King, Martin Luther, Jr. 173in the years to come. By early 1957, the boycott had
succeeded in forcing the desegregation of the Mont-
gomery bus system.
To build on the success of the Montgomery boy-
cott, King organized the Southern Christian Leader-
ship Conference (SCLC). The SCLC enabled civil
rights activists and religious leaders to coordinate
their efforts and provided King with greater visibility
and support. In 1959, King met with Indian Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other followers of
Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha,or the power of
truth to liberate the oppressed through active nonvio-
lence. These meetings reinforced King’s conviction
that freedom from racial oppression must be achieved
through nonviolent resistance. The essence of King’s
thought was that all individuals have a moral obli-
gation to refuse to cooperate with evil. King argued
that because evil laws, such as those enforcing racial
segregation and inequality, are neither morally nor
politically legitimate, resisters are justified in disobey-
ing those laws. To retain their moral authority, how-
ever, resisters must always pursue nonviolent forms of
noncooperation because violence destroys the value
and dignity of human life. Consequently, King advo-
cated nonviolent CIVIL DISOBEDIENCEas the only mo-
rally and practically acceptable path to freedom from
oppression.
King moved to Atlanta in 1960 and continued his
intense activism for civil rights, despite the threats
continually directed at himself and his family. Organiz-
ing and participating in numerous marches and sit-in
demonstrations, King was often arrested and jailed.
While in jail following his arrest for protesting segre-
gation policies in Birmingham, Alabama, in early 1963,
King wrote his famous essay, “Letter from a Birming-
ham Jail.” In this letter, King defended the philosophy
and tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience against
numerous critics: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to
create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a
community which has constantly refused to negotiate
is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize
the issue that it can no longer be ignored... We know
through painful experience that freedom is never vol-
untarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded
by the oppressed.”
In August 1963, King helped organize the historic
March on Washington, where several hundred thou-
sand people gathered to demand equal justice for all
citizens under the law. Here, King delivered his stirring
“I Have a Dream” speech, in which he described his
faith in the vision of all people united together in love
and brotherhood. Shortly thereafter, the federal gov-
ernment passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
outlawed racial discrimination in publicly owned facil-
ities and employment practices. In December 1964,
King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recogni-
tion of his contributions to peaceful social change.
During the next several years, King sought to
broaden his activism by opposing the Vietnam War
and by building coalitions among poor communities of
all colors in the United States. These activities re-
flected King’s growing awareness of the international
dimensions of racism and of how CAPITALISM con-
tributed to racial violence and social injustice. King
was concerned that the focus on civil and political
freedom too often overlooked the importance of social
and economic equality. The great economic divisionsDr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the civil rights March on Washing-
ton, 1963.(NATIONALARCHIVES)