"We must keep God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all our actions." So spoke the newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which had just been organized to lead a bus boycott to protest segregated seating in the city buses. The president, and new pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist, went on to say that blacks must not hate their white opponents. "Love is one of the pinnacle parts of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice, and justice is really love in calculation."

And so began his public role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The movement produced scores of men and women who risked their lives to secure a more just and inclusive society, but the name Martin Luther King, Jr, stands out among them all. As historian Mark Noll put it, "He was beyond question the most important Christian voice in the most important social protest movement after World War II." More…

Battling Racism: Lessons from Martin Luther King Jr. In this downloadable lesson from ChristianBibleStudies.com, Philip Yancey examines the deadly roots of racism and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

	Related Resources
	America Behind The Color Line by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. $11.99 My Soul Has Grown Deep Classics of Early African American Literature $24.99 From Slavery to Freedom by Franklin & Moss $34.95 Let It Shine Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters $17.49