ABSTRACT
By moving to Atlanta in 1960, Martin Luther King admitted that he could not be both a local and a national leader. With the support of his family, he intended to be a national figure. It was a brave decision. He had already sensed how difficult it would be to meet growing African American expectations or to induce white Americans to make racial justice a national priority. Despite a radical reputation in the South, King had thus far tacked his course toward moderation. With older, acknowledged black leaders, he had lobbied the federal government, completed an exhausting round of speaking engagements, and urged African Americans to register and vote. But as the new decade began, he had not yet organized a single successful protest campaign at the SCLC. It would be 1963 before he would. In the interim, critics charged that King’s reputation rested on other people’s efforts.
