Pilgrimage to Nonviolence Summary and Analysis

Raised in a strict fundamentalist tradition, King was shocked and stimulated by his studies over the years. From his early years, a concern about injustice and civil rights developed within Martin Luther King. He saw the injustice as attack on self. Segregation and injustice affected not only the Negroes, but also the poor whites. He believed that the true gospel concerns itself with the whole man, soul and body. The evils of slums and inequity are within the sphere of religion. The teachings of Gandhi intellectually affected him. Love-force became a significant intellectual position in his life.

It was not until the bus strike in Montgomery, Alabama, that he was able to commit to the nonviolent way of life. Action and experience taught the fine points of the strategy. Nonviolence is neither quick nor easy. It requires...