Chapter 2, The Birth of the SCLC, 1957-1959 Summary and Analysis

A few days after the buses were desegregated, the King house was shot upon. King and his family were unharmed. Over the next few weeks, several buses were also fired on, wounding one black passenger. These events caused the police commissioner to hire extra police officers in order to have police patrols follow the city buses on their routes.

During this time, King remained in touch with Rustin. Rustin continued to push King to organize a meeting that would include black leaders throughout the south in order to continue the good works of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. King arranged for the meeting to take place in Atlanta in mid-January. The night before the meeting was to take place, several homes and churches in Montgomery were bombed, forcing Abernathy to...