"Stride toward Freedom”: Martin Luther King, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Gandhian Lesson

Start of essay, in lieu of abstract: It is widely known that, in the second half of the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement to end racial segregation in the United States strongly relied on methods of political action inspired by the principles of non-violence that Mohandas Gandhi had practiced earlier in the 20th century to address racial segregation in South Africa and colonial domination in India. After World War II, the Civil Rights Movement took on new momentum in the United States as many African American war veterans returned from Europe with a new sense of entitlement to basic rights, bolstered by the more equal treatment they had received from Europeans they met while stationed abroad.