xx Introduction Yet Jackson also reminds us that historic social movements provide op- portunities for some men and women of all classes and backgrounds to rise unexpectedly to greatness. Having acknowledged the importance of contingency in King’s emergence as a leader, he demonstrates that King’s prophetic vision en- couraged others to see their resistance to injustice as more historically significant than would otherwise have been the case. Because of King, the African American freedom struggle gained a historical significance it would otherwise have lacked. The Montgomery bus boycott would have happened without King, but King’s oratory helped to ensure that the boycott became one of those exceptional local movements for justice that would send ripples of inspiration to oppressed people elsewhere. Clayborne Carson Notes 1. King, “Conquering Self-Centeredness,” August 11, 1957. 2. Birth of a New Age, December 1955–December 1956, ed. Clayborne Carson, Stewart Burns, Susan Carson, Peter Holloran, and Dana L. H. Powell (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997). 3. Ed. Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Susan Englander, Troy Jackson, and Gerald L. Smith (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007). 4. King, “Preaching Ministry” [September 14–November 24, 1948], in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 72. 5. Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Warner Books, 1998), 5. 6. Ibid., 16. 7. Quote in introduction to Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 1, Called to Serve, January 1929–June 1951, ed. Clayborne Carson, Ralph E. Luker, and Penny A. Russell (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992), 33–34. 8. King, “How Modern Christians Should Think of Man,” November 29, 1949–February 15, 1950, in Papers, 1: 274. 9. Carson, ed., Autobiography, 15. 10. King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” April 15, 1955, in Papers, 2: 512. 11. King, “The False God of Nationalism,” July 12, 1953, in Papers, 6: 132. 12. King, “First Things First,” August 2, 1953, in Papers, 6: 144–45. 13. King, “Communism’s Challenge to Christianity,” August 9, 1953, in Papers, 6: 148–49. 14. King, “The Peril of Superficial Optimism in the Area of Race Relations,” June 19, 1955, in Papers, 6: 215 .