Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Biography

(Hardback)

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There has been recent controversy in the African American community about youth and their lack of appreciation for the gains of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This stellar biography is a superb introduction to the foremost leader of the civil rights movement. The story and historical context will be eye-opening for students and a good refresher for others who are too young to have remembered the events. In a gripping narrative style, the biography traces the young Martin, the son and grandson of formidable preachers, to his calling as a minister too, but one who would take on the entrenched racism of the South, and North, through a nonviolent movement that changed the course of American history. There has been recent controversy in the African American community about youth and their lack of appreciation for the gains of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This stellar biography is a superb introduction to the foremost leader of the civil rights movement. The story and historical context will be eye-opening for students and a good refresher for others who are too young to have remembered the events. In a gripping narrative style, the biography traces the young Martin, the son and grandson of formidable preachers, to his calling as a minister too, but one who would take on the entrenched racism of the South, and North, through a nonviolent movement that changed the course of American history. King's story is compelling, starting from his early nurtured family life in an insular community of blacks in Atlanta. His education at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University and courtship of Coretta Scott lead into the early days of the civil rights movement and King's leadership role in the major marches, demonstrations, boycotts, and sit-ins that took place, mainly in the South. Critical insight into the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations is given as King negotiates with the presidents for equal rights for blacks. The violent reactions against and hatred of many whites for those seeking racial justice are still shocking today. Against the backdrop of beatings, killings, bombings, threats, and imprisoning, King is portrayed as driven to lift up all Americans, even if it meant martyrdom.

Reviews

He was admitted to Morehouse College at 15, and was ordained and graduated college at 19. He earned a doctorate in systematic theology at 26 from Boston University and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference fewer than two years later. By the time he was 34 he would be addressing 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial. By 35 he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In the next four years of his life he would lead marches for voting rights, sponsor the Poor People's Campaign, and realize in a split second he would not see 40. Written for general readers at the high school level, this text gives basic information about the life and work of Dr. King, his activism and rise to the leadership of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the continuing aftereffects of his work in nonviolence and justice. * Reference & Research Book News *
Martin Luther King, Jr. provides a thorough study of King's life from his birth on January 15, 1929, in the upstairs bedroom of his family's middle-class home on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta to his death on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The reader will learn about King's character, his many accomplishments, and the forces against him. It's hard to believe that King was only 39 years old when he died because of all that he accomplished during his short life. * MultiCultural Review *

Author Bio

Roger Bruns is an independent scholar and prolific author of biographies of Billy Graham (Greenwood, 2004), Jesse Jackson (Greenwood, 2005), and many other major figures.