Abstract
A thorough study of this subject remains to be done. As I write the present essay, I am limited not only by the necessity of brevity, but also by a very short time between request and deadline. As a consequence it was impossible to consult any unpublished papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., and especially his Ph.D. dissertation which I supervised twenty years ago. When I moved into formal retirement I gave away most of my books and papers. Of major secondary sources I have at hand only King: A Critical Biography by David L. Lewis1 and a prized autographed copy of My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. by Coretta Scott King.2 Principal sources for this article are his four volumes published between 1958 and 1967,3 the last three of them represented in my library by treasured copies with generous personal notes in King’s handwriting, and his posthumously published book4 in which Mrs. King inscribed an appreciative autograph.