Playboy Interview: Martin Luther King, Jr. Summary and Analysis

King learned specifically from three mistakes he made in their nonviolent quest for freedom. His first mistake was to accept bail to leave jail during the bus boycott. He believed that if he had stayed in prison, a more aware American conscience would have existed and the movement would have been dramatized and intensified earlier. Later, in the Albany protest against segregation, the focus was not clear enough to gain support from the people and produce public support. Later focused campaigns included emblematic objectives. A final mistake was the belief that the white Christian ministers would see the morality of the cause for civil rights for all, and join in the battle. This did not happen.

Dr. King accepted the label of militancy, claiming that militant nonviolence is powerful and just...