208 Notes to Pages 80–84 will, let them come’ doctrine, and is in danger of becoming little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity” (25). 53. King Jr., “Looking Beyond Your Circumstances,” September 18, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 225–30. 54. For more on the death of Emmett Till and its significance, see Whit- field, A Death in the Delta. King, “Pride versus Humility,” September 25, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 230–34. 55. King Jr., “The Impassable Gulf (The Parable of Dives and Lazarus),” October 2, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 235–39. In devel- oping this sermon, King relied on George Buttrick’s insights on the parable (see Buttrick, The Parables of Jesus, 87–91). 56. J. Mills Thornton III, “Challenge and Response in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956,” in Garrow, ed., The Walking City, 338–39. 57. “Annual of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, 1955,” “Special Session,” September 15, 1955; “Regular Session,” November 15, 16, 17, 1955, Birmingham, Ala., p. 125, LPR 135, Folder 7, Box 7, Alabama State Archives. 58. Alabama Council on Human Relations newsletter, no. 4 (October 1955), Folder 5, Box 4, Baskin Papers. 59. King Jr., “The One-Sided Approach of the Good Samaritan,” No- vember 20, 1955, in Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 6: 239–40. 60. Largely unaware of the content of many of King’s early Dexter ser- mons, Richard Lischer erroneously concluded: “During the summer and fall of 1955 Pastor King reverted to a more philosophical style of preaching. He delivered well-rounded statements on the meaning of life, such as ‘Discern- ing the Signs of History,’ ‘The Death of Evil upon the Seashore,’ and ‘The One-Sided Approach of the Good Samaritan.’ During the first year he rarely attacked the problem of racism in Montgomery, though he did encourage and finally require NAACP membership and voter registration. When the bus crisis broke in December of that year, he suddenly found a focus and a climax for his sermons. The abstractions give way to the demands of the struggle. The sign of history par excellence is liberation. The evil that must die upon the seashore is segregation. The Good Samaritan now teaches not merely love but a dangerous love between the races. Everything has changed.” He also mistakenly concludes that “In King’s early speeches, the viciousness of racism is minimized” (Lischer, The Preacher King, 83–84, 87). King later de- scribed his first eighteen months in Montgomery as a time when “there was a ground swell of discontent. Such men as Vernon Johns and E. D. Nixon had never tired of keeping the problem before the conscience of the community. When others had feared to speak, they had spoken with courage. When oth-