Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1958. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 230pp. Octavo [21 cm] 1/4 black cloth with blue paper over boards. Subtle damp staining to the lower extremities of the spine. Endpapers darkened in areas. Present, albeit worn, is the price-clipped dust jacket. The jacket's spine is torn, with the most prominent tear being a loss from the top 1/4 of the jacket's spine at the head and the surrounding area of the front panel. The front panel has an abraded patch, obscuring a portion of the author's name. The lower extremities of the spine and rear panel are lightly moisture stained. A first edition of Martin Luther King's first book. "H-H" code on copyright page.

King's classic and very personal account of what began as a bus strike, sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, and ended in a Supreme Court decision and the first successful large-scale application of nonviolent resistance to an American situation.

From Stanford University, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute-

"In 'Stride Toward Freedom,' King delineates racial conditions in Montgomery before, during, and after the bus boycott. He discuses the origin and significance of the boycott, the roles that residents, civic leaders, and community organizations played in organizing and sustaining the movement, and the reactions of white Montgomery officials and residents. According to King, before the boycott African Americans in Montgomery were victims of segregation and poverty, but after the boycott, when bus desegregation was achieved, they evidenced a new level of self-respect (King, 'Stride Toward Freedom,' p. 28, p. 187). King points out that most African Americans in Montgomery accepted a nonviolent approach because they trusted their leaders when they told them that nonviolence was the essence of active Christianity.

"In the chapter 'Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,' King delves into the intellectual influences that lead him to nonviolent philosophy. He discusses the impact made upon his thinking by the works of Thoreau, Marx, Aristotle, Rauschenbusch, and Gandhi. King also outlines his understanding of nonviolence, which seeks to win an opponent to friendship, rather than to humiliate or defeat him (King, 'Stride Toward Freedom,' p. 102)."

A moving and culturally significant memoir.