King of the North: Martin Luther King's Freedom Struggle Outside of the South

(Hardback)

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From the New York Times bestselling author, a radical reframing of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Martin Luther King Jr. of popular memory vanquished Jim Crow in the South. But in this myth-shattering book, award-winning andNew York Times bestselling historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King's time in Boston, New York,Los Angeles, and Chicago-outside Dixie-was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice.King of the Northfollows King as he crisscrosses the country from the Northeast to the West Coast,challenging school segregation, police brutality, housing segregation, and job discrimination. For these efforts, he was relentlessly attacked by white liberals, the media, and the federal government.

In this bold retelling, King emerges as a someone who not only led a movement but who showed up for other people's struggles; a charismatic speaker who also listened and learned; a Black man who experienced police brutality; a minister who lived with and organized alongside the poor; and a husband who-despite his flaws-depended on Coretta Scott King as an intellectual and political guide in the national fight against racism, poverty, and war.

King of the Northspeaks directly to our struggles over racial inequality today.Just as she restored Rosa Parks's central place in modern American history, so Theoharis radically expands our understanding of King's life and work-a vision of justice unfulfilled in the present.

Author Bio

Jeanne Theoharis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of City University of New York. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellingThe Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parksand winner of the 2014NAACPImageAward for Outstanding Literary Work Biography/Autobiography and theLetitiaWoods BrownAwardfrom the Association of Black Women Historians. Her book has been adapted into a documentary of the same name, executive produced by Soledad O'Brien for NBC-Peacock where Theoharis served as a consulting producer. Her young adult adaptation with Brandy Colbert, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks for Young People, was included in the Best Books of 2021 by the Chicago Public Library and Kirkus Reviews. Her book A More Beautiful and Terrible History: TheUsesand Misuses of Civil Rights History won the 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize in Nonfiction and was named one of the best Black history books of 2018 by Black Perspectives. Theoharis's writing has appeared in theNew York Times, theWashington Post,MSNBC,The Nation,Slate, The Atlantic, and many more. She lives in Brooklyn.