Today we are honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who combated racial inequality through nonviolent means of resistance, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Check out our collection of books about him and the movement he inspired.
“In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
A call to conscience : the landmark speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard ~ “This companion volume to “A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr”. includes the text of his most well-known oration, “I Have a Dream”, his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and “Beyond Vietnam”, a powerful plea to end the ongoing conflict. Includes contributions from Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, the Dalai Lama, and many others.” – Goodreads
Alabama v. King : Martin Luther King Jr. and the criminal trial that launched the Civil Rights Movement by Dan Abrams ~ “The defense lawyer for Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the Selma marchers, and other civil rights heroes reveals the true story of the historic trial that made Dr. King a national hero. Fred D. Gray was just twenty-four years old when he became the defense lawyer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a young minister who had become the face of the bus boycott that had rocked the city of in Montgomery, Alabama. In this incredible history, Gray takes us behind the scenes of that landmark case, including such unforgettable moments as: Martin Luther King’s courageous response to a bomb threat on his own home ; Poignant, searing testimony that exposed the South’s racist systems to an worldwide audience ; The conspiracy to destroy Gray’s career and draft him into the Vietnam War ; and the unforgettable moment when a Supreme Court ruling brought the courtroom to a halt. Alabama v. King captures a pivotal moment in the fight for quality, from the eyes of the lawyer who Dr. King called “the brilliant young leader” who later became the chief counsel for the protest movement.“–Amazon.com
The King years : historic moments in the civil rights movement by Taylor Branch ~ An award-winning historian and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, Taylor Branch is widely recognized for his magisterial America in the King Years trilogy. Here, Branch condenses that three-volume chronicle on race and democracy to its pivotal scenes, taking listeners on a journey into a political revolution that would change the face of America
You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live : ten weeks in Birmingham that changed America by Paul Kix ~ Taking readers behind the scenes of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10-week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, a journalist zeroes in on its specific history and its echoes throughout our culture now.
King : a life by Jonathan Eig ~ In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr. In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.
Unequal : a story of America by Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau ~ The true story of racial inequality—and resistance to it—is the prologue to our present. You can see it in where we live, where we go to school, where we work, in our laws, and in our leadership. Unequal presents a gripping account of the struggles that shaped America and the insidiousness of racism, and demonstrates how inequality persists. As readers meet some of the many African American people who dared to fight for a more equal future, they will also discover a framework for addressing racial injustice in their own lives.
King : a comics biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Ho Che Anderson ~ This groundbreaking body of comics journalism collects Anderson’s entire biography of the renowned civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Over a decade in the making, the saga has been praised for its vivid recreation of one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history and for its accuracy in depicting the personal and public lives of King, from his birth to his assassination. King probes the life story of one of America’s greatest public figures with an unflinchingly critical eye, casting King as an ambitious, dichotomous figure deserving of his place in history but not above moral sacrifice to get there. Anderson’s expressionistic visual style is wrought with dramatic energy; panels evoke a painterly attention to detail but juxtapose with one another in such a way as to propel King’s story with cinematic momentum.
