Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
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To the promised land : Martin Luther King and the fight for economic justice
Summary:Goes beyond popularized views of Martin Luther King, Jr., to explore his committed advocacy of the poor, the working class ,and unions, as well as his views about nonviolent resistance to all forms of oppression, particularly economic inequality. -
The radical King
Summary:Every year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is celebrated as one of the greatest orators in US history, an ambassador for nonviolence who became perhaps the most recognizable leader of the civil rights movement. But after more than forty years, few people appreciate how truly radical he was. Arranged thematically in four parts, The Radical King includes twenty-three selections, curated and introduced by Dr. Cornel West, that illustrate King’s revolutionary vision, underscoring his identification with the poor, his unapologetic opposition to the Vietnam War, and his crusade against global imperialism. As West writes, "Although much of America did not know the radical King–and too few know today–the FBI and US government did. They called him ‘the most dangerous man in America.’ This book unearths a radical King that we can no longer sanitize." -
Hellhound on his trail : the electrifying account of the largest manhunt in American history
Summary:April, 1967: a prison escape. James Earl Ray, nondescript thief and con man, drifts through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he is galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign. February, 1968: a Memphis garbage strike. Martin Luther King joins the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march turns violent. King vows to return to Memphis in April. Historian Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until 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 cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England–a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI. Drawing on previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.–From publisher description. -
King’s dream
Summary:In this new exploration of the "I Have a Dream" speech, Sundquist places it in the history of American debates about racial justice and demonstrates how the speech, an exultant blend of grand poetry and powerful elocution, perfectly expresses the story of African-American freedom. -
My life, my love, my legacy
Summary:"The life story of Coretta Scott King–wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and singular twentieth-century American civil rights activist–as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to one of her closest friends. Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising black parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. One of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, a committed pacifist, and a civil rights activist, she was an avowed feminist–a graduate student determined to pursue her own career–when she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs and racial justice goals, she married King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, a marcher, a negotiator, and a crucial fundraiser in support of world-changing achievements. As a widow and single mother of four, while butting heads with the all-male African American leadership of the times, she championed gay rights and AIDS awareness, founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, lobbied for fifteen years to help pass a bill establishing the US national holiday in honor of her slain husband, and was a powerful international presence, serving as a UN ambassador and playing a key role in Nelson Mandela’s election. Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an independent-minded black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful in the face of terrorism and violent hatred every single day of her life."–Provided by publisher. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.: The last interview : and other conversations
Summary:"As the Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum, and books like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen swing national attention toward the racism and violence that continue to poison our communities, it’s as urgent now as ever to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., whose insistence on equality and peace defined the Civil Rights Movement and forever changed the course of American history. This collection ranges from an early 1961 interview in which King describes his reasons for joining the ministry (after considering medicine), to a 1964 conversation with Robert Penn Warren, to his last interview, which was conducted on stage at the convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, just ten days before King’s assassination. Timely, poignant, and inspiring, Martin Luther King, Jr.: the last interview is an essential addition to the Last Interview series."