What is the theme in Bearing the Cross by David Garrow?

Civil rights is the main theme of this book. The rights of black people were severely limited in America during the time in which Martin Luther King Jr. was coming out of school and beginning his first job as pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Buses, public buildings, schools, and parks were all segregated, relegating the use of these places for blacks to a certain section or alternate facilities that were often less than acceptable in standards. These separate facilities had been a way of life for many years, especially in the southern states, but the time had finally come when blacks were ready for change.