I. INTRODUCTION
Since 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr., has occupied a prominent role in the drive for equal rights for Negroes in the United States. During this critical period in our Nation's history, much has depended on him as the individual Negroes in great numbers have looked to for leadership in their drive to achieve equality. Much depends on him still in these times when racial tensions have created an atmosphere of fear and foreboding among many Negroes and whites alike. The course King chooses to follow at this critical time could have a momentous impact on the future of race relations in the United States, and for that reason this paper has been prepared to give some insight into the nature of the man himself as well as the nature of his views, goals, objectives, tactics, and the reasons therefor.
Washington Spring Project
President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), has stated publicly that he and 3,000 of his followers will march on Washington, D.C., this spring. He has announced that he will lead a massive civil disobedience campaign that will disrupt the normal course of business and, in fact, close down the Nation's Capital. He originally announced this project on August 15, 1967, in Atlanta, Georgia, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the SCLC.
King predicted that this massive civil disobedience will be more effective than riots. Concerning civil disobedience, King declared, "To dislocate the function of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot, because it can be longer lasting, costly to society, but not wantonly destructive."
