The History Book Club discussion

How can one discuss civil rights in America without discussing Martin Luther King Jr.?



This thread is dedicated to the discussion of Martin Luther King Jr. and the impact of his life's work.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career.[2] He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_L....

I remember reading this book as a teenager.

Stephen B. Oates

Where to begin? There are so many books out there on the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his life and legacy.

The series by Taylor Branch has garnered a great deal of attention. I must ordered the first in the trilogy today. Don't know how soon I will get to it but have heard great things. It is arguably just as much about the Civil Rights movement as Dr. King, but it is hard to separate the two during this period of American history.

by Taylor Branch
From Publishers Weekly
Pacifist theologian Reinhold Niebuhr influenced Martin Luther King Jr. more deeply than did Gandhi, according to Branch, whose 880-page chronicle shows the civil rights leader taking Billy Graham's evangelist crusades as his model for organizing mass meetings to attack segregation. Epic in scope, often startling in its judgments and revelations, this gripping narrative mingles biography and history as it moves from the founding in 1867 of the First Baptist Church in Alabama, where King's movement took hold, to John Kennedy's assassination. Branch, journalist and coauthor of Second Wind , provides disturbing glimpses of John Kennedy wavering over integration while manipulating King, and of Robert Kennedy, who authorized FBI wiretaps on King's home and offices. Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin and other leaders are also here, though King holds center-stage for most of the narrative. This stirring, vivid tapestry is the first volume in Branch's America in the King Years.

Rev. King was a highly skilled orator and writer, and his well-known "I have a dream" speech was but one. Here are some books of his works:

by Martin Luther King Jr.

byClayborne Carson

From Library Journal
The word "landmark" may be applied not only to these speeches of King's but to this production as well. Great care has been taken in the writing and reading of introductions to each piece by some of the great names in Civil Rights history, bearing witness to King's call to conscience. Participants include Coretta Scott King, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Dr. Dorothy I. Height. To hear an audience swell with excitement as King slowly and confidently builds emotional tension tempered with moral reasoning and intellectual prowess is to feel the thrill of what it must have been like to be in the great man's presence. This monumental work will be an invaluable addition to all library collections. Products of their time, some of the original recordings contain flaws in audio quality, but this does not detract at all from the overwhelming power and inherent goodness of the words or the man who spoke them. Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC

In celebration of Martin Luther King day:

Meet the Press has a panel discussion:

Panel Reflects on Legacy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/v...

The King Center:

http://www.thekingcenter.org/Default....

This looks like a good offering.

byClayborne Carson
Publishers Weekly
Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project and author of A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., has pieced together an incomplete study of King's life by supplementing his extant autobiographies (e.g., Stride Toward Freedom and Where Do We Go from Here) with previously unpublished and published writings, interviews and speeches. If King's rhetorical flourishes and use of the word "negro" sometimes seem outdated, the compilation still offers a concise first-person account of his life from his birth in Atlanta in 1929 to his awakening social consciousness and discovery of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. History propelled King to center stage in the struggle for black liberation. When Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in 1955, the "once dormant and quiescent Negro community was now fully awake" and King, along with many others in Montgomery's black community, organized the bus boycott that would launch King into his leadership role in the civil rights movement. The book offers glimpses of King's family life as well a view of famous Americans such as Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X and JFK. (In 1960, King did not feel "there was much difference between Kennedy and Nixon." He writes, "I felt at points that he was so concerned about being President of the United States that he would compromise basic principles.") But what is most evident throughout Carson's study is the moral courage that sustained King and allowed him to inspire a largely peaceful mass movement against segregation in the face of bloody reprisals.

Another offering authored by the slain civil rights leader:

by Martin Luther King Jr.

from AmazonProduct Description
Dr. King’s best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially segregated city in the United States, but the campaign launched by Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others demonstrated to the world the power of nonviolent direct action.

Often applauded as King’s most incisive and eloquent book, Why We Can’t Wait recounts the Birmingham campaign in vivid detail, while underscoring why 1963 was such a crucial year for the civil rights movement. King examines the history of the civil rights struggle and the tasks that future generations must accomplish to bring about full equality. The book also includes the extraordinary “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which King wrote in April of 1963.

He was a Reverend, after all, so a collection of sermons is apt for any collection.


byClayborne Carson
Amazon.com Review
These 11 historic sermons--some complete recordings of entire addresses, others reconstructed from various church services--make plain why Martin Luther King Jr. considered his "first calling and greatest commitment" to be a preacher of the gospel. As an orator he is second to none, drawing his audience in with an urgency that resonates through every soaring cadence of his familiar, powerful voice. Using insights from psychology, philosophy, and the Bible, he appeals to the heads as well as the hearts of his congregations, explaining that personal and social change can only be effected by adopting a morality of love in service of God and humankind. While King's concern for social justice is a common theme throughout, each sermon is a jewel of literary artistry, as it presents a simple problem, examines its complications, and offers a startling and often challenging resolution. Topics range from "Rediscovering Lost Values," a caution that scientific progress without moral progress can result only in a step backward for humanity, to "An American Dream," a wake-up call to the "self-evident truth" of equality proclaimed in the Constitution.
Brief introductions to the sermons from spiritual leaders and friends, including Dr. Joan Campbell, Billy Graham, Dr. Robert Franklin, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, offer personal insights into King's life, work, and legacy. An interesting note from the producers explains how the recordings of the sermons (published in a hardcover companion of the same name) were pieced together. In word and in voice, these are masterpieces of theological literature from one of the world's great orators, who Robert Franklin rightly says may well be "the greatest religious intellectual of the twentieth century."

by Martin Luther King Jr.
from Amazon Product Description
"If there is one book Martin Luther King, Jr. has written that people consistently tell me has changed their lives, it is Strength to Love."

So wrote Coretta Scott King. She continued: "I believe it is because this book best explains the central element of Martin Luther King, Jr.' s philosophy of nonviolence: His belief in a divine, loving presence that binds all life. That insight, luminously conveyed in this classic text, here presented in a new and attractive edition, hints at the personal transformation at the root of social justice: " By reaching into and beyond ourselves and tapping the transcendent moral ethic of love, we shall overcome these evils."

In these short meditative and sermonic pieces, some of them composed in jails and all of them crafted during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights struggle, Dr. King articulated and espoused in a deeply personal compelling way his commitment to justice and to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual conversion that makes his work as much a blueprint today for Christian discipleship as it was then.

Individual readers, as well as church groups and students will find in this work a challenging yet energizing vision of God and redemptive love.

MLK Day
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring the civil rights hero whose nonviolent struggle against racial segregation made him a national leader and the youngest man ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?vid=23...

Thanks for the many links Alisa! I've been looking for a good biography/autobiography of Dr. King for some time. What an inspirational man of God he was! I love reading about people who inspire me to greatness.

Laura, glad you found something to explore. He was inspirational to many people on many levels. It seems like the most enduring legacy anyone can leave is to inspire others. Will be interested to hear what you choose to read and your thoughts. Come back and share, please.

I will do it! I've added several, and not sure which one I'll choose, but this will be coming up in the near future on my list.

Fabulous! Happy reading.

The March on Washington and infamous "I have a dream" speach given my Dr. King. A seventeen minute video/audio can be found on youtube. A classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_...

A book of his landmark speeches. This might be a good one to explore in the audio version.

by Martin Luther King Jr.

This collection includes the text of Dr. King's best-known oration, "I Have a Dream, " his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and "Beyond Vietnam, " a compelling argument for ending the ongoing conflict. Each speech has an insightful introduction on the current relevance of Dr. King's words by such renowned defenders of civil rights as Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama, and Ambassador Andrew Young, among others.

by Martin Luther King Jr.
from Amazon Product Description
Why nonviolence matters
Eloquent and passionate, reasoned and sensitive, this pair of meditations by the revered civil-rights leader contains the theological roots of his political and social philosophy of nonviolent activism.

I will keep looking for a editorial review of this (none on goodreads or Amazon, which pulls from multiple sources), but the title gives us a good clue. One of his last written works.
by Martin Luther King Jr.

One of those days in history that no one wants to remember, yet we shall never forget.
by Michael Eric Dyson
Product Description
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m., while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King ended his final speech with the words, “I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.”
Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson examines how King fought, and faced, his own death, and how America can draw on his legacy in the twenty-first century. April 4, 1968 celebrates the leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his vision.

“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.

One of my favorite quotes. It was 44 years ago today that Dr. King was assasinated. Were you alisve then, do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news? Has Dr. King's legacy impacted your life in some way?

It happened before I was born, but I visited his center and home in Atlanta. I hope to visit the Memphis museum where he was shot.

To me, King is a continual reminder of peaceful resistance and brotherhood. Just amazing. I am also fascinated how some blacks like Malcolm X turned away from his thoughts and tactics.

It is amazing how people remember where they were when historic events, both positive and negative, occur. My Mother, who lived to be 95, would tell me in detail how she heard the news about Pearl Harbor.

I was young (well, not that young) when Dr. King was shot and my Father had turned on the evening news when the bulletin came on of the shooting. I remember well him saying "They've killed him, they've killed him". It was stunning to those of us who felt that possibly the end of the civil rights movement would die with him....or at least the peaceful approach which mirrored that of the great Gandhi. I often wonder how he would react to the rhetoric of individuals like Al Sharpton which is in direct opposition to the beliefs of Dr. King.

Bryan wrote: "It happened before I was born, but I visited his center and home in Atlanta. I hope to visit the Memphis museum where he was shot.

To me, King is a continual reminder of peaceful resistance and..."

I have heard the museum is quite an experience. It is the hotel where he was gunned down, and the room is exactly as it was when it happened. Amazing.

Interesting comment about Malcom X. At the time there was so much anger and frustration I think the idea of extreme action was appealing, and seemed necessary to some.

Jill wrote: "It is amazing how people remember where they were when historic events, both positive and negative, occur. My Mother, who lived to be 95, would tell me in detail how she heard the news about Pearl ..."

I remember watching the news reports on t.v., so confusing and tragic and upsetting.

What do you believe Rev. Sharpton differs from Dr King? He has made some controversial remarks, to be sure, is that what you are referring to?

I should have said his "approach" differs from that of Dr. King.....I think his goal is the same but it is how he goes about it that flies in the face of Dr. King's peaceful resistance. Again, that is his style and it can be effective......but I have found some of his remarks are as racist as those of the white racists.....I don't think that serves the continuing movement in a positive manner. But, if this country finally realizes that all people are to be treated equally, then I say more power to him.

Jill wrote: "I should have said his "approach" differs from that of Dr. King.....I think his goal is the same but it is how he goes about it that flies in the face of Dr. King's peaceful resistance. Again, that..."

I get it. I don't always agree with him and sometimes he does take the rhetoric too far and speaks before he thinks (never a good outcome when that happens, for anyone). But I do admire his willingness to speak out and rally against injustice.

There has been no one that has come along like Dr. King.

Another offering on Dr. King:

"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice

Martin Luther King Jr.

Synopsis
An unprecedented and timely collection that captures the global vision of Dr. King—in his own words.

Too many people continue to think of Dr. King only as “a southern civil rights leader” or “an American Gandhi,” thus ignoring his impact on poor and oppressed people around the world. "In a Single Garment of Destiny" is the first book to treat King's positions on global liberation struggles through the prism of his own words and activities.

From the pages of this extraordinary collection, King emerges not only as an advocate for global human rights but also as a towering figure who collaborated with Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert J. Luthuli, Thich Nhat Hanh, and other national and international figures in addressing a multitude of issues we still struggle with today—from racism, poverty, and war to religious bigotry and intolerance. Introduced and edited by distinguished King scholar Lewis Baldwin, this volume breaks new ground in our understanding of King.

Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero

by Vincent Harding

Synopsis
In these eloquent essays that reflect upon King's legacy over the past two decades and the meaning of his life today, a portrait emerges of a man constantly evolving and going deeper into the roots of violence and injustice--a man whose challenge remains as timely and necessary as ever.

As we prepare to celebrate the life of Dr.King tomorrow, here is one of his most moving speeches, "We Shall Overcome".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130J-F...

There is also this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnn...

His August 28/1963 speech in Washington DC

Thanks, Mikey for posting the most famous of all his speeches.....it moves the soul. I posted the lesser known of his speeches since it always affects me by his use of the civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome" as its theme.

Mikey B. wrote: "There is also this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnn...

His August 28/1963 speech in Washington DC"

Thanks MikeyB. This is a timeless classic and well worth watching mulitple times. Very inspiring.

Jill wrote: "it moves the soul." and
Alisa wrote " well worth watching mulitple times. Very inspiring. "

Most Definitely and Well Said

Another offering on Dr. King's life

I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr

by Michael Eric Dyson
Synopsis
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.

Good question.

What Would Martin Say?

by Clarence B. Jones
Synopsis
When the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the world lost one of the greatest moral authorities of the twentieth century. We would all benefit from hearing Martin's voice, if only he were alive today. . . .

If anyone would have insight into Martin's thoughts and opinions, it would be Clarence B. Jones, King's personal lawyer and one of his closest principal advisers and confidants. Removing the mythic distance of forty years' time to reveal the flesh-and-blood man he knew as his friend, Jones ponders what the outspoken civil rights leader would say about the serious issues that bedevil contemporary America: Islamic terrorism and the war in Iraq, reparations for slavery, anti-Semitism, affirmative action, illegal immigration, and the state of African American leadership.

Legacy Of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Boundaries of Law, Politics, and Religion

by Lewis V. Baldwin

Synopsis
An outgrowth of the 1998 American Academy of Religion meeting, the five essays in this book explore how civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. articulated and embodied a role for religion and morality in democratic politics and lawmaking, uniting moral and religious convictions with political activity. Baldwin (religious studies, Vanderbilt) offers three of the essays, Burrow Jr. (social ethics, Christian Theological Seminary) another, and Barbara A. Holmes (ethics, Memphis Theological Seminary) and her sister, Washington, DC, Superior Court judge Susan Holmes Winfield offer the other. Together, the pieces connect King's strong belief in the moral foundations of the universe and in objective moral law to his critique of America's legal structures, American society at large, and the moral responsibility of the Christian in an unjust state. Fresh and provocative, these essays demonstrate that despite the outpouring of print on King, surprising, unplumbed dimensions remain to be explored. Essential for King scholars and for collections on religious studies, civil rights, or the moral politics of contemporary America.

Another interesting book is
by Nick Kotz

Synopsis
Opposites in almost every way, mortally suspicious of each other at first, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. were thrust together in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Both men sensed a historic opportunity and began a delicate dance of accommodation that moved them, and the entire nation, toward the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources - Johnson's taped telephone conversations, voluminous FBI wiretap logs, previously secret communications between the FBI and the president - Nick Kotz gives us a narrative, rich in dialogue, that presents this momentous period with immediacy. Judgment Days offers needed perspective on a presidency too often linked solely to the tragedy of Vietnam.

Thanks MikeyB, great addition.

Adding to my TBR pile.

Peter, tell us what you think, when you get to it of course. Which one, by the way?

Alisa: I was thinking of by Nick Kotz

Great. There are lots of good choices here.

The Preacher King

by Richard Lischer

Synopsis
Today it seems extraordinary that a nation the size of the United States could have been so profoundly affected by the minister of a little Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. But at a turning point in American history, Martin Luther King, Jr., had an incalculable effect on the fabric of daily life and the laws of the nation. As no other preacher in living memory and no politician since Lincoln, he transposed the themes of love, suffering, deliverance, and justice from the sacred shelter of the pulpit into the arena of public policy. He was the last great religious reformer in America. How the man who always saw himself as "fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher" crafted his strategic vision and moved a nation to renewal is the subject of this remarkable new book.

Today marks 45 years since the slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This article is short but the images that go with it are powerful. Worth clicking through to reading this. . . .

MLK's Assassination: 12 Forgotten Facts
Forty-five years after his death, a look at lesser-known or overlooked details surrounding the tragedy.


article: http://www.theroot.com/views/mlks-ass...

Below is an excerpt from a letter, "Why we can't wait", written by Dr. King while he was being held in the Birmingham, Alabama jail.

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim…when you see the vast majority of twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky…when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you…when…your wife and mother are never given the respected title ‘Mrs.’…when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.”

Moving words, Jill.

An upcoming book:
Release date: September 9, 2014

Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

by Tavis Smiley

Synopsis:

Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King's life, revealing the minister's trials and tribulations -- denunciations by the press, rejection from the president, dismissal by the country's black middle class and militants, assaults on his character, ideology, and political tactics, to name a few -- all of which he had to rise above in order to lead and address the racism, poverty, and militarism that threatened to destroy our democracy.

Smiley's Death of a King paints a portrait of a leader and visionary in a narrative different from all that have come before. Here is an exceptional glimpse into King's life -- one that adds both nuance and gravitas to his legacy as an American hero.

Thank you Jerome.

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin

by Hampton Sides

Synopsis:

On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man—whose real name was James Earl Ray—drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign.

On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis in April.

With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England—a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI.

Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life—an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.

This is supposed to be a good one, Jerome.

by Hampton Sides