96 BECOMING KING here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, ‘There lived a race of people, a black people, “fleecy locks and black complexion,” a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and civilization.’” King later remembered the enthusi- astic response to his speech: “As I sat listening to the continued applause I realized that this speech had evoked more response than any speech or sermon I had ever delivered, and yet it was virtually unprepared.” Few who were there would ever forget the impact that King’s speech had on 20 them that early December evening. Thousands heard the speech, either from seats in the auditorium, through a public address system in the church basement, or on make- shift speakers placed outside of the building. Many saw in the people’s response the dawning of a new day for Montgomery’s African American citizens. Rufus Lewis claimed the speech “stimulated the people more 21 than anything has ever stimulated them as long as I’ve been here.” The Montgomery resident Idessa Williams Redden was so moved by King’s speech that she shouted, “Lord, you have sent us a leader.” Not surpris- ingly, Nixon’s perspective on the evening was different; he described the mass meeting as “the most amazing and the most heartening thing I have seen in my life. The leaders were led. It was a vertical thing.” While the speech did inspire the people and elevated King’s stature in the minds of the community, the converse is true as well. The response of the crowd stimulated something in King. He had risen to the occasion, and the people’s response emboldened him. King was not a regular patron of the city’s buses. He was not boycotting anything. The African American people of Montgomery allowed him to participate in the boycott in the role of the president and spokesperson of the MIA. As Nixon aptly stated, 22 King was led, and his life and ministry would never be the same. No longer a one-day event, the bus boycott galvanized Montgom- ery’s African American community. Organizers of the protest launched creative solutions to accommodate those whose jobs necessitated signifi- cant daily travel. Their first transportation alternative was to enlist African American–owned taxis to offer service at a reduced rate equivalent to lo- cal bus fares. In response, the city enacted a law that set a minimum rate for taxis and threatened full prosecution for any who dared to break this