"Always Fight With Love": In Rare Footage, A Young MLK Jr. Launches the Montgomery Bus Boycott

To see much more from the film, "King: A Filmed Record," on Democracy Now!, visit http://owl.li/i1B3S. In a Black History Month special, Democracy Now! airs excerpts of the 1970 documentary, "King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis," a rarely seen Oscar-nominated feature about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the rise of the civil rights movement. In this clip from December 1955, Dr. King addresses a full church in Montgomery, Alabama, just days after Rosa Parks was arrested. The African-American community in Montgomery had gathered to decide whether to begin what became the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott.

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: It has been moved and seconded that the resolution that was read will be received and adopted. Are you ready for the question? All in favor, let it be known by standing on your feet.

That was the day that we started a bus protest which literally electrified the nation, and that was the day when we decided that we were not going to take segregated buses any longer. And, you know, when we planned the bus boycott, we said if we could just get about 50 or 60 percent of the Negroes of Montgomery not to ride buses, this would be any effective boycott. I think that whole day we found eight Negroes on the buses. And from that day on, that boycott was more than 99.9 percent effective.

I remember that Monday morning when I was subpoenaed to be in court, the chief defender. Many things ran through my mind. And I started thinking about the people, all day long trying to think of something to say to the people. Finally, I arrived to the pulpit. My words were fumbling a bit.

Let us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace. Let's be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, but always fight with love, so that when the day comes that the walls of segregation have completely crumbled in Montgomery, that we will be able to live with people as their brothers and sisters.

And I say to you, my friends, rise up and know that as you struggle for justice, you do not struggle alone, but God struggles with you. Freedom is never given to anybody, for the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. And that is where the strong resistance comes. We've got to keep on keeping on, in order to gain freedom. It is not done voluntarily, but it is done through the pressure that comes about from people who are oppressed. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.

Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,100+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday.

FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Facebook:   / democracynow  
Twitter: @democracynow
Subscribe on YouTube:    / democracynow  
Listen on SoundCloud:   / democracynow  
Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe