In 1957 King and Abernathy were instrumental in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of several groups King helped start. On January 14 that year, King's home and church in Montgomery were bombed as violence against black protesters continued. After this bombing King began to reveal more of the dual nature of his personality—the desire to live and fight for the rights of black people, but also the resignation to die and thus become a martyr. William Robert Miller, one of King's biographers, commented on this nature: "When he did obey what seemed to be an occasional irresistible inner compulsion, he said that he felt seriously called to be a martyr--but he found it extremely difficult, and equally difficult to admit that he was worried about what he regarded as his inadequacy for the destiny that God had given him. After the Montgomery bombing, King had said: "Lord, I hope no one will have to die as a result of our struggle for freedom in Montgomery. Certainly I don't want to die. But if anyone has to die, let it be me."

Though always conscious of the possibility of death, King was steadfastly dedicated to nonviolence because of its power over violence. "Nonviolence can touch men where the law cannot reach them," he felt, because nonviolence allows the just consciences of the "great decent majority" of people to shine through, as Gandhi had demonstrated. He knew black people would have to suffer while adopting the role of nonviolence. "The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: `We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer!'"

King's life was filled with confrontations, for he was always ready to rush to a city or a scene where he could help demonstrate the power of nonviolence. In March of 1963, the scene was Birmingham, Alabama. A New York Times reporter had said that Birmingham was a city that was culturally and racially backward: "The striking thing about Birmingham," he wrote, "is that it seems so advanced industrially and so retarded politically." Into this fray King threw himself. He was one of the black leaders whom most people watched and from whom the most was expected. He led with stirring oratory and insistence on nonviolence: "If you don't go," he said of the proposed march, "don't hinder me! We will march nonviolently. We shall force this nation, this city, this world, to fact its own conscience.