ABSTRACT
Martin Luther King Jr had maintained throughout his life that nonviolence was the most viable antidote to violence. Blacks viewed King's death as white America's final rejection of nonviolence and, just as King had predicted, turned decisively to violence instead. As events unfolded after King's death, they underscored just what his presence had meant to the civil rights movement. King's leadership of the SCLC was in many ways a microcosm of his leadership role in the civil rights movement. As part of what was an often fractious and factious movement, King commanded more respect and trust in more sections of the black community than any other black leader of the time. King's ability to unite the black community was his ability to reach out to large and significant sections of America's white community, and to engage them in the civil rights movement. King and the civil rights movement helped blacks to gain access to and build a platform for social and political power.
