He was also impressed by Reinhold Niebuhr and, more and more, by the teachings of Gandhi. Gandhi had had not merely the ability to lead but also to love, and to conquer inner darkness and rage. He felt that Niebuhr had misunderstood Gandhi’s notion of passive resistance. It was not, King wrote, nonresistance to evil but rather nonviolent resistance to evil. He was slowly finding a vision to fit the needs of his people and with which he was comfortable enough to devote his professional career.
