Books by 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. Below you’ll see all the books he authored (and one speech) that have been recommended on Five Books.
For books about King, Professor Lerone Martin recommends Bearing the Cross (1986) in his interview on 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 (2023) also won the Pulitzer Prize for biography, drawing on new information, especially about King’s father.
“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
“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...
The best books on Progressivism
John Kerry, Politician
“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...
Clarence B Jones, Lawyer
Interviews where books by Martin Luther King Jr were recommended
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1
Franklin D Roosevelt’s inaugural address, 4 March 1933
by Various authors -
2
John F Kennedy’s inaugural address, 20 January 1961
by Various authors -
3
Laurence Olivier’s Oscar Acceptance Speech (1979)
by YouTube video -
4
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, 28 August 1963
by Martin Luther King Jr -
5
Nelson Mandela’s inaugural address as President of South Africa, 10 May 1994
by David Elliot Cohen
The Best Speeches of All Time, recommended by Clarence B Jones
The Best Speeches of All Time, recommended by Clarence B Jones
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
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
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1
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
by Martin Luther King Jr -
2
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and assisted by Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne (narrator) -
3
The Two-Income Trap
by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi -
4
Winner-Take-All Politics
by Jacob S Hacker and Paul Pierson -
5
God’s Politics
by Jim Wallis
The best books on Progressivism, recommended by Keith Ellison
The best books on Progressivism, recommended by Keith Ellison
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.