|
|
Top 10 MLK Biographies & Documentaries |
|
|
|
Citizen King
Explores the live of Martin Luther King from his "I have a dream speech" in 1963 to his assassination in 1968, with insight from colleagues, journalists, historians, and scholars.
|
|
King: A Filmed Record--Montgomery to MemphisThe life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, and culminating with his assassination in Memphis in 1968. Originally screened in theaters for only a single night in 1970. An indispensable primary resource of a pivotal moment in American and world history.
|
|
MLK / FBI
Explores the FBI's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr., based on declassified documents and incorporating archival footage.
|
|
|
|
|
Alabama v. King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Movement by Dan AbramsThe defense lawyer for Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the Selma marchers, and other civil rights heroes reveals the true story of the historic trial that made Dr. King a national hero. Fred D. Gray was just twenty-four years old when he became the defense lawyer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a young minister who had become the face of the bus boycott that had rocked the city of in Montgomery, Alabama. In this incredible history, Gray takes us behind the scenes of that landmark case, including such unforgettable moments as: *Martin Luther King's courageous response to a bomb threat on his own home *Poignant, searing testimony that exposed the South's racist systems to an worldwide audience *The conspiracy to destroy Gray's career and draft him into the Vietnam War *The unforgettable moment when a Supreme Court ruling brought the courtroom to a halt Alabama v. King captures a pivotal moment in the fight for equality, from the eyes of the lawyer who Dr. King called "the brilliant young leader who later became the chief counsel for the protest movement." |
|
|
|
To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice by Michael K. HoneyAny true portrait of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68) must include his prophecy and position as a hero of the American working class who preached that "either we go up together or we go down together," expounds Honey (Univ. of Washington, Tacoma, Fred and Dorothy Haley Professor of Humanities; Going Down Jericho Road). Honey retraces King's path to Memphis, TN, in April 1968 to support striking black sanitation workers. Evoking King's call for a "human rights revolution" and his Poor People's campaign for economic justice, Honey explains the consistency and complexity of the leader's belief in making America "what it ought to be." The author succeeds in recovering King's legacy from what is often portrayed; a civil rights leader as symbol of colorblindness. This book is a reminder that King sought to advance America's constitutional promises to establish justice and promote the general welfare. VERDICT Necessary for all readers interested in a more complete picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and a better understanding of the work that remains to fulfill his dream.
Book Annotation
|
|
|
|
The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. JosephIf, as the semiotician Roland Barthes famously argued, "mythology is depoliticized speech," then historian Joseph's (Stokely, 2014) latest can be seen as repoliticizing the nearly mythic legacy of two civil rights heroes: Martin Luther King Jr. and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, more commonly called Malcolm X. Joseph eschews the usual easy oppositional narratives of educated versus working-class, Christian versus Muslim, integration versus separatism, lobbying versus grassroots activism, and non-violence versus self-defense to emphasize their political affinities and shared struggle. He also documents just how unprecedented the scale of Black political organization was during the 1960s, drawing strength from people from all walks of life. Most intriguingly, Joseph portrays King and Malcolm X as political and diplomatic mavericks heroically coping with attempts by the FBI; politicians of various ideologies, including sitting presidents; the mainstream press; and even former allies to deflect, deny, and discredit their moral crusade against American racism and racial violence and their assertion of Black American dignity and civic significance. Joseph's fresh and perceptive dual biography may rekindle political unity in a time of increasingly granular identity politics, sensationalism, and fear. |
|
|
|
Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life and Win the 1960 Election by Stephen KendrickOf the many famous events in the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the nine days discussed here are likely some of the most momentous ones. The talented father and son author duo behind Nine Days do an excellent job of weaving this history into a compelling narrative that almost reads like fiction. They paint a vivid and disturbing picture of life for Black Americans in the deep South in the early 1960s. The nine days in question begin with a lunch counter protest at an Atlanta department store, and are compounded by Dr. King's previous arrest for driving with an out-of-state driver's license. The danger to Dr. King was so great that John F. Kennedy was asked to intervene, late in the closely contested 1960 presidential election. Bill Andrew Quinn delivers a compelling narration for the audiobook. The narrative's pace is just right, and is certain to hold listeners' interest throughout the volume. |
|
|
|
The Promise and the Dream: The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy by David MargolickVanity Fair editor Margolick (Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock) provides an enlightening perspective on Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., two iconic figures linked in the popular mind by shared agendas and tragic deaths. But Margolick makes it clear that the two men interacted infrequently, especially after President Kennedy's murder, and had less of the mythologized partnership than a "distant camaraderie." It was only after King's assassination, he explains, that "a revisionist mythology about the bond between King and Kennedy" was born that still persists in the popular understanding today. Margolick interweaves the two biographies skillfully and doesn't shy away from puncturing idealization of 1960s progressivism with warts-and-all depictions of both men and their faults, tempers, and agendas. The paths towards their deaths feel as inevitable as a Greek tragedy-both expected assassin's bullets, and King had even prepared detailed directives about his funeral. Margolick also makes palpable the inspiration and hope that King and Kennedy provided to millions, despite his reasoned but depressing conclusion: "That two men whose interests and passions overlapped interacted so little is but another illustration of the enduring chasm between the races, one which, for reasons of sentimentality and shame, our culture has every reason to minimize." This is a valuable contribution to the body of work on 1960s America. |
|
|
|
The Seminarian: Martin Luther King, Jr. Comes of Age by Patrick ParrParr accounts more fully for Martin Luther King Jr.'s seminary education than has any complete biography of the civil rights icon. This is worth doing because King's three years at Crozer Theological Seminary, in Chester, Pennsylvania, are the period in which the smart, capable youngster became the charismatic, mission-driven man. Charting King's progress through each year's three terms and the punctuating summers spent assisting his famous-preacher father, Parr brings to life every professor, fellow student, and mentor who influenced King, usually becoming lifelong friends as they did. King's progress was steeply upward in his course work and social context, and he graduated as president as well as being at the top of the class of 1951. He had learned theology, of course, but also about black-white relations in the North, partly through considering marriage to white Betty Moitz. A journalist rather than an academic, Parr writes appreciatively and even informally about his subject and drops a few gossipy tidbits, including King's habitual plagiarism in his school papers and why his professors seldom noticed it. |
|
|
|
Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final year by Tavis SmileyAs he was growing up, Smiley, a best-selling author and award-winning broadcaster, was profoundly influenced by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drawing on interviews with friends and major civil rights figures from Harry Belafonte to Andrew Young to Jesse Jackson as well as biographers Taylor Branch and Clayborne Carson, Smiley takes a fresh look at the 365 days leading up to King's assassination on April 4, 1968. Smiley recalls the threats and denunciations King faced, the obstacles he overcame, and the internal struggles he endured as the civil rights leader expanded his mission to human rights advocacy. Speaking out against the Vietnam War, King came under severe criticism from the Left and the Right. Smiley recounts King's growing concerns about the strains on his marriage, tensions among the ranks of civil rights leaders, and growing dissent fueled by black militants critical of nonviolent tactics. Written as a narrative in the present tense, Smiley's book aims to flesh out the man behind the now idealized image of King that has weakened appreciation of the depth of his personal struggle. |
|
|
|
Centerville Library
111 W. Spring Valley Rd
Centerville, OH 45458
(937) 433-8091
|
Woodbourne Library
6060 Far Hills Ave Centerville, OH 45459
(937) 435-3700
|
Creativity Commons
895 Miamisburg Centerville Rd
Centerville, OH 45459
(937) 610-4425
|
|
|
|