The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volume VI: Advocate of the Social Gospel, September 1948-March 1963 (Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr)

Book Description

Dedicated to documenting the life of America's best-known advocate for peace and justice, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. breaks the chronology of its series to present King's never-before-published sermon file. In 1997 Mrs. Coretta Scott King granted the King Papers Project permission to examine papers kept in boxes in the basement of the Kings' home. The most significant finding was a battered cardboard box that held more than two hundred folders containing documents King used to prepare his celebrated sermons. This private collection that King kept in his study sheds considerable light on the theology and preaching preparation of one of the most noted orators of the modern era.
These illuminating papers reveal that King's concern about poverty, human rights, and social justice was clearly present in his earliest handwritten sermons, which conveyed a message of faith, hope, and love for the dispossessed. His enduring message can be charted through his years as a seminary student, as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as a leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, and, ultimately, as an internationally renowned proponent of human rights who saw himself mainly as a preacher and "advocate of the social gospel." Ten of the original and unedited sermons King submitted for publication in the 1963 book Strength to Love and audio versions of King's most famous sermons are the culmination of this groundbreaking work.

March To A Promised Land: The Civil Rights Files of a White Reporter 1952-1968 (Capital Currents)

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March to a Promised Land: The Civil Rights File of a Whote Reporter 1952-1968
A Hero Remembers His Civil Rights Days

March To A Promised Land: The Civil Rights Files of a White Reporter 1952-1968 (Capital Currents)
Al Kuettner
Manufacturer: Capital Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1933102284
Release Date: 2006-12-28

Product Description

Al Kuettner was a young, white Southern reporter when the civil rights struggle began in 1952, the year he was assigned to cover it by the wire service United Press. During those turbulent years that followed he traveled extensively throughout the U.S., talking with hundreds of people, black and white, witnessing the events that transformed American race relations. Kuettner covered all the key events the integration of the South's public schools and universities; Rosa Parks and her famous bus ride; the great civil rights marches on Washington, D.C. and Montgomery, Alabama; the passage of the landmark Supreme Court rulings and civil rights and voting legislation; the assassinations of Evers, King, and Kennedy. He knew and interviewed all the key players from Martin Luther King, Jr., whom he first met and interviewed in 1955 as a young preacher dressed in a blue work shirt and denims in the Sunday school room of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church; to John Lewis, now a congressman, who in 1965 was attacked as he led marchers from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.; to Medgar Evers, who paid with his life for his work in the black voter registration campaign. He knew them all. Now in this book, Kuettner retraces his steps, reexamining the history he witnessed in the making, and questioning blacks and whites about the legacy of change. While he traces the events he witnessed, his vision is informed by the future and by his own determination to present the events honestly. This book is dedicated to the UPI reporters and photographers who covered the civil rights story.

Customer Reviews:

March to a Promised Land: The Civil Rights File of a Whote Reporter 1952-1968.......2007-03-16

As a child of the 70's, I studied the Civil Rights Movement in high school. This book takes the facts, events and people out of the text books and brings them to life. Reading about what happened behind the scenes and getting a insiders perspective makes me want to learn more about this time in the my Country's history. I recommend this book to any one interested in where this movement has brought us as a nation and for anyone interested in where we need to go.

A Hero Remembers His Civil Rights Days.......2007-02-02

Most people don't think of those who report the news as heroes, but Al Kuettner truly was as he traveled the U.S. for UPI getting the real story about all the major events that shaped the Civil Rights Movement. In this book he makes you feel like you are there with him, witnessing the integration of schools and universities, and interviewing the leaders,the lawyers, and the marchers who were determined that African Americans would no longer be second class citizens. In March to a Promised Land, Al Kuettner shows us why we should not take freedom for granted. It's an eloquent tribute and a fascinating story.

The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation

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An Insider View of Greatness
The Power of God in Man
More than a cuddly icon
"I have a dream" - more than just a speech
King of the Dream

The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation
Drew Hansen
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060084774
Release Date: 2005-02-01

Book Description

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., electrified the nation when he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In The Dream, Drew D. Hansen explores the fascinating and little-known history of King's legendary address. The Dream 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.

Customer Reviews:

An Insider View of Greatness.......2006-05-01

Few speeches in American history are as well known or had the impact of the "Dream Speech". Hansen's wonderful book gives us a unique and insider's view of how the speech was developed, its roots in scripture and in King's lifetime of words up to that point. The analysis of the composition gives the reader a new appreciation of the speech's powerful messages, but also of the sheer beauty of the rhythm and cadence of the words. You can almost hear King's voice come off the pages.

The Power of God in Man.......2004-01-24

Martin Luther King was not an unusual black man; in fact, he wanted much of what many black men before him, probably all black men and women wanted. But Martin Luther King was a very unusual man, who happened to be black. His degree of passion, his conviction, his hope, and his perseverance were unlike most before him, and most after him, with the inspired, God given desire to make the world a better place for everyone, including blacks. His vision was not just the result of respect and reliance by his people, it was divinely inspired so that his passion, his hope emerged and blossomed before millions, many of whom were not familiar with him, his history, or his prominence and reputation. He was possessed of those rare qualities, and that rare talent, of the ability to inspire others to believe in themselves, and the world, that they had the dignity to alter their own dynamics, the manner in which they lived, and in the manner in which they were treated by others. As an evangelist, he was superb. For that, like Jesus, and many other prophets who have been threatening to the status quo, his ability to show others the way to self respect and to peace were certainly the force of why his life was taken so early, and so brutally. He was more than a leader; he was a messiah for the many black people who had waited so long for one to lead them out of the psychological bondage which was still very real to them. He positioned himself to show the way, and how to do it in the least offensive manner possible, by non-violence. He was a pillar of strength that even whites unfamiliar with him understood the necessity of yielding to God's will, instinctively knowing that all men were equal, and that all needed the recognition of being equal. Indeed, whites were aware of their obligation under the Constitution to recognize that equality but felt no compulsion to expect it of themselves until Martin forced them to face the truth they had so long avoided. Not only did he demand of blacks the energy and commitment to themselves, he demanded the energy and commitment of whites to respect themselves by being brave enough to help resolve the problem that had long festered in American social reality. The timing was right; the message was right, and Martin was right. He allowed none out of God's boat and helped everyone see that upon that ship, we were all afloat upon the ocean of humanity, and would indeed survive or perish. That message remains very much a part of his legacy, and today's reality although we face other issues as well, and the issues are now broader than ever. No one on earth has the option to say no to God and expect that it will be of no consequence to the world. He was the most remarkable of men that America has ever produced guided by his own devine light within as a beacon of humanity for all to follow.

More than a cuddly icon.......2003-08-12

Let me get first vent about the frustrating parts of this book before I get to the good stuff. First, at 229 pages of text, this was a rather short book, made shorter by Hansen's annoying habit of repeating important stretches of speeches. Second, the chapter analyzing the various drafts of the speech is probably better suited to a scholarly dissection of the speech than to a popular book. As was the chapter describing King's preaching style. And I got tired of ascribing every change in the speech to MLK's "genius". The man was exhausted, under threat and working on the run. Surely some of his decisions could have gone differently?

But minor grumpiness aside, I found this book hard to put down. The description of the organization for the August 1963 March on Washington was fascinating in its details about the people who attended it. One got the impression that the day was pretty disorganized, with the crowd making decisions on its own about when to start marching. Hansen also did a nice job of showing the internal disharmonies among groups within "the movement," as well as hinting that MLK's leadership done to him rather than pursued by him -- less because of his ability to manage and lead than because of his philosophical sophistication, personal courage, stamina and eloquence. That King comes across as a preacher and a prophet (as opposed to a great organizer) does him no disservice, but actually helps to humanize him and make the Civil Rights movement more real. Hansen did a nice job handling the post-1963 life of the speech. He is honest about the impatience that some blacks felt about the 'dreaminess' of the speech, especially as the movement's gains stalled and the violence continued. Hansen nicely captures the slightly radioactive nature of the speech among national politicians (many of whom were wary of King's alleged Communist sympathies) in the years before King's death and the cloyingly hagiographic tributes about King and the speech after 1968.

Hansen shows how King's memory has been sanitized and rendered harmless by linking him exclusively with the "I Have a Dream" speech. In opposing the Jim Crow laws, a main (but not the only) point of the speech, King targeted a system that was abhorrent to Northern whites and a source of shame to many in the South. Getting rid of it was the relatively easy matter of making the abuses public. But King's next targets proved more difficult -- the hard work of eliminating more subtle forms of racism from American hearts on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. King's premature death allowed Americans to accept him as a national martyr and prophet, but ironically delayed the more difficult soul-searching about America's war plans in Vietnam, its endemic racism and the blind economic violence perpetrated against the poor and powerless.

"I have a dream" - more than just a speech.......2003-08-07

I read "The Dream" in one sitting this weekend. The book vividly recaptures the spirit of the time during which Rev. King developed and delivered this inspiring and world-changing speech. At first I was afraid that the author's decomposition of the speech would diminish the power and effectiveness of the speech. On the contrary, his deep exploration into the speech itself and the events leading up to that day, together with fresh perspectives on the moment itself and the years following its delivery enhanced my admiration for both the speech and Rev. King. The author's inescapable conclusion is that there was much, much more at work than a man delivering a televised speech to a supportive crowd. This singular moment in Rev. King's life was the catalyst for much of the advancement that we all benefit from today. Yet this same event is also being used by some to impede further progress in the complete fulfillment of The Dream. This is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who wants to learn about the history of that day and its subsequent impact over the next 40 years. It will also be of particular relevance to those with an interest in public speaking.

King of the Dream.......2003-07-17

I've listened to King's famous speech dozens of times and read a number of books on King, but it wasn't until reading Hansen's captivating description and analysis of the speech that I realized how little I knew about this seminal event in American history. This book is unusual in that it is both hugely readable and phenomenally informative and insightful.

The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America

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Learn From the Past
Up the down escalator
A Very accurate depiction of Race relations
One step forward, two steps back
One African American Man's view

The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America
Philip A. Klinkner
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226443396

Amazon.com

This examination of the era after the civil rights movement can best be described by the old saying "one step forward, two steps back." Klinkner and Smith attack the widely held view that greater racial equality in the United States is preordained by the characteristics and principles of the founding fathers or the tides of history. The authors look at the circumstances that fostered black civil rights, including wars and political instability; when those factors are reduced, they argue, antiblack backlash sets in, from the Reconstruction era up to post-Reagan Republicanism. The Unsteady March is an alarmist book, but not without hope. The authors offer solutions that include increased commitment to enforcing civil rights legislation, economic parity, and reform of the criminal justice system--as well as bringing back the draft and introducing a universal national service program. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

American life is filled with talk of progress and equality, especially when the issue is that of race. But has the history of race in America really been the continuous march toward equality we'd like to imagine it has? This sweeping history of race in America argues quite the opposite: that progress toward equality has been sporadic, isolated, and surrounded by long periods of stagnation and retrenchment.

"[An] unflinching portrait of the leviathan of American race relations. . . . This important book should be read by all who aspire to create a more perfect union."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Could it be that our unswerving belief in the power of our core values to produce racial equality is nothing but a comforting myth? That is the main argument put forth by Philip Klinkner and Rogers Smith . . . The Unsteady March is disturbing because it calls into question our cherished national belief and does so convincingly. . . . [It] is beautifully written, and the social history it provides is illuminating and penetrating."—Aldon Morris, American Journal of Sociology

Winner of the Horace Mann Bond Award of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews:

Learn From the Past.......2006-12-02

An incredibly insightful and powerful book that examines the history of race in America - charting the knotty path toward racial equality, and exposing the many contradictions and setbacks upon it. Most importantly, the book can help us all look at present-day race relations in a more progressive way.

Up the down escalator.......2003-05-08

Highly interesting and useful book with a simple but effective history: put the whole history of civil rights struggle in one line, since the Revolutionary war. The result shows immediately the tiding of the struggle for racial equality, and the correlation of eras of advance with the periods of major war, the Revolutionary, Civil, and Second World Wars to be exact. Too often we see the efforts of abolitionists in the generation before the Civil War without seeing the similar history during the Revolutionary period, and then the falling away of advance into retrogression in the early nineteenth century. And then again after Reconstruction. The rise of the Civil Rights movement after the Second World War, next also to the need to repair the image of the American system in the Cold War, falls into place therefore as the next incremental advance in an undertow of resistance, backsliding and the Jim Crow curse. We seem to be, or have entered, another of the doldrum eras, and the prospect seems alarming, although each period of advance maintains some portion of its gains. At a period of neo-liberal machinations made in Texas we need hardly bother to wonder why affirmative action is under attack, etc...
One has to wonder, finally, at the botched legacy of the Constitutional era. It seems less than fully convincing all at once that the founders were unable to resist compromise. The results have been a horrendous series of obstructions.
As the dot.gov goes into action in Iraq, it is worth wondering if they are qualified. American history shows one way to blow it. Vigilance.

A Very accurate depiction of Race relations.......2002-12-03

When I read this book, I was surprised to find a almost completely accurate depiction of the African-American experience and race relations. Klikner and Smith validate the claim of Black separatist groups such as the Nation of Islam that the Black man is considered a citizen during wartime and tax time. Their analyzing of race relations during The American Revolution, The Civil War, World War II, and The Cold War show that the status of African-Americans was changed by each war. However the nation took 2 steps back when the attitudes of the White majority changed during hard economic times and developed a reluctance to expand the social revolution that was spurred by the war. The book offers a challenge to all who desire racial and economic equality to continue a unfinished social revolution.

One step forward, two steps back.......2002-04-30

Civil Rights leaders supposedly described their achievements in these terms and thus give the authors the title for their book. Such footwork can only be described as THE UNSTEADY MARCH. Klinker and Smith highlight the periods of progress and retreat through a broad sweep of US history. Beginning with the era of slavery (1619-1860), chapter 1 titled "Bolted with the Lock of a Hundred Keys" obviously describes a period of zero progress. According to the authors there have only been three periods of progress and each can be identified by the presence of specific factors. The thrust of their argument throughout this book is that the special circumstances and the effort, energy, and enthusiasm associated with these factors has both a beneficial and deleterious impact on black progress. Beneficially these are not short-run periods of gain. Indeed the third era of progress beginning with WWII and covering the Cold War (inclusive of Vietnam) from 1941 to 1968 "framed an extraordinarily prolonged period" of gains.

It's not coincidental that this period included WWII, the Cold War, and Vietnam because progress has come only "in the wake of a large-scale war requiring extensive economic and military mobilization of African-Americans for success." This statement by the authors made me think about the message of AMERICAN PATRIOTS: "The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm". If gains by blacks is conditional on wars the treatment of blacks in those wars is a high cost to pay for progress as Gail Lumet Buckley shows in her book. Gaining support for these wars usually means invoking our inclusiveness, egalitarianism, and democratic ideals; elements which the authors identify as another precondition for progress. The third critical factor is that a political protest movement must emerge and be "willing and able to bring pressure upon national leaders to live up to that justificatory rhetoric by instituting domestic reforms."

Progress has been a continual dance of advances and retreats but in their penultimate chapter "Benign Neglect?" the authors express concern over the current climate of complacency. Rather than a threat from any direct action or program of retrenchment, acceptance of present trends is a far greater impediment to continued progress. Through a series of parallels with periods of increased segregation they make a compelling case for overturning the historical pattern and replacing it with a movement towards sustained economic justice and racial equality.

One African American Man's view.......2001-04-10

About six months ago, Klinkner's book fell into my lap having been dropped off by my brother who knew me to be an avid reader. My initial thought was that this book was another attempt to recycle the old liberal ideas of the 60's. Liberalism, for all intents and purposes, has been discredited, relegated to the scrap heap of forgotten history-along with the Edsel, leisure suits, 8 tracks and E.S.T. Later that evening, I sat down to read the introduction. After completing the introduction, I wanted to call my brother to thank him for delivering such a find. It is imperative to read the introduction before tackling the main body of the book. Also, try not to read the book too quickly, it is better digested in small pieces. As a historical document, there is no more scholarly or analytical a treatise out there. It stablizes the argument in favor of reconsidering the issues surrounding the way we--as a country--have in the past and present continue to treat the progeny of former slaves. The issue is not reparations for the effects of slavery, but rather the institutional structures in place that perpetuate the superior/inferior relationship between Americans separated by the color of their skin. In short, if we could eliminate the current effects that became ingrained during the 300 or so years of slavery, we would gladly forego any compensation we may be arguably entitled to. This book is a must read for anyone grappling with the issues of equality-or inequality--in it's present transmuted form.

The 1963 March on Washington: Speeches and Songs for Civil Rights (Miller, Jake, Library of the Civil Rights Movement.)

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The 1963 March on Washington: Speeches and Songs for Civil Rights (Miller, Jake, Library of the Civil Rights Movement.)
Jake Miller
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery Voting RIghts March (Landmarks in Civil Rights History)

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The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery Voting RIghts March (Landmarks in Civil Rights History)
BIHE
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

ASIN: 0471710377

Book Description

WHY A 56-MILE WALK FOR FREEDOM IN 1965 STILL CHALLENGES AMERICA TODAY

THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 WAS THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, FOREVER CHANGING POLITICS IN AMERICA. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, VOICES OF THE ERA, ALONG WITH SOME OF TODAY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITERS, SCHOLARS, AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS, COMMEMORATE THE STRUGGLE AND EXAMINE WHY THE BATTLE MUST STILL BE WON.

“One of the difficult lessons we have learned is that you cannot depend on American institutions to function without pressure. Any real change in the status quo depends on continued creative action to sharpen the conscience of the nation.”—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

“As long as half our eligible voters exercise the right that so many in Selma marched and died for, we’ve got a very long bridge to cross.”—BILL CLINTON

Book Description

Jamestown's American Portraits, an American saga of families and friends, traces the fascinating history of America through many generations and cultures and through the eyes of adolescent girls and boys. Jamestown's American Portraits is a unique, enriching reading program designed to teach reading skills and strategies while exploring exciting historical novels.

The Selma Campaign, 1963-1965: The Decisive Battle of the Civil Rights Movement

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Outstanding scholarship
This historian appreciates the work done!

The Selma Campaign, 1963-1965: The Decisive Battle of the Civil Rights Movement

Manufacturer: Majority Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0912469447

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding scholarship.......2007-06-13

The author, United States Air Force Colonel Wally G. Vaughn, is an outstanding researcher, scholar, historian and writer. Colonel Vaughn has pieced together the missing links in important Civil Rights quests of the early 1950's and 1960's. His first hand accounts of the Selma campaign, has produced critical testimony to the struggle for equal rights worldwide. Colonel Vaughn and his co-author have put together a genius work!

This historian appreciates the work done!.......2007-03-02

An excellent and necessary documentation of a neglected segment of history.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington (All Aboard Reading)

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GREAT BOOK
Excellent Look and Feel to the book

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington (All Aboard Reading)
Stephen Marchesi
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0448424215
Release Date: 2000-12-04

Book Description

On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people came to the nation's capital to speak out against segregation and to demand equal rights for everyone and to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. This book captures the spirit of this landmark day and brings Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech to vivid life.

Customer Reviews:

GREAT BOOK.......2007-06-09

I am a second grade teacher. I use this book every year. I use it around his birthday, during Black History Month, and during our Language Arts unit on Courage. I love the part, and photograph, about the man that rollerskated from Chicago to see Dr. King. I think it protrays how important Dr. King was to people around the nation. This year I did somthing special. I work in Juvenile Hall with 15-16 year old males. Before I showed them the video of the speech, I had reveiwed some books about him, but I read this one aloud to them. It is a simple book that has a powerful message. The combination of drawings and photographs bring together this message.

Excellent Look and Feel to the book.......2006-01-25

I recently stumbled onto this book at a public library and I have to say I'm very impressed. Martin Luther King and the March on Washington is an excellent work that moves at a good pace for readers of any age. Going to the March on Washington to see King speak must have been a life-changing event that would positively impact anyone who attended. However, for those of us who were not there, or are too young to have been able to go, we are fortunate enough to feel like we are able to experience the magnitude of the event through the books pacing and sense of history. The author places us right in the moment and you can't help but feel like you are on the steps of the mall in Washington, surrounded by scores of people watching a critical moment in American history.

Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology : Speeches, Commentary, Photography, Poetry, Illustrations, Documents

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Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology : Speeches, Commentary, Photography, Poetry, Illustrations, Documents

Manufacturer: Third World Press
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Binding: Paperback

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