9781422277805

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy was King’s right-hand man in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), as well as one of his closest friends.

The office on Auburn Avenue was home to one of the most significant organiza- tions in American history—the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC)—and Martin Luther King Jr., the man in the dark suit, white shirt, and carefully knotted tie, was its founder—a man who was leading a revolution. The revolution of Martin Luther King was part of the ongoing struggle of black Americans for equality and civil rights. For a dozen years, this charismatic Baptist minister and his legion of followers had confronted the humiliating system of segregation that had kept black Americans second-class citizens. In doing this, King and his disciples had faced a raging storm of white abuse. They had been beaten, arrested, jailed, and spat upon. They had had their homes and churches burned, their families

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C I V I L R I GH T S L E A D E R S : MA R T I N LU T H E R K I NG J R .