The newspaper story said the proposed boycott was similar to a strategy employed by the White Citizens’ Council, which refused to patronize businesses that served Black customers or failed to strictly enforce Jim Crow laws. The comparison troubled King at first. Was it wrong to cause problems for the bus company to solve problems for Black riders? Was it the Christian thing to do? He reflected on Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and decided that the practical effect of the boycott was to stop participating in an “evil system.” To accept evil without challenging it, King concluded, would be to
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