Irene Monroe: The Gandhi None of Us Knew As with King, Gandhi, too, became an iconic image in The Movement. However, if King and others knew of Gandhi's racist views of black South Africans, and knew why Gandhi never met with African American civil rights leaders, who were hungry to not only meet the man but to know more about his philosophy of "satyagraha," Gandhi wouldn't have been so highly profiled in his public sermons.