Stride Toward Freedom [Paperback]

Jr. Martin Luther King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1964

This book is an account of a few years that changed the life of a Southern community, told from the point of view of one of the participants. Although it attempts to interpret what happened, it does not purport to be a detailed survey of the historical and sociological aspects of the Montgomery story. It is therefore limited in scope and its point of view is inevitably personal.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harper & Row; 1st Perennial Library Edition edition (1964)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000NWP3FC
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,455,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, uplifting description of the bus boycott, January 23, 1999

By 

Tom Gregg([e-mail]) (East Orange, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (Paperback)

A classic true story. Details the story of the Montgomery bus boycott organized by King. Discusses the fact that Rosa Parks was not the first black woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white person. Details the logistics of the boycott and the violence and threats committed against King, sometimes dozens of threats per day. Discusses his reading of Gandhi and discusses King's worldview, including, of course, the nonviolent philosophy. You must know this story if you want to know about Martin Luther King Jr. or the history of race relations in the USA.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Steps against Injustice, January 27, 2008

By 

Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stride Toward Freedom (Hardcover)

This is both a revolutionary and a spiritual book. It is both the story of the Montgomery bus boycott and an exegesis of the principles of non-violent resistance, inherited by Gandhi from Tolstoy and enacted by Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and those who strode towards freedom with them.

Over and over again Dr. King speaks to the role of the Christian church in establishing justice:

"Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion. Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see--an opiate of the people." (p. 36)

King reminds us that when oppression exists, to do nothing is to not deserve anything better:

"Any individual who submitted willingly to injustice did not really deserve more justice." (p. 38)

Justice is part of the divine order and injustice, whether in particular acts or in covert systems is evil:

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it ... So in order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system." (p. 51)

King argues that one cannot dismiss this as merely "the social gospel," but it is at the core of Christianity:

"The gospel deals with the whole man, not only his soul, but his body; not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being ... Any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the social and economic conditions that scar the soul, is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: 'A religion that ends with the individual, ends.'" (p. 91)

"How often the church has had a high blood count of creeds and an anemia of deeds!" (p. 207)

King asserts that he is not espousing a passive approach:

"True pacifism is not nonresistance to evil, but nonviolent resistance to evil. Between these two positions, there is a world of difference." (p. 98)

Finally, King makes the point that resisting evil is not an attack against those who practice injustice:

"Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors, but against oppression." (p. 214)

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stride Toward Freedom, October 27, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (Paperback)

Stride Toward Freedom is an excellent book that should become a part of any school curriculum when learning about the Civil Rights Movement. Moving and deeply enlightening, the struggles and triumphs of a man so many of us see as super-human, makes this book one I would recommend to anyone. It is amazing to see how despite incredible odds, people still managed to emerge as remarkable leaders to be remembered for centuries to come.