Martin Luther King was in Ghana on March 6, 1957 on the day Ghana became independent. Above is a picture of Dr. King and Nkrumah, taken on that visit. One month later Dr. King preached a sermon about that visit and that day.

There seems to be a throbbing desire, there seems to be an internal desire for freedom within the soul of every man. . . To take from him his freedom is to rob him of something of God’s image.
. . .
Freedom is never given to anybody, for the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. And that is where the strong resistance comes. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.
. . .
Ghana teaches us that. It says to us another thing. It reminds us of the fact that a nation or a people can break loose from oppression without violence. Nkrumah says in the first two pages of his autobiography, which was published on the sixth of March – a great book which you ought to read – he said that he had studied the social systems of social philosophers and he started studying the life of Gandhi and his techniques. And he said that in the beginning he could not see how they could ever get loose from colonialism without armed revolt, without armies and ammunition, rising up. Then he says after he continued to study Gandhi and continued to study this technique, he came to see that the only way was through non-violent positive action. And he called his program “positive action.” And it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? That here is a nation that is now free, and it is free without rising up with arms and with ammunition. It is free through non-violent means.