We will make the God of love in the white man triumph over the Satan of segregation that is in him... The struggle is not between black and white. But between good and evil."

These were the days when King began to use the language and wisdom of the visionary. In Detroit he had used the "I have a dream" motif which was to carry him to his greatest heights of persuasiveness. Speaking at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, from the Lincoln Memorial, he began the litany that would sound in the hearts of every listener: He dreamed of that day, he said, when "my four little children .. will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." It was a note that touched the very heart of America. King ended is talk with the stirring lines: "Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Through the years King continued to be the center around which a whirlwind of events made history. In 1963 he became Timemagazine's Man of the Year. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest recipient of that prize in history. And through the years he was always willing to demonstrate for civil rights, as he did in leading a march across Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965. His resulting speech, delivered from the steps of Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, demonstrated again King's unequaled gift for oratory. How long, he asked, would it take for justice to take over the world? "How long? How long? Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," he quoted from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Though himself a nonviolent person, King was surrounded by violence and by allies who preached violence on his part. In Harlem while autographing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom he was stabbed. King was frequently jailed, but he regarded this as a realistic and practical way of symbolizing his willingness to suffer and sacrifice for the common good. He expected no less of fellow sympathizers, black and white. Nonviolence "may mean going to jail," he said. "If such is the case the resister must be willing to fill the jail houses of the South. It may even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive." Further, King's marches were not always successful. In 1966 he had taken on militancy in Chicago, further arguing for nonviolence, but did not win. Such radical leaders as Stokely Carmichael criticized King for his stand.