Embarrassing. . . I still haven't finished Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. But I will. Tomorrow. There are so many good passages that deserve writing out, all through this book. Here I am, near the last pages. I'll write out a few that I just read:
"Every crisis has both its dangers and opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In the present crisis America can achieve either racial justice or the ultimate social psychosis that can only lead to domestic suicide. The democratic ideal of freedom and equality will be fulfilled for all - or all human beings will share in the resulting social and spiritual doom. In short, this crisis has the potential for democracy's fulfillment or fasciism's triumph; for social progress or retrogression. We can choose either to walk the high road of human brotherhood or to tread the low road of man's inhumanity to man." [in Chapter XI: Where Do We Go From Here?; page 196]
A few paragraphs on:
"A solution of the present crisis will not take place unless men and women work for it. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of irrational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.
"It is the shame of the sunshine patriots if the foregoing paragraphs have a hollow sound, like an echo of countless political speeches. These things must be repeated time and again, for men forget quickly; but once said, they must be followed with a dynamic program, or else they become a refuge for those who shy from any action. If America is to repond creatively to the present crisis, many groups and agencies must rise above the reiteration of generalities and begin to take an active part in changing the face of their nation."
There's a lot more I could write out. Some of it needs explanation and context. MLK is addressing racism and segregation, particularly in schools, in this instance.
Here's another passage from a few pages earlier, p. 192:
"The resistance to the emergence of the new order expresses itself in the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, Determined to preserve segregation at any cost, this organization employs methods that are crude and primitive. It draws its members from under-privileged groups who. see in the Negro's rising status a political and economic threat. Although the Klan is impotent politically and openly denounced from all sides, it remains a dangerous force which thrives on racial and religious bigotry. Because of its past history, whenever the Klan moves there is fear of violence,
"Then there are the White Citizens Councils. Since they occasionally recruit members from a higher social and economic level than the Klan, a halo of partial respectability hovers over them. But like the Klan they are determined to preserve segregation despite the law. Their weapons of threat, intimidation, and boycott are directed both against Negroes and against any whites who stand for justice. They demand absolute conformity from white and abject submission from Negroes. The Citizens Councils often argue piously that they abhor violence, but their defiance of the law, their unethical methods, and their vitriolic public pronouncements inevitably create the atmosphere in which violence thrives."
MLK embraced non-violent resistance and that accounts greatly for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He had the ability to galvanize and encourage the African Americans in Montgomery to both resist and maintain a non-violent stance despite violent attacks, bombings, and psychological warfare techniques that aimed to destroy by raising doubts from within.