NPR’s ‘Book of the Day’ podcast Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t originally set out to become a civil rights activist, according to his biographer. On a Jan. 3 episode of NPR’s Book of the Day podcast, Jonathan Eig,

"While others were advocating for freedom by 'any means necessary,' including violence, Martin Luther King Jr. used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly impossible goals," according to The King Center.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon to judge people by the content of their character not by the color of the skin still thunders like a hammer on an anvil today, writes Armstrong Williams.