Which civil rights leader urged nonviolent protest during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and beyond?

• A. Rosa Parks
• B. Martin Luther King Jr.
• C. Thurgood Marshall
• D. Malcolm X

Answer: (B)

Nonviolent protest as a deliberate strategy and moral stance powered the Montgomery Bus Boycott and carried through the broader civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated and practiced nonviolence as both a principle and a method—drawing on Gandhi and shaping it into a practical approach for social change. He helped organize the boycott’s leadership, promoted peaceful marches, and built a framework for sustained, mass action that aimed to win support across communities and influence national policy. This emphasis on nonviolence became a hallmark of his leadership and of the movement overall, guiding campaigns from Birmingham to the March on Washington and helping to propel landmark reforms.

Rosa Parks sparked the boycott by resisting segregation on the Montgomery buses, but she didn’t lead the sustained strategy of nonviolent protest that defined the campaign. Thurgood Marshall was a key legal advocate who fought segregation in court, and Malcolm X championed a different, more militant approach at times, which contrasted with the nonviolent path King championed.