Glenn E. Smiley

Who is Glenn E. Smiley?

The Rev. Glenn Smiley was a white civil rights consultant and leader. He closely studied the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi and became convinced that racism and segregation were most likely to be overcome without the use of violence, and began studying and teaching peaceful tactics. As an employee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, he visited Dr. Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott where he advised King and his associates on nonviolent tactics and was able to convince King that nonviolence was a feasible solution to racial tension. Smiley, together with Bayard Rustin and others, helped convince King and his associates that complete non-violence and non-violent direct action were the most effective method and tool to use during protest. After the Civil rights movement, Smiley continued to employ nonviolence and worked for several organizations promoting peace in South American countries. Just three years before him 1993 death, Smiley opened the King Center in Los Angeles.