Martin Luther King, Jr. described Stride Toward Freedom as "the chronicle of 50,000 Negroes who took to heart the principles of non-violence, who learned to fight for their rights with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth."On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Rallied by the young preacher and activist Martin Luther King, Jr., the black community of Montgomery organised a historic boycott of the bus service, rising up together to protest racial segregation.

This was the first large-scale, non-violent resistance of its kind in America and marked the beginning of a national Civil Rights movement based on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s principles. Stride Toward Freedom is the account of that pivotal turning point in American history, told through Martin Luther King, Jr.'s own experiences and stories, chronicling his community's refusal to accept the injustices of racial discrimination.