Howard Thurman, a mentor to MLK, first met Gandhi during a visit to India in 1936. He came to understand nonviolence as a force more powerful than hate that had the power to transform the world.
Thurman taught King Jr. that spiritual cultivation was necessary to take on the intense work of social activism.
AP File Photo
Paul Harvey, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Thurman was 30 years older than King: the same age, in fact, as King’s father. Among his most significant contributions was bringing the ideas of nonviolence to the civil rights movement.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , chats with African-Americans during a door-to-door campaign in 1964.
AP Photo/JAB