Abstract
All of the studies of Martin Luther King, Jr. thus far have failed to adequately treat the black experience and the black church as sources in the shaping of his life, thought and commitment to social justice. Those who have written books and articles about King have strongly emphasized his debt to Biblical categories, to Mahatma Ghandi, to American democratic principles, and to liberal Christian theology and ethics, thereby giving the impression that he owed little to his cultural heritage as a black American. I want to suggest that the black experience and the black tradition are essential to an understanding of King—that these were immensely important influences in determining who he was, what he believed, and the strategy he adopted in his struggle to translate an ethical ideal into practical reality. Furthermore, I want to submit that some of King’s ideas can be found in pristine or primal form in antebellum slave thought.