gandhi-and-Martin-Luther-King-Jr.html

Youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpZwCRInrgo

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/mays-benjamin-elijah

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources/major-king-events-chronology-1929-1968

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/johnson-mordecai-wyatt

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Charles Hamilton Houston.” Encyclopedia Britannica, April 18, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Hamilton-Houston.

Dickerson, Dennis C. “African American Religious Intellectuals and the Theological Foundations of the Civil Rights Movement, 1930-55.” Church History 74, no. 2 (2005): 217-35. Accessed April 6, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27644548 Sudarshan Kapur, Raising up A Prophet: The African American Encounter with Gandhi, (Boston: Beacon) 1992.

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/congress-racial-equality-core

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/fellowship-reconciliation

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/crozer-theological-seminary

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/mlk-topic/martin-luther-king-jr-education

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Coretta Scott King.” Encyclopedia Britannica, April 23, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Coretta-Scott-King

Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/emmett-till-with-his-mother/ 

Mighty Times: The Legacy of  Rosa Parks – HBO Documentary. 2002 Tell the Truth Pictures and  The Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cPWqhbigo

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/robinson-jo-ann-gibson

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/bayard-rustin-1

U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/history/www/homepage_archive/2018/february_2018.html

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/my-trip-land-gandhi

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, https://www.16thstreetbaptist.org/our-history/

[Parrott-Sheffer, C.. “16th Street Baptist Church bombing.” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 8, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/event/16th-Street-Baptist-Church-bombing

Parrott-Sheffer, C.. “16th Street Baptist Church bombing.” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 8, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/event/16th-Street-Baptist-Church-bombing. 

OurDocuments.gov, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/  accessed July 5, 2021.

Wallenfeldt, J.. “Selma March.” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 14, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/event/Selma-March. 

Carver, George W., and Gandhi, M.K., 24 February 1929 – 27 July 27 1935. Courtesy of World Food Prize. https://iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/primary-source-sets/population-and-land-use/letter

MKGandhi.org, https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.htm

Routray, B. Prasad. “Kasturba Gandhi.” Encyclopedia Britannica, April 7, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kasturba-Gandhi.

Bibliography

Branch, Taylor, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks,  1989

Dixie, Quinton, Peter Eisenstadt, Visions of a Better World: Howard Thurman’s Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence,  Beacon Press, 2011

Gandhi, M. K., Satyagraha in South Africa, The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume Two, Translated from the Gujarati by Valji Govindji Desai, © Navajivan Trust, 1968 https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/satyagraha_in_south_africa.pdf

Gandhi, Mahatmai, Louis Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi, Vintage Books, 1983

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform), 2013

King, Martin Luther, King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, Beacon Press, 2010

King, Mary, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., The Power of Nonviolent Action, UNESCO Publishing, 1999

Mays, Benjamin, Born to Rebel, University of Georgia Press, 2003

\McKinney, Richard I., Mordecai: The Man and His Message, Howard University Press, 1997

Parr, Patrick,  The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age  Chicago Review Press. Kindle Edition

Rustin, Bayard, Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, Devon Carbado and Donald Weise, eds., Cleis Press Inc., 2003, Amazon Kindle Edition

Smith, O Joyce,  “Channing H. Tobias: An Educational Change Agent in Race Relations” (1993) Dissertations. 3269, Loyola University Chicago,

Thurman, Howard, With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman, Harvest Books, 1981

Documentary Video

The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song. A 2021 documentary hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Produced by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dyllan McGee., McGee Media, LLC , Inkwell Media, LLC and WETA Washington, DC, 2021