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The 20 Best Books on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Essential books on martin luther king, jr..

There are countless books on Martin Luther King Jr., and it comes with good reason, he was a Baptist minister who advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” he famously remarked from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s most consequential figures to the height of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 20 best books on Martin Luther King Jr.

Bearing the Cross by David Garrow

Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive book ever written about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on more than seven hundred interviews, access to King’s personal papers, and thousands of FBI documents, Bearing the Cross traces King’s metamorphosis from a young, earnest pastor into the foremost spokesperson of the black freedom struggle. At the book’s heart is King’s growing awareness of the symbolic meaning of the cross as he gradually accepts a life that will demand the ultimate in self-sacrifice. This is a towering portrait of a man at the epicenter of one of the most dramatic periods in our history.

Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch

Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American Civil Rights Movement,  Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.

Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King’s rise to greatness and illuminates the stunning courage and private conflict, the deals, maneuvers, betrayals, and rivalries that determined history behind closed doors, at boycotts and sit-ins, on bloody freedom rides, and through siege and murder.

Let the Trumpet Sound by Stephen B. Oates

By the acclaimed biographer of Abraham Lincoln, Nat Turner, and John Brown, Stephen B. Oates’s prizewinning  Let the Trumpet Sound is the definitive one-volume life of Martin Luther King, Jr. This brilliant examination of the great civil rights icon and the movement he led provides a lasting portrait of a man whose dream shaped American history.

The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph

To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense versus nonviolence, Black Power versus civil rights, the sword versus the shield. The struggle for Black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement’s militancy is either vilified or erased outright.

In  The Sword and the Shield , Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives.

The Seminarian by Patrick Parr

Martin Luther King Jr. was a cautious nineteen-year-old rookie preacher when he left Atlanta, Georgia, to attend divinity school up north. At Crozer Theological Seminary, King, or “ML” back then, immediately found himself surrounded by a white staff and white professors. Even his dorm room had once been used by wounded Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. In addition, his fellow seminarians were almost all older; some were soldiers who had fought in World War II, others pacifists who had chosen jail instead of enlisting. ML was facing challenges he’d barely dreamed of.

A prankster and a late-night, chain-smoking pool player, ML soon fell in love with a white woman, all the while adjusting to life in an integrated student body and facing discrimination from locals in the surrounding town of Chester, Pennsylvania. In class, ML performed well, though he demonstrated a habit of plagiarizing that continued throughout his academic career. But he was helped by friendships with fellow seminarians and the mentorship of the Reverend J. Pius Barbour. In his three years at Crozer between 1948 and 1951, King delivered dozens of sermons around the Philadelphia area, had a gun pointed at him (twice), played on the basketball team, and eventually became student body president. These experiences shaped him into a man ready to take on even greater challenges.

Based on dozens of revealing interviews with the men and women who knew him then,  This absolute gem among books on Martin Luther King Jr.  is the first definitive, full-length account of King’s years as a divinity student at Crozer Theological Seminary. Long passed over by biographers and historians, this period in King’s life is vital to understanding the historical figure he soon became.

Death of a King by Tavis Smiley

Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King’s life, revealing the minister’s trials and tribulations – denunciations by the press, rejection from the president, dismissal by the country’s black middle class and militants, assaults on his character, ideology, and political tactics, to name a few – all of which he had to rise above in order to lead and address the racism, poverty, and militarism that threatened to destroy our democracy.

My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. by Coretta Scott King

The widow of the dynamic and beloved civil rights leader recounts the history of the movement and offers an inside look at Dr. King, his sermons and speeches, her relationship with him, their children, family life, and more.

Becoming King by Troy Jackson

Author Troy Jackson chronicles King’s emergence and effectiveness as a civil rights leader by examining his relationship with the people of Montgomery, and moreover, his ability to connect with the educated and the unlettered, professionals and the working class.

Jackson demonstrates how King’s voice and message evolved during his time in Montgomery, reflecting the shared struggles, challenges, experiences, and hopes of the people with whom he worked. As citizens awaited permanent change, King was thrust into the national spotlight and left the city, taking the lessons he learned there onto the national stage. In the crucible of Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. was transformed from an inexperienced Baptist preacher into a civil rights leader of profound historical importance.

Pillar of Fire by Taylor Branch

In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with  Parting the Waters , winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage.

Beginning with the Nation of Islam and conflict over racial separatism,  Pillar of Fire takes the reader to Mississippi and Alabama: Birmingham, the murder of Medgar Evers, the “March on Washington,” the Civil Rights Act, and voter registration drives. In 1964, King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Branch’s magnificent trilogy makes clear why the Civil Rights Movement, and indeed King’s leadership, are among the nation’s enduring achievements.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Written in his own words, this history-making autobiography is Martin Luther King: the mild-mannered, inquisitive child and student who chafed under and eventually rebelled against segregation; the dedicated young minister who continually questioned the depths of his faith and the limits of his wisdom; the loving husband and father who sought to balance his family’s needs with those of a growing, nationwide movement; and the reflective, world-famous leader who was fired by a vision of equality for people everywhere.

The Promise and the Dream by David Margolick

Assassinated only sixty-two days apart in 1968, King and Kennedy changed the United States forever, and their deaths profoundly altered the country’s trajectory. In  The Promise and the Dream , Margolick examines their unique bond and the complicated mix of mutual assistance, impatience, wariness, awkwardness, antagonism, and admiration that existed between the two, documented with original interviews, oral histories, FBI files, and previously untapped contemporaneous accounts.

Kennedy and King by Steven Levingston

Kennedy and King traces the emergence of two of the twentieth century’s greatest leaders, as well as their powerful impact on each other and on the shape of the civil rights battle between 1960 and 1963. These two men from starkly different worlds profoundly influenced each other’s personal development. Kennedy’s hesitation on civil rights spurred King to greater acts of courage, and King inspired Kennedy to finally make a moral commitment to equality. As America still grapples with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of discrimination, this revealing account offers a vital, vivid contribution to the literature of the Civil Rights Movement.

I May Not Get There With You by Michael Eric Dyson

A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. One of the most revealing books on Martin Luther King, Jr., this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy restores King’s true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today’s world.

Martin’s Dream by Clayborne Carson

On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flocked to the nation’s capital for the March on Washington. That day Clayborne Carson, a 19-year-old black student from a working-class family in New Mexico who had hitched a ride to Washington, heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. It was a life-changing occasion for the author as it launched him on a career to become one of the most important chroniclers of the civil rights era.

Two decades later, as a distinguished professor of African American History at Stanford University, Mrs. King picked Dr. Carson to edit her late husband’s papers. Taking the reader on a journey of rediscovery of the King legend, he draws on new archives as well as unpublished letters. Dr. Carson examines his decades-long quest to understand Martin Luther King, Jr. the man, delve into the construction of his legacy, and to understand how King’s “dream” has evolved.

A Testament of Hope by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., told a crowd gathered at Memphis’s Clayborn Temple on April 3, 1968. “But it really doesn’t matter to me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop…And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

These prophetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his “promised land” of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life.

King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop by Harvard Sitkoff

In this concise biography, Harvard Sitkoff presents a stunningly relevant King. The 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, King’s 1963 soul-stirring address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the 1965 history-altering Selma march are all recounted. But these are not treated as predetermined high points in a life celebrated for its role in a civil rights struggle too many Americans have quickly relegated to the past.

Carefully presented alongside King’s successes are his failures – as an organizer in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida; as a leader of ever more strident activists; as a husband. Together, high and low points are interwoven to capture King’s lifelong struggle, through disappointment and epiphany, with his own injunction: “Let us be Christian in all our actions.”

By telling King’s life as one on the verge of reaching its fullest fulfillment, Sitkoff powerfully shows where King’s faith and activism were leading him – to a direct confrontation with a president over an immoral war and with an America blind to its complicity in economic injustice.

Where Do We Go From Here  by Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America’s future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind-for the first time-has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.

The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning – from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced.

The Dream by Drew Hansen

In The Dream , Drew D. Hansen explores the fascinating and little-known history of King’s legendary address.  The book insightfully considers how King’s speech “has slowly remade the American imagination,” and led us closer to King’s visionary goal of a redeemed America.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: On Leadership by Donald T. Phillips

This insightful read among Martin Luther King Jr. books chronicles the actions of the Baptist minister’s life and identifies the key leadership skills he displayed; such as practice what you preach, take direct action without waiting for other agencies to act, give credit where credit is due, laws only declare rights (they do not deliver them), and many more. This book is part history and part guide to becoming a great leader, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., an advocate for peaceful change while never wavering in making the opposition listen and give in.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential books on Martin Luther King Jr., check out our list of The 10 Best books on Frederick Douglass !

6 Books to Read in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death

H istorians and biographers have spent much ink celebrating and interrogating the life and influence of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 50 years since his assassination on April 4, 1968. Readers interested to know more about the iconic civil rights hero can choose from a wide range of literary options — from shorter books that give an easily digestible overview of his life, to multi-volume tomes exploring his every action in great detail. While some books take a holistic approach toward the life of the man, others focus in on sub-topics of his legacy.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of his death, here are 6 books to read about Martin Luther King, Jr:

Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life , by Marshall Frady (2002)

For those looking for an introductory level approach to King, Frady’s book — part of the Penguin Lives Biographies series — offers just that. At just over 200 pages, it provides a swift bird’s-eye view of the civil rights leader, from one of the foremost reporters on the movement.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. , edited by Clayborne Carson (1998)

In 1985, King’s widow Coretta Scott King selected selected Carson to edit and publish her late husband’s papers. In addition to publishing numerous collections of King’s speeches, sermons, letters and drafts, Carson assembled all of these works to construct a posthumous, first-person account of King’s life.

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years , 1954-63, by Taylor Branch (1988)

Branch won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in biography for this tome on the years leading up to the March on Washington. Branch went on to write several other volumes for those interested in an especially deep dive into King’s life, including Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 and At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 .

The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. , by Jason Sokol (2018)

Sokol’s book (just released in March) homes in on the period immediately following King’s assassination, when Americans grappled with the loss of a leader of enormous importance, both practical and symbolic. While King is widely admired today, in 1968, his death was met with a wide range of reactions around the country and the world.

The Promise and the Dream: The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy , by David Margolick (2018)

Many historians have been fascinated by the relationship between King and John F. Kennedy, but here, Pulitzer finalist Margolick turns his gaze instead on King’s relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, a civil rights advocate who formed a relationship with King. Their shocking assassinations came only 62 days apart. The book comes out Tuesday.

The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age , by Patrick Parr (2018)

Parr takes a close look at King’s years at Crozer Theological Seminary near Chester, Penn., where at age 19 he decamped from the South to live for three years in a mostly white institution, studying with older seminarians who’d had vastly different experiences of the world. The book was released this Easter.

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Martin Luther King Jr.: 12 essential reads

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Today the nation honors the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the reverend and activist who led the American civil rights movement. As King studied nonviolence as practiced by Gandhi and imagined by Henry David Thoreau, now his own life and work are the subject of study. Here are 12 essential reads about the short life of King, who was assassinated in 1968 at age 39.

“The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement” (2013), “Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63” (1986), “Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-1965” (1998), and “At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68” (2006), all by Taylor Branch. Branch’s latest book on King, published last month, is a condensed, highlight-heavy sampling of his award-winning trilogy about King. The first book, “Parting the Waters,” was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1987, and the two following books were also highly praised. Totaling almost 3,000 pages, Branch’s exhaustive trilogy provides a deep look into King’s life.

“Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life” (2002) by Marshall Frady. For those who might want a less voluminous introduction to King, Frady’s slender volume, part of the Penguin Lives biography series, provides a lively overview of King’s life and work.

“Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference” (1986) by David J. Garrow. Garrow’s 1981 book “The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr.” publicly explicated the surveillance the FBI conducted of King, but it was 1986’s “Bearing the Cross” that is considered a more significant book. Researching it, Garrow interviewed more than 700 people, and went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

“Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” (2001) by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier. For children ages 5 and up, this picture book biography was awarded a Caldecott Honor and is an accessible introduction to King.

“My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.” (1994) by Coretta Scott King. The 1994 edition of King’s personal 1969 memoir was reframed for high school students, with updated language.

“The Martin Luther King, Jr., Encyclopedia” (rev. 2008) by Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Erin Cook, and Susan Englander. History professor Clayborne Carson leads the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and has produced six volumes of King’s written work, papers, letters and speeches. This encyclopedia, aimed at students grade 10 and up, is an entry into King’s life and work.

“Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941-1963” and “Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963-1973” anthologies by the Library of America. These anthologies show the world King entered, the challenges the civil rights movement faced and what the cost of its victories were, up close. Authors include Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, John Steinbeck, Charlayne Hunter, John Hersey, Joan Didion, Gordon Parks and Earl Caldwell, the only reporter to witness the assassination of King.

“Martin Luther King Jr.: The Essential Box Set: The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr.” (2009) This 15-hour-long audiobook includes recordings of King’s significant speeches, showing off his gifts as an orator, with additional narration by colleagues and scholars placing them in context.

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Carolyn Kellogg is a prize-winning writer who served as Books editor of the Los Angeles Times for three years. She joined the L.A. Times in 2010 as staff writer in Books and left in 2018. In 2019, she was a judge of the National Book Award in Nonfiction. Prior to coming to The Times, Kellogg was editor of LAist.com and the web editor of the public radio show Marketplace. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in English from the University of Southern California.

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Martin Luther King, founding father: Jonathan Eig on his epic new biography

A life of Muhammad Ali led the author to his new book, then a prize-winning predecessor played guide and adviser

J onathan Eig’s new biography of Martin Luther King Jr was only published last week, but it has already been hailed by the Washington Post as “the most compelling account of King’s life in a generation”. The documentarian Ken Burns described it as “kind of a miracle” and the New York Times declared it “supplants David J Garrow’s [Pulitzer-winning] 1986 biography, Bearing the Cross, as the definitive life of King”.

In a remarkable act of generosity, Garrow opened his files to Eig and acted as his consultant. Garrow now agrees with other critics, calling Eig’s book “a great leap forward in our biographical understanding” and “the most comprehensive and original King biography to appear in over 35 years”.

Eig is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has written five other highly regarded books, including bestselling biographies of Lou Gehrig and Muhammad Ali. This week, Eig chatted about how his book on King came about and what he hopes readers will take from it.

The Guardian: I read somewhere that the new book came out of your work on Ali.

Eig: Yeah, it was completely organic. I was interviewing people who knew both of them and every time they would start talking about King, I would just get more curious. So I felt like I already had their phone numbers. I could call them back and get another meeting and this time talk about King. And I could do that before they got any older.

The Guardian: When I wrote The Gay Metropolis I started with the oldest people I could find. Did you do that?

Eig: 100%. It was like actuarial tables: factor for age and health and go after those who are the most frail. I hate to be crude about it, but that’s exactly what I did. Basically I was calling everybody all at once.

The Guardian: How long did this one take?

Eig: This one was six years. That’s full-time work, like 60 hours a week for six years.

The Guardian: You had access to thousands of FBI files that weren’t available to previous biographers. How did that come about?

Eig: I got somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 new documents. Donald Trump signed an order to release documents that were gathered during congressional hearings on JFK’s assassination. And I think accidentally that also led to the release of all the MLK FBI stuff, because the Church committee [a 1975-76 Senate panel on government intelligence activities] investigated them both.

I really think Dave Garrow was the only one who went through every file. I went through a lot of them and Garrow was kind of like the first reader and he would tell me what was important and I, of course, looked through a lot on my own. But I don’t really know that too many other people were out there looking at this stuff.

The Guardian: You did more than 200 interviews. Why were there so many people who knew King who were much more forthcoming than they had been before?

Eig: Because they were older and because Coretta [Scott King, King’s wife ] was gone. They were more comfortable saying things that they wouldn’t have said before. Certainly when it came to talking about Dorothy Cotton [one of King’s mistresses], people were really reluctant to say anything while Coretta was alive.

The Guardian: I always tell my young friends writing a great book is all about what you leave out. Do you agree?

Eig: (chuckling) Yeah. Even at 600-something pages! I left out a lot. At one point – I’ll be honest – I asked Colin Dickerman [his original editor] if I could do a three-volume work. I wanted to do one from childhood to Montgomery and then from Montgomery to maybe Selma and then Selma to death. Wisely, Colin disabused me of that idea. I’m trying to give the reader not just a good book but a readable book. I told my wife, I want people to cry at the end of this book – and they’re not gonna cry if I’ve put them to sleep!

The Guardian: What do you know now that you didn’t know when you wrote your first book, about Lou Gehrig?

Eig: It took me a couple of books to figure out that journalists’ archives are really valuable … When you find a good interview a journalist did with one of your subjects, go to his archives and see if the notes are there, see if the tapes are there.

I got David Halberstam’s notes from his interview with King and he describes King taking his kids to the swimming pool and his daughter falls and scrapes her knee. And King grabs a piece of fried chicken and rubs it on her knee and says, “You know, chicken is the best thing for a cut.” It’s just a sweet little moment that didn’t make Halberstam’s story. But it was in his notebook.

The Guardian: You describe King as one of America’s founding fathers. I’d never seen that before.

Eig: Yeah. It was my idea. It was inspired somewhat by reading some of the 1619 Project. They talk about the idea that Black activists were seeking to force the country to live up to the words of the founding fathers. And that’s what kind of triggered it for me. I think you can make an argument that King more than anyone else is a founding father. He’s trying to create the nation as it was meant to be.

The Guardian: The great Texas journalist Molly Ivins said something similar: “There’s not a thing wrong with the ideals and mechanisms outlined and the liberties set forth in the constitution of the US. The only problem is the founders left a lot of people out of the constitution. They left out poor people and Black people and female people. It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our constitution to everyone in America.”

Eig: Yeah, I, I like that.

The Guardian: What would you most like people to feel from reading your book?

Eig: I hope people see King as a human being and not this two-dimensional character we’ve made him into since he became a national holiday and monument. [They should know] he had feelings and suffered and struggled and had doubts, because I think that makes his heroism even greater.

I certainly want people to appreciate just how radical he was. A lot of people reduce him to this very safe figure who was all about peace, love and harmony. But he was challenging us in ways that made a lot of people uncomfortable, which is partly why the FBI came down on him the way they did.

The Guardian: The thing that I think is probably most forgotten about him is that he was as anti-materialism as he was anti-militarism. Would you agree?

Eig: That’s right. And it drove Coretta crazy because he would never even buy nice stuff for the house. And of course he left no money behind when he died. So he took it really seriously.

King is published in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Perilous Power of Respectability

By Kelefa Sanneh

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 at the center of his speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

When King was assassinated, in 1968, he was generally viewed as a leader with a mixed record. President Lyndon B. Johnson had grown frustrated with him, and he was beset by detractors who found him either too much or not enough of a troublemaker; the year before, an article in The New York Review of Books had referred to his “irrelevancy.” But in the years after his death the skeptics grew quieter and scarcer. In 1983, Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, over the objection of twenty-two senators. And now, as national heroes of all sorts are being reassessed, the question is usually not whether King was great but, rather, which King was the greatest. The 2014 film “ Selma ” reverently dramatized his voting-rights activism; some people these days focus on his anti-poverty campaign and his opposition to the Vietnam War; others emphasize his advocacy of integration, and his vision of a time when Black children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The proof, and the price, of King’s success is that everyone wants a piece of him.

The first biography of King was published in 1959, a few years after the Montgomery bus boycott, his first big victory. It was written by Lawrence D. Reddick, who was not a neutral observer—he had helped King write his first book, “ Stride Toward Freedom .” The historian David Levering Lewis published a thoughtful King biography in 1970, which captured the pessimistic mood that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. Lewis portrayed King as a gifted preacher who “moralized the plight of the American black in simplistic and Manichaean terms” but “failed” in his broader effort to promote “economic and political reform.” Between 1988 and 2006, Taylor Branch published the three-volume history “ America in the King Years ,” which ran to nearly three thousand pages; in 1989, Branch was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Rather than preëmpting future books about King, the trilogy seemed to inspire more of them. The latest is “ King: A Life ” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), by Jonathan Eig, whose previous book was a biography of Muhammad Ali. Eig wants to give readers an alternative to the “defanged” version of King that endures in inspirational quotes. Eig’s new sources include the latest batch of files released by the F.B.I., which was surveilling King even more closely than he suspected; notes from Reddick; and remembrances from King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, who recorded her thoughts in the time after his killing. “The portrait that emerges here may trouble some people,” Eig writes—the book recounts a number of King’s affairs, as well as the allegation, from an F.B.I. report, that King was complicit in a sexual assault.

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What Eig mostly provides, though, is a sober and intimate portrait of King’s short life, and one that can’t help but be admiring, given how much King accomplished, and how quickly he did so—he was thirty-nine when he was killed. Eig captures the ferocity of the forces that opposed King: dogs, bombs, Klansmen, and, above all, segregationists wielding legal and political authority. He also captures King’s sense of theatre, his enormously canny ability to stage confrontations that heightened the contrast between the civil-rights movement and the people who wanted to stop it. King viewed nonviolent protest as both a moral imperative and a political winner, because it made protesters look good and segregationists look bad. This sense of how things would play on newspaper front pages and television screens, this exacting attention to appearances, marked King as a distinctly contemporary activist—a master of the viral moment. It also marked him as an unapologetic practitioner of what’s now known as “respectability politics”: the idea that a group is more likely to be treated with respect if its members behave respectably. Unlike King himself, respectability politics does not have a great reputation; the term is used primarily by critics of it who worry that this approach tends to “rationalize racism, sexism, bigotry, hate, and violence,” in the words of one NPR report . This is the most paradoxical aspect of King’s long, glorious afterlife: fifty-five years after his death, he is almost universally respected, but his lifelong devotion to the politics of respectability is not.

“Nepotism” would be an unduly censorious word for the family dynamic that shaped King’s life, though not an inaccurate one. When he was born, in 1929, his maternal grandfather was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, an Atlanta institution. Two years later, his father took over, thereby becoming one of the most prominent Black leaders in the city. (At the time, King and his father were both named Michael; the father renamed them both a few years later, in honor of the German theologian.) King was born rich and famous, at least by the standards that prevailed in Atlanta’s Black community. Eig writes that he and his siblings “were watched wherever they went and expected to behave.” Accordingly, King was intent on living up to expectations. When he was eighteen, during the second of two summers that he spent in Connecticut picking tobacco, he and some friends were pulled over by the police during a night out. When he called home to tell his parents, he also told them, perhaps strategically, that he had decided to become a preacher, like his father.

He was clearly gifted, with a resonant voice and a knack for rhythm and repetition—Eig compares him to “a talented jazz musician,” in part because he could make other people’s riffs sound like his own. King collected an armful of college degrees, including a theology Ph.D. from Boston University which became a source of controversy in 1989, when researchers discovered that his dissertation was partially plagiarized. He could have accepted a position with his father at Ebenezer, but he chose instead to move to Montgomery, Alabama, where the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was in search of a new leader.

King played no role in Rosa Parks’s decision, in 1955, to refuse to relinquish her seat on a segregated bus, but shortly after she was arrested he joined local Black pastors who were organizing a bus boycott. He delivered his first real protest speech at a church meeting on December 5, 1955, employing those twin similes he later made famous. “We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” he said. He was putting prophetic language in service of a proposal that was actually a compromise: a system of self-segregation, in which white and Black riders would have an equal chance to seat themselves, filling up the bus front to back and back to front, respectively. It was only after the companies refused that King and his allies shifted to a demand—full integration—as bold and clear as his rhetoric.

The Montgomery boycott was impressive partly because of the efficiency with which King and other leaders mobilized to help boycotters get to and from work, and partly because of the astonishing abuse that they withstood, including a bombing at King’s house. But the boycott may have been less consequential than the work of a team of lawyers, associated with the N.A.A.C.P., who sued the city on behalf of four Black bus riders who had been subject to segregation. The boycott put pressure on the city government, but it’s unclear whether it influenced the two district-court judges who struck down the Montgomery ordinance requiring bus segregation, or the Supreme Court Justices who summarily affirmed that decision, ending the era of bus segregation. On December 20, 1956, King announced the Supreme Court’s ruling by paraphrasing an old abolitionist preacher: he reassured his listeners, not for the last time, that “the arc of the moral universe, although long, is bending toward justice.” The next morning, he became one of the first people to ride an integrated bus in Montgomery.

The triumph in Alabama transformed King from a local leader into a national figure, and in certain quarters a superhero—some of his allies turned the saga into a comic book, “ Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story ,” illustrated by Sy Barry, who went on to draw “The Phantom.” Eig, in his biography, shows how King viewed Gandhi’s ideas about nonviolence as an extension of the Christian ethic of sacrificial love. But there remains something mysterious and mesmerizing about King’s calm certainty, which reproduced itself in the minds of his followers. In one of his most popular sermons, “Loving Your Enemies,” King delivered a startling warning to anyone opposed to the liberation of Black people in America: “Be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.” Any ordinary leader can promise his followers deliverance; it takes an extraordinary one to promise them tribulation.

During a disappointing anti-segregation campaign in Albany, Georgia, in 1961, King encountered a wily chief of police, Laurie Pritchett, who understood his strategy; after King was arrested, Pritchett arranged to have someone pay his bail, so that he would be involuntarily released. “These fellows respond better when I am in jail,” King said, years later, referring to the politicians he was trying to pressure. In Birmingham, he had a better—that is, worse—adversary: Bull Connor, the city’s public-safety commissioner, who kept King imprisoned long enough to compose “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” his most celebrated essay, and whose brutal tactics were captured in a widely circulated photograph of a police dog lunging at a fifteen-year-old boy. King and his allies recruited children to their protests, on the theory that they could go to jail without missing work. In “Eyes on the Prize,” the indispensable public-television documentary from 1987, one of King’s allies, the Reverend James Bevel, recalled borrowing a police bullhorn to calm rowdy demonstrators, because he wanted to avert a riot. “If you’re not going to respect policemen, you’re not going to be in the movement,” he told them.

For King, the civil-rights movement consisted of almost nothing but difficult choices. (The strategy of keeping adults out of jail by sending kids in their stead was controversial then, and would probably be even more controversial now.) What’s amazing is how, in the course of a decade, he got so many of them right, relying more on instinct than on any formal decision-making process within his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1963, he pressed ahead with the March on Washington, even though President John F. Kennedy told him that it was “a great mistake,” and the result was the most celebrated demonstration in American history. He was at the White House when President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but still risked upsetting Johnson by protesting the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Selma, Alabama; the protests spurred the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. At one point, King wrote to a friend, half complaining, “People will be expecting me to pull rabbits out of my hat for the rest of my life.”

Thirty years ago, a scholar named Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham published “ Righteous Discontent ,” a great book about a different group of Black Baptist leaders. Higginbotham told the story of the Church’s Women’s Convention, which was founded in 1900 and became one of the most effective Black advocacy organizations in the country. Higginbotham noticed that the group’s appeals combined “conservative” and “radical” rhetoric, and her book popularized a term for this approach: “the politics of respectability.” It was a wide-ranging strategy, encompassing everything from legal work to children’s toys—the Convention sold Black dolls, meant to “represent the intelligent and refined Negro of today,” as opposed to the “disgraceful and humiliating type that we have been accustomed to seeing black dolls made of.” The women who led this movement valued good behavior for its own sake. (One spoke about “the poison generated by jazz music and improper dancing.”) But they also viewed it as a tool to use in their struggle for equality. Higginbotham quoted the minutes from a 1910 meeting, in which the leaders acknowledged that “a certain class of whites” was refusing to make space for Black passengers to sit down on streetcars, and urged Black passengers not to try and squeeze in. The advice took the form of a moral commandment: “Let us at all times and on all occasions, remember that the quiet, dignified individual who is respectful to others is after all the superior individual, be he black or white.”

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Often, Higginbotham noted, respectability politics meant encouraging “middle-class ideals and aspirations” among the broader Black public. If propriety was part of the solution to Black oppression, then perhaps impropriety was part of the problem. “Respectability’s emphasis on individual behavior served inevitably to blame blacks for their victimization and, worse yet, to place an inordinate amount of blame on black women,” Higginbotham wrote. (A Women’s Convention report from 1913 declared that Black women who failed to run orderly households were “an enemy to the race.”) But Higginbotham concluded that these tactics were effective, and probably indispensable. “The politics of respectability afforded black church women a powerful weapon of resistance to race and gender subordination,” she wrote. The notion of respectability may have been entangled with these oppressions, too—but, then, so was everything else.

This is the Black Baptist world that King was born into: his mother, Alberta Williams King, was the organ player at Ebenezer and served for more than a decade as the president of the church’s Women’s Committee. (In 1974, she was playing the organ when a deranged worshipper shot and killed her.) Like the Black Baptist women who helped pave his way, King stressed the importance of “dignified” behavior; he knew that claims of Black incivility or criminality were often used to justify segregation. During the Montgomery boycott, organizers trained activists to be polite, to avoid confrontation, and not to respond in kind when they were cursed at, as they almost always were. And when King announced the boycott’s end he urged his supporters to respond with “calm dignity and wise restraint,” stressing that “if we become victimized with violent intents, we will have walked in vain.” King was a towering political figure, but he was also a pastor, necessarily concerned with personal virtue as well as social change. In 1957, addressing a crowd of demonstrators in Washington, he delivered a rousing speech centered on a firm demand: “Give us the ballot.” But, even then, he added a note of rebuke, warning of the danger of resentment. “If we will become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns,” he said, “the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order.” This was political advice, calculated to keep the support of white moderates, but it was also spiritual advice: a way of urging the activists in the crowd to be guided by the force of agape, or Christian love, and to conduct themselves accordingly.

King knew that the appearance of propriety was especially important for someone in his position. According to some of his friends, including Harry Belafonte, the love of King’s life was Betty Moitz, a white woman whom he dated while at seminary, in Pennsylvania; King’s father was one of many people who told him that an interracial marriage would fatally compromise his ability to be a leader, and the couple split before he graduated. He met Coretta in Boston, where she was a conservatory student. He was, of course, a great talker, and she did not recoil when he asked her if she thought that she could be a “good preacher’s wife.” This was an important church role, although not a coequal one, and Coretta later remembered that King once explained the difference in stark terms. “You see, I am called,” he told her, “and you aren’t.” One of King’s associates, Hosea Williams, reported that King could be cruel to Coretta—he recalled hearing him tell her to “shut up” on numerous occasions. And King’s constant travel would have been difficult for her even if he had been faithful.

Some of King’s associates knew about his affairs, and so did the F.B.I. During one of King’s trips to New York, the Bureau recorded him speaking to women in four different cities. Among the women in King’s life was Georgia Davis Powers, who later became the first woman and the first Black person elected to the Kentucky Senate, and who published a memoir in 1995 that detailed her relationship with King. She thought that they were merely friends and allies until the day King’s brother, A.D., told her, “Martin has been thinking about you since you last met.” Eig’s book makes clear just how closely the F.B.I. was watching King, apparently in the hope of collecting enough damaging information to prosecute him, intimidate him, or drive him to suicide. (William C. Sullivan, the head of domestic intelligence, sent King audio recordings of him with women, along with a note that said, “There is but one way out for you.”) The Bureau’s vendetta against King inevitably affects the way we view its report that, one night in early 1964, a pastor friend of King’s “forcibly raped” a woman during a hotel gathering; a handwritten addendum specifies that “King looked on, laughed, and offered advice.” The report is based on audio recordings that are due to be made public in 2027, and which may help us better understand how wide the gap between the public and the private King really was.

The criticism of respectability politics goes beyond the inevitable accusations of hypocrisy. Ideas about who was and who wasn’t respectable helped shape the leadership of King’s movement, and sometimes constrained it. The activist and organizer Ella Baker served as the interim executive director of the S.C.L.C. in the late fifties, but said that she was never allowed to function as a true leader there, because “masculine and ministerial ego” prevented it. Bayard Rustin, one of the architects of the civil-rights movement, was widely known to be gay, and in 1960, after Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., threatened to spread a false rumor that King and Rustin were lovers, King accepted Rustin’s resignation from the S.C.L.C. This, perhaps, was respectability politics at its most coldly political and its least preacherlike. (King did not appear to have strong convictions about homosexuality.) King wanted to make sure that his movement commanded broad respect, so he had to pay close attention to what was considered respectable.

In the years after Higginbotham’s book came out, the phrase “respectability politics” entered common usage, often as a way to describe Black luminaries and leaders who urged other Black people to behave better—to be worthy heirs of King’s legacy. In “ The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics ” (2012), for example, the political scientist Fredrick C. Harris chastised Hampton University, a historically Black institution, for prohibiting its business-school students from wearing “braids, dreadlocks, and other unusual hairstyles”—a way of “policing the personal behavior of ‘wayward’ blacks.” Harris and others also criticized Bill Cosby, who in a 2004 speech pronounced that “the lower-economic and lower-middle-economic people are not holding their end in this deal,” and President Obama , who declared, during his 2008 campaign, that in Black communities “too many fathers” had “abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men.” Harris thought that this kind of focus on personal responsibility made it sound as if Black people no longer faced “social barriers,” and so made it harder to dismantle those barriers.

Most politicians find it useful to deliver occasional admonitions amid all the promises. These leaders probably overestimate the effect of their moral exhortations. But critics of respectability politics probably do, too. Was Obama’s Presidency really hobbled by his promotion of family values, or by his infrequent remarks about the problems he saw in a community that he regarded as his own? The Black legal scholar Randall Kennedy has written perceptively in defense of what he calls “progressive black respectability politics,” insisting that Black people ought to have high hopes and high standards, for both themselves and their country. In the Black Lives Matter era, respectability politics has returned in a more upbeat and perhaps more patronizing form, with proliferating celebrations of “Black girl magic” and “Black excellence.” (The idea, it sometimes seems, is to do what parents are nowadays taught to do: praise the good behavior and ignore the bad.) And platforms like Twitter have made it easy to call out people who fail to hold respectable opinions or to use respectable language. Eschewing respectability politics altogether would mean ceasing to have strong views about how other people should behave, which would require even more self-control than King asked of his followers.

Respectability is an enduring concept, but a shifting one: you can disapprove of King’s infidelity and also lament the way Rustin was treated, just as you can find a ban on dreadlocks to be ill-judged without opposing dress codes altogether. In the years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, King found that his lifelong devotion to respectability may have cost him the respect of a new generation of leaders and followers. In 1967, Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton published “ Black Power: The Politics of Liberation ,” which argued that the civil-rights movement was over, and deservedly so. “The traditional approaches failed,” they wrote, adding that “black people must make demands without regard to their initial ‘respectability,’ precisely because ‘respectable’ demands have not been sufficient.” This had become the conventional wisdom; the year before, the Times had announced, on its front page, that “the civil rights movement is falling into increasing disarray.” Major riots in Los Angeles, in 1965, and in Detroit and Newark, in 1967, were doubly damaging to King, linking his movement to violence while also illustrating the limits of his control over it. For his part, King widened his campaign, publicly opposing the Vietnam War, which he had previously declined to criticize, and taking aim less at specific laws than at poverty and inequality more broadly. “Racism is genocide,” King said at a press conference in Chicago, where he discovered that it was much easier to galvanize resistance to a cruel police chief than to a faceless landlord accused of neglecting his property. King’s opposition to the Vietnam War, in particular, alienated President Johnson, and many of the moderates who had supported King’s earlier campaigns. “I figure I was politically unwise but morally wise,” King said, and the fact that he felt he had to choose between these two different kinds of wisdom was itself proof that his options were narrowing.

In Eig’s book, King’s death feels foreordained, and perhaps it felt that way to him, too. He had been not just threatened and bombed but also punched in the face (by a white man affiliated with the American Nazi Party) and stabbed in the chest (by a Black woman who was, in King’s word, “demented”); as a teen-ager, he had attempted suicide, and as an adult he was hospitalized a number of times for what was usually described as “exhaustion,” though many who knew him said that he struggled with depression. Despite these portents, it’s still disquieting to read his death-haunted final speech, delivered in Memphis, where he was supporting striking sanitation workers. “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life,” he said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now.” The next night, on his motel balcony, King was shot by James Earl Ray, a convicted felon and a committed segregationist. King was pronounced dead at a local hospital, about an hour later.

To many Black Power advocates, King’s Christian faith in the curvature of the moral universe seemed naïve. What proof is there that stoic suffering and good behavior will bring justice closer? King’s speeches often relied on anaphora, which could have hypnotic power. “How long? Not long,” he said, over and over again, addressing a crowd in Selma, in 1965. “How long? Not long, because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” This was a rousing message of determination, and maybe also an acknowledgment that even an extraordinary leader can’t ask his followers to suffer with dignity indefinitely. King’s version of nonviolence really was radical: he persuaded people not only to forswear rioting or bad behavior but to forswear self-defense—and willingly allow themselves to be jailed, beaten, maybe even killed. This political strategy probably had an expiration date; King’s early success created a sense of accelerating progress that was impossible to sustain.

Yet even now many political leaders find themselves inspired by King’s language, and by his ability to frame political conflicts in a way that made it obvious which side was deserving of respect and which was not. The idea of King as a failure has not aged well: it is hard to argue that the civil-rights leaders who came after him were more effective. In the years since his assassination, we have found different ways to define “respectable,” and different forms of respectability politics. But it’s still not clear that we have learned to live without it. ♦

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Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr, born Michael King Jr (1929-1968), was an American minister and civil rights activist. He was assassinated in 1968.

Professor Lerone Martin recommends Bearing the Cross (1986) as a good book about Martin Luther King Jr, in the best books on the civil rights era . “This book is a Pulitzer Prize winner. It became a standard narrative of King’s life and the life of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It’s an amazing book.” More recently Jonathan Eig’s biography, King: A Life won the New-York Historical Society’s 2024 book prize (awarded annually for the best work of American history or biography).

Books by Martin Luther King Jr

Stride toward freedom: the montgomery story, by martin luther king jr.

Read expert recommendations

“ Stride Toward Freedom is Martin Luther King’s personal account of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which lasted for 381 days. During segregation, in some areas of the South, black people, who paid the same fares as white riders, were forced to sit in the back of the bus and give up their seats to white passengers if there weren’t enough. Rosa Parks sparked the boycott. But an incredibly bright and articulate 26 year old man known as Martin Luther King emerged as a leader of the protests. He incorporated Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence, which he learned from other leaders. He went on to galvanise the civil rights movement and win the Nobel peace prize.” Read more...

The best books on Progressivism

Keith Ellison , Lawyer

Letter from the Birmingham Jail

“Personally, I think the Letter From the Birmingham Jail from Martin Luther King was as eloquent and as influential a document on the civil rights movement and progressive thinking about rights as anything that I’ve ever read. It’s one of the most powerful pieces I’ve ever read, period. On Martin Luther King day it’s one of my favourite things to remind me, it’s so powerful. It’s unfortunate many people have never read it or if they have they have forgotten the power of it.” Read more...

John Kerry , Politician

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, 28 August 1963

“Well, the Martin Luther King speech, of course… To understand it, you have to see it within the historical context. It was made three months after a very successful and very searing campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, in April of 1963, when the country and the world saw pictures of young negro girls and boys being pummelled against a wall with fire hoses and police dogs nipping at their ankles as they were peacefully marching in opposition to racial segregation. So that was April 63, and then, in August, some four months later, King was speaking at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial to more than 250,000 people. He was speaking to celebrate and to validate the success of the civil rights movement at that point, but also speaking prophetically about his hope for a better America. The ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, the portion that is most talked about, was totally spontaneous and extemporaneous. It wasn’t written.” Read more...

The Best Speeches of All Time

Clarence B Jones , Lawyer

Interviews where books by Martin Luther King Jr were recommended

The best speeches of all time , recommended by clarence b jones, franklin d roosevelt’s inaugural address, 4 march 1933 by various authors, john f kennedy’s inaugural address, 20 january 1961 by various authors, laurence olivier’s oscar acceptance speech (1979) by youtube video, dr martin luther king, jr’s ‘i have a dream’ speech, 28 august 1963 by martin luther king jr, nelson mandela’s inaugural address as president of south africa, 10 may 1994 by david elliot cohen.

Which were the best speeches ever made? Clarence B Jones, lawyer, friend and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr—and contributor to the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech—chooses his top five, and explains what is that makes these famous speeches so good.

The best books on Progressivism , recommended by John Kerry

Silent spring by rachel carson, the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck, letter from the birmingham jail by martin luther king jr, the conscience of a liberal by paul wellstone, the other america by michael harrington.

John Kerry, the 68th United States Secretary of State, picks five books that every progressive should read, and discusses the divide in America between the haves and have-nots

The best books on Progressivism , recommended by Keith Ellison

Stride toward freedom: the montgomery story by martin luther king jr, the autobiography of malcolm x by malcolm x and assisted by alex haley, laurence fishburne (narrator), the two-income trap by elizabeth warren and amelia tyagi, winner-take-all politics by jacob s hacker and paul pierson, god’s politics by jim wallis.

As American congressman Keith Ellison—the first Muslim elected to Congress—enters the race to chair the Democratic National Committee, reread this interview on the cause he stands for: progressivism — and the best books to read to fully understand it.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

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16 Books About MLK That Reveal the Man Behind the Civil Rights Icon

Over 90 years after his birth, we look back on King's legacy with these vital reads.

• Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Decades have passed since the loss of Martin Luther King, Jr., yet Americans continue to find ourselves surrounded by the turmoil caused by racial inequity and prejudice. This month, a nation watched as thousands of aggrieved people, primarily white men, attempted to take over the Capitol and impose their will against democratically elected leaders. January 6, 2021 is a day that will live in infamy—and a day that is striking in its marked contrast to other protests at the Capitol throughout history, including the March on Washington, in tone, violence, and response.

Related: 10 African American History Books Every American Should Read

Over 50 years have passed since King's tragic assassination, and it is clearer than ever that we still have miles to go to accomplish the goals of King’s vision. The following King biographies, memoirs, and writings set his work in the context it was created—something often sadly lacking in our discussion of the trail-blazing speaker's life and history. Reintroduce yourself to an icon; along the way, you'll meet the man.

MLK: An American Legacy

By David J. Garrow

If you’re ready to take a deep dive into King’s life and legacy, these three books by David J. Garrow are the perfect place to begin. The first entry in Garrow’s trio of books about MLK won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Garrow’s intensive research, interviews, and access to FBI case files allowed him to produce a definitive biography of the man who became an American icon.

Related: "I've Been to the Mountaintop": Revisiting the 1968 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  

The Promise and the Dream

By David Margolick

King was not the only political figure assassinated in 1968. Sixty-two days after King’s assassination, Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of JFK and senator for New York, was shot by a Palestinian protestor. In this fascinating dual biography, David Margolick investigates how each changed the political path forward—King as outside agitator, Kennedy as inside operator.

Judgment Days

By Nick Kotz

This joint biography of President Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. may focus a bit more on LBJ than MLK, but it offers a valuable frame for understanding King in the context of the last five years of his life, as the Civil Rights Movement fostered real change at the federal level. 

Killing the Dream

By Gerald Posner

Assassinations tend to draw conspiracy theories: the idea that just one person can be behind the death of a highly visible, presumably highly protected figure floors the mind. MLK’s assassination is no exception, and Gerald Posner’s investigation into a wider conspiracy is one of the finer attempts at pulling the threads of a plot together.

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963

By Taylor Branch

Branch offers another tome of a biography on King in Parting the Waters . Branch’s offerings are meant for the readers who are ready to spend a good chunk of time understanding the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. This, the first of three installments, runs over 1,000 pages—so put on your reading glasses. 

Related: 20 American History Books to Educate and Inspire Readers of All Ages

The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement

Looking for Branch’s authority in a bit of a smaller bite? We’ve got you covered. Branch also wrote The King Years as a sort of highlight reel of the Civil Rights Movement during the King era. Although not as thoroughly detailed as Branch’s other work, it provides a great starting point to learn more about King.

Becoming King

By Troy Jackson

Dr. King’s faith was an integral part of his life and his activism. In this revealing book, Jackson focuses on King’s early years in the ministry and his first excursions into activism. The centerpiece of this work is the Montgomery bus boycott, the moment at which King became a national figure. Jackson investigates how King spoke and thought before, during, and after the boycott to show new sides of the figure.

King's Dream

By Eric J. Sundquist

More than anything else, the “I Have a Dream” speech has come to symbolize MLK—and in some minds, represent the totality of the activist’s life and goals. Here, Sundquist takes this synecdochal speech apart to go beyond the facile ideas we have about the speech itself, the Civil Rights Movement, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Gary Younge

In another keen dissection of the “Dream” speech, Younge interviews friends, co-leaders, and other icons of the Civil Rights era to unpack the moments behind the words. Offering readers who were not alive at the time of the March on Washington a new window into King’s words, this small-but-mighty read is a worthy one.

Black Theology & Black Power

By James H. Cone

Martin Luther King Jr. was first—and perhaps foremost—a theologian. His work was greatly inspired and shaped by his faith, and framing his calls to action in an explicitly Christian morality made Civil Rights more palatable to a large swath of America. To learn more about the theology that underscored the movement, we suggest Cone’s exploration of liberation as the central tenant of Christianity. Cone is more radical than King was, but his message clarifies how religion was both a salvation and a framework for action during the Civil Rights Era. 

Waking From the Dream

By David L. Chappell

The Civil Rights Movement did not die with King. In this book, you’ll discover how the Fair Housing Act was passed after King’s death, how some leaders were galvanized by his death, while others were left by the wayside. Although there were further fractures within the movement after King’s assassination, the struggle and triumphs continued.

My Life, My Love, My Legacy

By Coretta Scott King

This posthumously published memoir was reconstructed from a series of interviews given to Dr. Barbara Jordan by Coretta Scott King in the last year of her life. This memoir is deeply personal, including some rather petty details. But it shows Coretta as the woman she was—intelligent, fiery, and a born leader.

Related: The 15 Most Fascinating Biographies of the Last 25 Years  

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Martin Luther King Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Calling this book an autobiography may be more of a clever marketing ploy than a true description, but it is nonetheless worth reading. Carefully collated and edited by Clayborne Carson, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. brings together a collection of King’s journals, speeches, interviews, and more to recreate his life.

Why We Can't Wait

By Martin Luther King, Jr.

Experience Dr. King’s words for yourself in Why We Can’t Wait , his 1964 treatise about why the time for civils rights was in the very moment King and his reader stood. After King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” went the 1963 equivalent of viral, publishers reached out to the leader to discuss expanding its themes into a book. This powerful narrative explores the history of protest, the meaning of nonviolent protest, and the lack of progress felt by black citizens of the mid-20th century. If nothing else, reading “Letter from Birmingham Jail” should be a requirement for all American citizens to understand the history of inequality and pain—and how easy it can be to exempt oneself from a problem in which all citizens are implicated.

March: Book One

By John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

John Lewis has been a House Representative for Georgia since 1987. Before that, he cut his teeth as one of the “Big Six”, the main leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. In March , Lewis, alongside illustrator Nate Powell, gives his readers a firsthand look at his life growing up in rural Alabama, his first meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., and the beginning of Lewis's civil rights work. Each of the three graphic novels in this series offers a powerful and unique perspective. March will satisfy both teens looking for more information on the Civil Rights Movement as well as adults.

Related: 19 Facts About Black History That You Might Not Know

Let the Trumpet Sound

By Stephen B. Oates

This biography, under 600 pages, is a great place to start if you’re looking for a more serious take on King without having to crack open multiple 1,000 page volumes. Oates’s passion for his subject jumps off the page. Whether you’re familiar with King’s legacy or maintain only a passing understanding of his work, Let the Trumpet Sound will teach you more about the man’s life.

Featured photo of King at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.: Wikimedia Commons

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and major leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After his assassination, he was memorialized by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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In Focus: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Days after his 1968 assassination , a campaign for a holiday in King’s honor began. U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan first proposed a bill on April 8, 1968, but the first vote on the legislation didn’t happen until 1979. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King , led the lobbying effort to drum up public support. Fifteen years after its introduction, the bill finally became law.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan ’s signature created Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service as a federal holiday. It’s celebrated annually on the third Monday in January. The only national day of service, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. The first time all 50 states recognized the holiday was in 2000.

See Martin Luther King Jr.’s life depicted onscreen in the 2018 documentary I Am MLK Jr. or the Oscar-winning movie Selma .

Quick Facts

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Through his nonviolent activism and inspirational speeches , he played a pivotal role in ending legal segregation of Black Americans, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray and died on April 4, 1968, at age 39. King continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational Black leaders in history.

FULL NAME: Martin Luther King Jr. BIRTHDAY: January 15, 1929 DIED: April 4, 1968 BIRTHPLACE: Atlanta, Georgia SPOUSE: Coretta Scott King (1953-1968) CHILDREN: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice King ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. His birthday was January 15, 1929.

His parents were Michael Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The Williams and King families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin’s maternal grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist Church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks, and they had one child who survived, Alberta.

Michael Sr. came from a family of sharecroppers in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D.’s home in Atlanta. Michael stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He, too, became a successful minister and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther . In due time, Michael Jr. followed his father’s lead and adopt the name himself to become Martin Luther King Jr.

A middle child, Martin Jr. had an older sister, Willie, and a younger brother, Alfred. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while Alberta’s gentleness easily balanced out their father’s strict hand.

Although they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. His father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but also because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children, which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, King entered public school at age 5. In May 1936, he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him.

In May 1941, King was 12 years old when his grandmother Jennie died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for the boy, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents’ wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young King jumped from a second-story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades and, at age 15, entered Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but largely unmotivated, floating through his first two years.

Influenced by his experiences with racism, King began planting the seeds for a future as a social activist early in his time at Morehouse. “I was at the point where I was deeply interested in political matters and social ills,” he recalled in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr . “I could envision myself playing a part in breaking down the legal barriers to Negro rights.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time, King felt that the best way to serve that purpose was as a lawyer or a doctor. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, King questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort had continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father’s dismay.

But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith, and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision, and he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in February 1948.

Later that year, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and began attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, was elected student body president, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.

Even though King was following his father’s footsteps, he rebelled against Martin Sr.’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became romantically involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the relationship.

During his last year in seminary, King came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays, who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change.

After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his doctorate and earned his degree in 1955 at age 25.

Decades after King’s death, in the late 1980s, researchers at Stanford University’s King Papers Project began to note similarities between passages of King’s doctoral dissertation and those of another student’s work. A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University determined that King was guilty of plagiarism in 1991, though it also recommended against the revocation of his degree.

First exposed to the concept of nonviolent resistance while reading Henry David Thoreau ’s On Civil Disobedience at Morehouse, King later discovered a powerful exemplar of the method’s possibilities through his research into the life of Mahatma Gandhi . Fellow civil rights activist Bayard Rustin , who had also studied Gandhi’s teachings, became one of King’s associates in the 1950s and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence.

As explained in his autobiography , King previously felt that the peaceful teachings of Jesus applied mainly to individual relationships, not large-scale confrontations. But he came to realize: “Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking.”

It led to the formation of King’s six principles of nonviolence :

• Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that suffering for a just cause can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

In the years to come, King also frequently cited the “ Beloved Community ”—a world in which a shared spirit of compassion brings an end to the evils of racism, poverty, inequality, and violence—as the end goal of his activist efforts.

Led by his religious convictions and philosophy of nonviolence, King became one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement . He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played key roles in several major demonstrations that transformed society. This included the Montgomery Bus Boycott that integrated Alabama’s public transit, the Greensboro Sit-In movement that desegregated lunch counters across the South, the March on Washington that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

King’s efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he was 35.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King’s first leadership role within the Civil Rights Movement was during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. The 381-day protest integrated the Alabama city’s public transit in one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

The effort began on December 1, 1955, when 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored” section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus.

The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other Black passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated.

The driver asked her again to give up her seat, and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

The local NAACP chapter had been looking to challenge Montgomery’s segregated bus policy and had almost made 15-year-old Claudette Colvin the face of the campaign months earlier. She similarly refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955, but after organizers learned Colvin was pregnant, they feared it would scandalize the deeply religious Black community and make Colvin, along with the group’s efforts, less credible in the eyes of sympathetic white people. Parks’ experience of discrimination provided another opportunity.

On the night Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon , head of the local NAACP chapter, met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained, and had solid family connections and professional standing. He was also new to the community and had few enemies, so organizers felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community.

In his first speech as the group’s president, King declared:

“We have no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”

King’s skillful rhetoric put new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began December 5, 1955, and for more than a year, the local Black community walked to work, coordinated ride sharing, and faced harassment, violence, and intimidation. Both King’s and Nixon’s homes were attacked.

In addition to the boycott, members of the Black community took legal action against the city ordinance that outlined the segregated transit system. They argued it was unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court ’s “separate is never equal” decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Several lower courts agreed, and the nation’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in a November 13, 1956, decision that also ruled the state of Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.

After the legal defeats and large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law that mandated segregated public transportation. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy , and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. The SCLC helped conduct nonviolent protests to promote civil rights reform.

King’s participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The SCLC felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register Black voters. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

That September, King survived an attempt on his life when a woman with mental illness stabbed him in the chest as he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a New York City department store. Saved by quick medical attention, King expressed sympathy for his assailant’s condition in the aftermath .

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, King visited Gandhi ’s birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a profound way, increasing his commitment to America’s civil rights struggle.

Greensboro Sit-In

By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. His next activist campaign was the student-led Greensboro Sit-In movement.

In February 1960, a group of Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina , began sitting at racially segregated lunch counters in the city’s stores. When asked to leave or sit in the “colored” section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. That April, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, with local sit-in leaders. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed and, for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August 1960, the sit-ins had successfully ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. But the movement wasn’t done yet.

On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city’s reputation, Atlanta’s mayor negotiated a truce, and charges were eventually dropped.

Soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Martin’s wife, Coretta Scott King . Kennedy expressed his concern over the harsh treatment Martin received for the traffic ticket, and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. King was jailed, along with large numbers of his supporters.

The event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by Black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration.

In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail , King eloquently spelled out his theory of nonviolence: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.”

1963 March on Washington

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation’s capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. The demonstration was the brainchild of labor leader A. Philip Randolph and King’s one-time mentor Bayard Rustin .

On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew an estimated 250,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It remains one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in American history. During the demonstration, King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech .

The rising tide of civil rights agitation that had culminated in the March on Washington produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation’s Jim Crow laws and the near-century of second-class treatment of African American citizens since the end of slavery. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities.

Selma March

Continuing to focus on voting rights, King, the SCLC, SNCC, and local organizers planned to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery.

Led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams , demonstrators set out on March 7, 1965. But the Selma march quickly turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The attack was televised, broadcasting the horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured to a wide audience. Of the 600 demonstrators, 58 were hospitalized in a day that became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” King, however, was spared because he was in Atlanta.

Not to be deterred, activists attempted the Selma-to-Montgomery march again. This time, King made sure he was part of it. Because a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order on another march, a different approach was taken.

On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both Black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer, then they turned back. This became known as “Turnaround Tuesday.”

Alabama Governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march until President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors.

On March 21, 1965, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000 gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act .

Along with his “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speeches, King delivered several acclaimed addresses over the course of his life in the public eye.

“I Have A Dream” Speech

Date: august 28, 1963.

King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Standing at the Lincoln Memorial, he emphasized his belief that someday all men could be brothers to the 250,000-strong crowd.

Notable Quote: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

“Give Us the Ballot” Speech

Date: may 17, 1957.

Six years before he told the world of his dream, King stood at the same Lincoln Memorial steps as the final speaker of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Dismayed by the ongoing obstacles to registering Black voters, King urged leaders from various backgrounds—Republican and Democrat, Black and white—to work together in the name of justice.

Notable Quote: “Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law... Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.”

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Date: december 10, 1964.

Speaking at the University of Oslo in Norway, King pondered why he was receiving the Nobel Prize when the battle for racial justice was far from over, before acknowledging that it was in recognition of the power of nonviolent resistance. He then compared the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement to the ground crew at an airport who do the unheralded-yet-necessary work to keep planes running on schedule.

Notable Quote: “I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners—all those to whom beauty is truth and truth, beauty—and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”

“Our God is Marching On (How Long? Not Long)” Speech

Date: march 25, 1965.

At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25,000 supporters from the Alabama State Capitol. Offering a brief history lesson on the roots of segregation, King emphasized that there would be no stopping the effort to secure full voting rights, while suggesting a more expansive agenda to come with a call to march on poverty.

Notable Quote: “I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” Speech

Date: april 4, 1967.

One year before his assassination, King delivered a controversial sermon at New York City’s Riverside Church in which he condemned the Vietnam War. Explaining why his conscience had forced him to speak up, King expressed concern for the poor American soldiers pressed into conflict thousands of miles from home, while pointedly faulting the U.S. government’s role in escalating the war.

Notable Quote: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech

Date: april 3, 1968.

The well-known orator delivered his final speech the day before he died at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. King reflected on major moments of progress in history and his own life, in addition to encouraging the city’s striking sanitation workers.

Notable Quote: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

While working on his doctorate at Boston University, King met Coretta Scott , an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, and had four children—two daughters and two sons—over the next decade. Their oldest, Yolanda, was born in 1955, followed by sons Martin Luther King III in 1957 and Dexter in 1961. The couple welcomed Bernice King in 1963.

Although she accepted the responsibility to raise the children while King travelled the country, Coretta opened their home to organizational meetings and served as an advisor and sounding board for her husband. “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Corrie, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions surrounding the movement,” King wrote in his autobiography.

His lengthy absences became a way of life for their children, but Martin III remembered his father returning from the road to join the kids playing in the yard or bring them to the local YMCA for swimming. King also fostered discussions at mealtimes to make sure everyone understood the important issues he was seeking to resolve.

Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, King insisted his family live off his salary as a pastor. However, he was known to splurge on good suits and fine dining, while contrasting his serious public image with a lively sense of humor among friends and family.

Due to his relationships with alleged Communists, King became a target of FBI surveillance and, from late 1963 until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist. While FBI wiretaps failed to produce evidence of Communist sympathies, they captured the civil rights leader’s engagement in extramarital dalliances. This led to the infamous “suicide letter” of 1964, later confirmed to be from the FBI and authorized by then-Director J. Edgar Hoover , which urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his affairs from going public.

In 2019, historian David Garrow wrote of explosive new allegations against King following his review of recently released FBI documents. Among the discoveries was a memo suggesting that King had encouraged the rape of a parishioner in a hotel room, as well as evidence that he might have fathered a daughter with a mistress. Other historians questioned the veracity of the documentation, especially given the FBI’s known attempts to damage King’s reputation. The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until 2027.

From late 1965 through 1967, King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. King’s patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many Black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late, and ineffective.

To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War . He felt America’s involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government’s conduct in the war was discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. To that end, plans were in the works for another march on Washington to highlight the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement intended to pressure the government into improving living and working conditions for the economically disadvantaged.

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.

In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, 1968, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now… I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

While standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968. King died at age 39. The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country.

The shooter was James Earl Ray , a malcontent drifter and former convict. He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

The identity of King’s assassin has been the source of some controversy. Ray recanted his confession shortly after he was sentenced, and King’s son Dexter publicly defended Ray’s innocence after meeting with the convicted gunman in 1997. Another complicating factor is the 1993 confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King. In June 2000, the U.S. Justice Department released a report that dismissed the alternative theories of King’s death. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998.

King’s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era.

His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

• But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.
• There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.
• Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
• The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
• We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
• I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals.
• I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.
• Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
• A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
• Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

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The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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14 Best Movies and Documentaries About Martin Luther King Jr. to Watch Now

There are a few essential ones for kids to see, too.

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Of course, you could rely on Black history books or research databases to gain more information, but for many, the best way to learn is visually. We have a variety of movie styles below, with at least one that will help address Dr. King’s massive influence in a way that is digestible for any age. There are kid-friendly options, like the animated picture Our Friend, Martin, documentaries that shed light on the hardships and injustices Dr. King lost his life trying to rectify and box office hits with A-list actors portraying Dr. King and his family.

If you still find yourself wanting to learn more, check out a few of these movies that celebrate Black History and help create a dialogue about race .

Selma (2014)

This film, directed by Ava DuVernay, tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s fight to secure equal voting rights. It follows his and other activists' three-month journey to organizing the historic Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 to raise awareness of the discrimination Black voters faced. It's a must-see.

MLK/FBI (2020)

Dive deep into the United States government's monitoring and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr. through the lens of newly declassified files. This film depicts how the FBI tried to discredit Dr. King throughout his time as an activist.

Betty and Coretta (2013)

Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige channel Coretta Scott King and Dr. Betty Shabazz, the wives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X respectively, in a film told from their perspectives as widows after both men are assassinated.

King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1969)

Immerse yourself in the key events of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. through this Academy Award-nominated documentary, depicting the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, several of his speeches and more. Celebrities including Paul Newman and James Earl Jones help narrate clips of footage.

Our Friend, Martin (1999)

A great animated film to give an introduction to the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. for children. It follows two teenagers who are transported back in time and meet with Dr. King at several points in his life.

Boycott (2001)

Boycott brings us to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and follows the story of the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was led by a young Martin Luther King Jr. Jeffrey Wright, Terrence Howard, CCH Pounder, Carmen Ejogo, Reg E. Cathey and Brent Jennings star in the film.

Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)

When an 11-year-old girl hears a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., she becomes moved to join in on the fight for civil rights. This story details how she is tested while marching with King from Selma to Montgomery.

We Are The Dream:The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020)

Students compete in Oakland's 40th Annual MLK Oratorical Festival in this documentary film. Throughout the competition, children perform spoken word and poetry that draws inspiration from the life of Dr. King.

All The Way (2016)

Though this film centers on President Lyndon B. Johnson, it tells of the struggles he faced while attempting to pass the Civil Rights Act during his first year in office. Martin Luther King was at the forefront of encouraging Johnson to pass the bill.

I Am MLK Jr. (2018)

Through the telling of several formative moments of the Civil Rights Movement, this documentary honors the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is feature-length and includes recordings from King's friends and associates detailing his impact through the present day.

MLK: The Assassination Tapes

Rediscovered footage tells the story of the events that erupted leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The documentary also includes interviews with several members of the movement to give first-hand accounts.

A Ripple of Hope (2009)

After a gunman fired a rifle that would fatally wound Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy was called upon to give a campaign speech in an African-American neighborhood, which served as a salve for the city. In several interviews from people who were present, as well as Kennedy aides and associates, the story of that horrific day is recounted.

King in the Wilderness (2018)

Those closest to Dr. Martin Luther King tell the story of the final three years of his life. We hear from Reverend Jesse Jackson, Bernard Lafayette, Jr., Dorothy Cotton and more.

I Am Not Your Negro (2017)

It's a documentary based on author James Baldwin's words, detailing the lives and assassinations of his close friends and civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and includes archival footage connecting the Civil Rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter.

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What Biographies of Luther Are Best?

More by justin.

Carl Trueman :

I mentioned last time that Luther’s life is central to reading his theology. His thinking, while remarkably consistent, does develop over time. He nuances his positions on various issues as he faces challenges which his own Reformation theology generated. Thus, knowing what issues he is facing and when is important when reading him. Advertise on TGC The benchmark biography of Luther in English is the three volumes by the German historian, Martin Brecht. These look rather forbidding: nearly 1400 pages of text, excluding notes. Nevertheless, the translation is very readable and the narrative moves at a good pace, such that the reader’s interest is maintained and the basic storyline remains very clear. For those with less time to spare, there is the classic biography by Roland Bainton, Here I Stand . It was my first introduction to the Reformation and remains a favourite. Bainton was a radical thinker himself, not doctrinally sympathetic to Luther but rather emotionally so: he knew what it was like to be a beleaguered outside, a man at war with his times. Thus, he writes on Luther with considerable passion. A more recent short biography is that by the distinguished Lutheran historian, Martin Marty, in the Penguin Brief Lives series. This is fun too: well-written and peppered with little anecdotes of Luther’s personal life. To these I would also add Robert Kolb’s Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith , a relatively short but learned and extremely informative introduction to Luther’s life and major theological contributions. Readers should also consult Heiko Oberman’s Luther: Man between God and Devil for an example of a brilliant, if at times speculative, account of Luther’s life by the most significant Reformation scholar of the last fifty years.

You can read the whole thing here , which also includes recommended reading from Luther himself and by others on his theology.

Justin Taylor is executive vice president for book publishing and publisher for books at Crossway. He blogs at Between Two Worlds and Evangelical History . You can follow him on Twitter .

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The Best MLK Movies, Ranked

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy has been the subject of a number of exceptional movies that portray his unwavering dedication to civil rights and social justice. That inspired us to create a diverse collection of films that pay homage to the civil rights leader's legacy. These movies not only celebrate his accomplishments but also delve into the complexities and challenges he faced throughout his fight for racial equality. With various perspectives, these films capture the essence of MLK's ideologies and values, providing audiences with an opportunity to appreciate his contributions in shaping modern-day society. 

The complexity of the best MLK movies lies in their ability to integrate key themes, powerful character development, and engaging narratives surrounding King's life. From powerful biopics to insightful documentaries, these movies offer a unique exploration into the life of one of history's most influential figures. By portraying key moments in his journey for civil rights, these films enable viewers to better understand the perseverance and determination that underscored King’s mission. 

Selma, Selma, Lord, Selma, and Our Friend, Martin are just a few instances where filmmakers have turned Dr. King's life into inspirational movies. Selma , a critically acclaimed drama chronicling the historic 1965 voting rights marches led by Dr. King; Selma, Lord, Selma , which tells the moving story from a young girl's perspective during those tumultuous times; and Our Friend, Martin, an animated film that creatively blends education and entertainment as it introduces younger generations to King’s inspiring story. These exceptional works are just a few of the many outstanding MLK movies available.

The variety and depth offered by the best MLK movies enable audiences to appreciate Dr.King’s contribution to social change while immersing themselves in fascinating historical narratives. Exploring MLK movies not only allows viewers to gain fresh insights into his enduring legacy but also serves as a reminder of how far we have come - and how much further we have to go.

An extraordinary portrayal of a crucial moment in American civil rights history, Selma masterfully depicts the relentless pursuit of equality led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Directed by Ava DuVernay and featuring an enthralling performance by David Oyelowo as MLK, this visually stunning film delves into the tumultuous events surrounding the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. With its skillful blend of historical accuracy and emotional depth, Selma provides a harrowing glimpse into the personal and political struggles faced by MLK and his fellow activists during their fight for justice.

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Selma, Lord, Selma

Based on true events, this powerful drama chronicles the courageous acts of two young girls who become involved in the civil rights movement after witnessing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s inspiring speech in Selma, Alabama. Delving into themes such as perseverance, friendship, and hope amidst adversity, Selma, Lord, Selma  illustrates how even children can make a significant impact in shaping history. This emotionally compelling film serves as a poignant reminder that ordinary people can bring forth extraordinary change when united under a common cause.

Our Friend, Martin

A captivating animated gem geared towards younger viewers, Our Friend, Martin  is an enlightening introduction to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy through the eyes of two curious schoolchildren who travel back in time to meet him at various points throughout his life journey. Combining elements of fantasy with historical facts about MLK's upbringing and accomplishments—including his essential role in desegregating schools—it sheds light on key moments that shaped American society forever.

Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK

Offering up an intriguing new perspective on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life beyond his prominent civil rights activism; Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK  delves into his time as a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. This deeply researched documentary explores how the fraternity's guiding principles of scholarship, leadership, and service profoundly influenced MLK's own values and convictions—ultimately shaping the man he would become.

This visually compelling docudrama captures the essence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in leading the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott while integrating historical footage with dramatic re-enactments showcasing key events from that period. Chronicling MLK's rise to prominence as a civil rights leader and exploring the boycott's profound impact on American society, Boycott  is an essential addition to any collection examining this pivotal moment in history.

King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis

This Academy Award-nominated documentary offers an unrivaled visual account of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life from his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott through his tragic assassination in Memphis. Compiled from original newsreel footage and other archival material, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis  stands as a riveting historical document that brings MLK's enduring legacy to life for modern viewers.

In the Hour of Chaos

Examining both the turbulent era surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and its aftermath, In the Hour of Chaos  provides a comprehensive look at one of America's darkest hours. Directed by Bayer L.Mack, this gripping documentary dives deep into conspiracy theories surrounding King’s assassination while highlighting lesser-known aspects of his personal life and political activism.

King in the Wilderness

A nuanced exploration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final years, HBO’s King in the Wilderness , chronicles his ongoing struggles against racism, poverty, and war during a time when many dismissed him as too radical or irrelevant. Featuring interviews with close friends and colleagues, this powerful documentary presents a humanizing portrait of the civil rights icon as he grappled with setbacks and conflict—both within himself and in the broader movement.

Bringing King to China

This fascinating documentary follows the story of an American teacher's journey to bring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of peace and nonviolence to Chinese students studying in Beijing. Bringing King to China  is a captivating look at how MLK's teachings can resonate and inspire people worldwide regardless of cultural or geographical boundaries.

I Am Curious (Yellow)

Much more than just a controversial Swedish film that challenged censorship norms upon its release; I Am Curious (Yellow)  explores themes of nonviolent protest, resistance against social injustice, and the power of grassroots activism—all influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy on civil disobedience.

The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

This Oscar-nominated short documentary takes viewers inside Memphis’ Lorraine Motel mere hours before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination as told through an emotional interview with his friend Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, who was present during those final moments. The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306  is a haunting, intimate portrayal that offers valuable insight into MLK's enduring impact on those who knew him personally and society at large.

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The 6 Best Martin Luther King, Jr. Movies To Stream on MLK Day

Where to Stream:

• martin luther king jr

Stream 'Selma' this MLK, Jr. Day.

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In just 39 years of life, King spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement, gifted the world with his powerful words, and fought for justice till the very end. His legacy is still one we’re feeling the effects of today; his iconic speeches, letters, and activism have remained a landmark of American history, and it’s not hard to see why. As a result, movies about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life abound.

To help you observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we’ve rounded up the six best Martin Luther King, Jr. movies that honor the principles of equality and empowerment he dedicated his life to. From standout dramatic interpretations to riveting documentaries that chronicle just how much he sacrificed for the cause, these films will remind you of just how lucky the world was to have him and how resonant his words remain today.

Watch documentaries like King in the Wilderness  and  The March to hear from Dr. King himself with awe-inspiring interview footage and understand him through the people that worked alongside him in. Experience just how effective a historical drama can be with Ava DuVernay’s striking Selma . Whichever one you choose to watch, these seven Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. movies will help you tap into the hope, solemnity, and reverence that his national holiday ought to be filled with.

'Selma'

Selma , Ava DuVernay’s award-winning drama, tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s efforts to achieve equal voting rights with the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Featuring awe-inspiring performances from David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, and the rest of the star-studded cast, the movie Selma is a feat of filmmaking and one of the most well-reviewed movies about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where to Stream  Selma

'King in the Wilderness'

Another top movie about Martin Luther King, Jr’s legacy, King in the Wilderness , offers real-life narrative to those non-fiction lovers hoping to see the real thing. HBO’s stunning documentary chronicles the little-known final years of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life in breathtaking fashion, utilizing archival footage and interviews with the people closest to him to offer new insight. Directed by Peter Kunhardt, it’s a long overdue, closer look at this hero and the sacrifices he made. This documentary on Dr. King’s final days is totally necessary for history buffs and casual viewers alike. King in the Wilderness grabs onto you and holds on tight for its entire two hour running time.

Where to Stream  King in the Wilderness

'The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306'

This harrowing half-hour documentary about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination was nominated for an Academy Award, and it’s not difficult to see why – it’s truly a masterpiece. The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306  recounts the day that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and the Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the man who was standing beside him when he was shot. Reverend Kyles brings that day back to life through his own testimony and paints an incredibly powerful portrait of the last hours of MLK’s life.

Where to stream The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306

'King: Man of Peace in a Time of War'

If you’re looking for a Martin Luther King, Jr. movie with more of Dr. King himself, King: Man of Peace in a Time of War  will be right up your alley. The hourlong documentary features a rare, candid television interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., unseen for forty years. Listening to King discuss the issues that matter to him is a fitting tribute to this leader, and with additional input from Jesse Jackson and Colin Powell, the movie presents a unique, intimate depiction of the man in his own words.

Where to stream King: Man of Peace in a Time of War

'In Remembrance of Martin'

‘In Remembrance of Martin’ is a no-nonsense, classic PBS Documentary about Dr. King’s life and legacy. This Martin Luther King, Jr. movie offers interviews from King’s community, including Coretta Scott King, Jimmy Carter, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and John Lewis. This hourlong doc was taped in 1986, so it’s a bit lo-fi, especially when measured against more recent historical dramas like Selma. However, this special archives an intimate oral history of MLK’s life that no other movie can offer.

Where to stream In Remembrance of Martin

'King: A Filmed Record; From Montgomery to Memphis'

Finally, the documentary ‘King: A Filmed Record; From Montgomery’ to Memphis  aggregates archival footage to tell the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s trajectory from activist to the leader of a national revolution. ‘King’ is one of the more epic Martin Luther King, Jr. movies out there: its three-hour duration requires a bit of commitment. But the historical footage and heart-rending first person accounts this movie is filled will make it a riveting three hours.

Where to stream King: A Filmed Record; From Montgomery to Memphis

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