Stride Toward Freedom

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s account of the first successful large-scale application of nonviolent resistance in America is comprehensive, revelatory, and intimate. King described his book as "the chronicle of 50,000 Negroes who took to heart the principles of nonviolence, who learned to fight for their rights with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth." Stride Toward Freedom traces the phenomenal journey of a community and shows how the twenty-six-year-old King, with his conviction for equality and nonviolence, helped transform the nation and the world.

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LibraryThing member rivkat

King’s account of the history of the Montgomery bus boycott. It’s interesting to hear him test out concepts that would become more famous later from other speeches; the book as a whole is far more accommodating to liberals than, say, Letter from Birmingham Jail, though even at this relatively

early stage King was talking about economic justice and also about the fact that he might well be killed. According to King, the protestors were initially willing to accept continued segregation as long as they were treated better and not forced to give up seats if they got there first; it was the resistance to even such a mild improvement that pushed them towards demanding integration. The amount of accommodation to whites King is willing to do at this point is fascinating—for example, there are statements about the black community’s need to improve its own standards, familiar even today. By contrast, when it comes to intermarriage, King is indirect but crystal clear: since marriage is a matter of individual choice, no one but the people involved have a right to decide who should get married. King underplays the role of Rosa Parks and other women in the civil rights movement, and there’s a jarring point at the end when he says that wage equality for black and white men is really important to everyone’s family because women should stay at home: paying black men more will allow black women to stay home, and then white women won’t be able to have their kids raised by black women and will also have to stay home. Another reminder that visions of justice are, even among great heroes, often partial.

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LibraryThing member yhgail

This writing is partly a history, partly a personal memoir, partly a collection of Essays and always visionary. As others have noted it is difficult to write a review of this writing. I think it would take writing a book to describe all my reactions to it.

I grew up in Montgomery. I was 5 when Rosa

Parks took her seat in the front of the city bus. While 5 may seem young to remember much about this period. Actually the opposite is true. There was little television, we got our first set when I was 5. Yet, many figures in this book, both black and white were prominent names etched in my memory. Like most suburban white dwellers, my mother had no car. My father had his business car. He worked long long hours. Often returning home ( he sold and serviced refrigeration primarily to mom and pop groceries in Montgomery county and many surrounding counties) late with dinner long grown cold.

So we rode the buses as many other whites. I can remember riding the buses before, during and after the bus boycott. Talk, discussion, rumors of the boycott filled our lives.

Dr. King tells many terrible stories of events that happened to black bus riders, of the horrors of retaliation during the boycott and after. There are many terrible things of which he doesn't speak. I wonder if he even knew of some of it, or if the retelling was simply too grievous.

What I particularly appreciated about Dr. King's remarks is understanding that many whites with no evil in their hearts were as caught under the net of hate and racism as the blacks. I appreciate his saying so and saying so more than once.

Growing up I knew haters and respecters of black people. And I knew many white who were in between.

I listened to the audio version of the book. Dr. King's words are those of a minister, intended to be savored and to touch the heart.

I know that there has been some criticism of this book, that Dr. King overlooked the contributions of many, particularly of women. My take on this is that, this is "Dr. King's" memoir. Aren't we all the center of our own stories? I think anyone knows that a miraculous effort like the Montgomery boycott takes a thousand heroes and heroines. Yet, listening to this memoir it is no wonder that Dr. King became the iconic leader of the civil rights movement that he became.

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