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Martin Luther King Jr.

Defanged

A journalistic view of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, work, and representation in American society.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on September 28, 2023

Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60

King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change.  In many ways, we face the same choice today.
by Eric Foner via The Nation on August 28, 2023
Aftermath of a riot in Washington, D.C., following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral in 1968. Photography by Warren K. Leffler, via the Library of Congress.

After the Murder

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.
by Donovan X. Ramsey via Guernica on July 6, 2023
Jonathan Big next to cover of "King: A Life."

Restoring the Real, Radical Martin Luther King Jr. in “King: A Life”

A new biography of King emerges at a "critical juncture" for his legacy.
by Jonathan Eig, Steve Nathans-Kelly via Chicago Review Of Books on May 23, 2023
Jonathan Eig, author of “King: A Life,” said he sought to portray his subject not as a myth but as a human being: anguished and flawed, but also driven to push his country toward a more righteous future.

The Making of a New M.L.K. Biography

New archival material and a narrowing window in which to speak to people who knew Martin Luther King, Jr. fueled the work, said the author.
by Jonathan Eig, Benjamin P. Russell via New York Times on May 8, 2023
Martin Luther King Jr. with other activists and children.

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

We revere the man and revile the strategy, but King knew what he was doing.
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on May 8, 2023
Illustrated portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., by PS Spencer.

The New Definitive Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

“King: A Life,” by Jonathan Eig, is the first comprehensive account of the civil rights icon in decades.
by Dwight Garner via New York Times on May 8, 2023
Martin Luther King Jr. with President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 at the White House.

The Man Who Knew Exactly What the F.B.I. Was Doing to Martin Luther King Jr.

He was the president of the United States.
by Jeanne Theoharis, Jonathan Eig via New York Times on April 12, 2023

The Kind of Revolution That Martin Luther King Jr. Envisioned

His last Sunday sermon reminds us about the perils of not being woke.
by Esau McCaulley via New York Times on January 15, 2023
Image of Martin Luther King Jr. within a jail cell.

What Makes Laws Unjust

King could not accomplish what philosophers and theologians also failed to—distinguishing moral from immoral law in a polarized society.
by Randall Kennedy via Boston Review on April 11, 2022
MLK giving his Vietnam speech

“Somehow This Madness Must Cease.”

Revisiting MLK Jr.’s sermon against the Vietnam War.
by Christopher Lydon via Literary Hub on April 8, 2022
Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, and Harry Belafonte near the podium at Montgomery March in 1965.

The “Radical” King and a Usable Past

On Martin Luther King's use of radical ideas to create an understanding of the history of America.
by Robert Greene II via Black Perspectives on April 4, 2022
Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lead a column of demonstrators as they attempt to march on Birmingham, Ala., city hall April 12, 1963. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)

King Was A Critical Race Theorist Before There Was a Name For It

When states ban antiracism history from schools, they're disavowing what King stood for.
by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw via Los Angeles Times on January 17, 2022
MLK at microphone

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

The King holiday is more than a time for reflection. It’s really a time for provocation.
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via The Daily Princetonian on January 17, 2022
MLK receiving an honorary degree from the Free University, Amsterdam, October 20, 1956.

The International MLK

“The social revolution which is taking place in this country is not an isolated, detached phenomenon. It is part of a worldwide revolution that is taking place.”
by Robert Greene II via Black Perspectives on January 17, 2022
Billboard claiming MLK was a Republican

The Uses and Abuses of the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Politics have diluted King's dream.
by Andre E. Key via Religion Dispatches on January 13, 2022
Screen capture of Martin Luther King Jr. giving a press conference.

What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About the Filibuster: ‘A Minority of Misguided Senators’

The context in which King shared his views on the filibuster is the same one in which the Senate now finds itself: amid battles over voting rights legislation.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on January 4, 2022
MLK in a police station

Martin Luther King Knew That Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality

Critics of Black Lives Matter have held up King as a foil to the movement’s criticisms of law enforcement, but those are views that King himself shared.
by Jeanne Theoharis via The Atlantic on September 15, 2021
Martin Luther King Jr.

What Dignity Demands

A new book persuasively places Malcolm X and Martin Luther King at the center of each other’s most dramatic transformations.
by Brandon M. Terry via New York Review of Books on March 11, 2021
A car window with a sign in it that reads "let freedom ring" with an illustration of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Martin Luther King Jr.’s Challenge to Liberal Allies — and Why It Resonates Today

King understood the perils of submerged racism.
by Jeanne Theoharis via Made by History on February 8, 2021
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