Book reviews biography martin luther king
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Book Review - Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life
Since his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. has become something of a marble man - a saintly character who can only be spoken of in hagiographic language. As a tour guide who makes frequent stops at DC’s MLK Jr. memorial, I certainly fall into this trap when inom talk about King with guests (although it’s understandable since the memorial fryst vatten dedicated to uplifting his memory and is centered on a massive carving of King … in marble). Originally published in 2002, inom picked up Frady’s book about a year ago during a visit to the Howard University bookstore, in the hopes of deepening my knowledge and appreciation of King the man. It did.
The truth is, King was no angel, and perhaps Frady’s narrative came as a welcome read precisely because brother Martin’s frailties and failings are included. Some of it makes King more relatable; he smoked too much and used alcohol to cope with stress; he struggled with aloofness, vanity and
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Not long ago, a Tennessee state representative named Justin J. Pearson delivered a familiar-sounding speech at a meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Pearson had recently taken part in a gun-control protest on the floor of the state’s House, in violation of legislative rules. He and a fellow-representative were expelled, but the commissioners in Shelby voted to reinstate him. Pearson is only twenty-eight, but his Afro evokes the Black Power era of the late nineteen-sixties, and the preacherly cadence he sometimes uses reaches back even further than that. “We look forward to continuing to fight, continuing to advocate, until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” he said at the meeting, thrusting his index finger for emphasis. He was quoting the Old Testament (Amos 5:24: “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream”), but really he was quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., who put a version of that phrase
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Books by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Complete Book Reviews
Letter From Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King, Jr., read by Dion Graham. Mission Audio, unabridged, one CD, 1 hr., $5.98 ISBN 978-1-61045-748-4
“But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.” This simple, yet utterly powerful intro to what is...
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“In a Single Garment of Destiny”: A Global Vision of Justice
Martin Luther King Jr., edited and intro. by Lewis V. Baldwin. Beacon, $26.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8070-8605-6
Baldwin (The Voice of Conscience), a Vanderbilt University religious studies professor and prolific King scholar, offers a slender, focused selection of King’s “positions on global liberation struggles through the prism of his own words and...
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My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King III, illus. by AG Ford