In September 1958, while promoting his first book at a Harlem, New York, bookstore Martin Luther King Jr was stabbed in the chest by a woman with a letter opener. The woman, a housekeeper named Izola Curry,

"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.