Introduction

Abstract

Martin Luther King, Jr. ranks among the greatest political strategists of all time. From the mid-1950s until the late 1960s, he was the most important leader of a nonviolent civil rights movement that transformed the politics of America and inspired oppressed people throughout the world. During this period, black Americans attained more progress than in the previous century. The system of de jure segregation was overturned in the South and essential legislation was enacted, enabling blacks to make significant strides toward resolving what Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal called in 1944 the American Dilemma — the conflict between the nation’s democratic ideals of freedom and equality, and its practice of denying basic rights to black citizens.