| Compiled
from his own words, this history-making autobiography IS Martin
Luther King: the mild-mannered, inquisitive child and student
who rebelled against segregation; the dedicated young minister
who constantly 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. Relevant
and insightful, this Autobiography offers King's seldom discussed
views on some of the world's greatest and most controversial
figures including John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi
and Richard Nixon. This book brings to life a remarkable man
whose thoughts and actions speak to our most burning contemporary
issues and still inspire our desires, hopes and dreams.
All Customer Reviews
5 out of 5 - Jan 28, 2005
Martin Luther King, Jr., is without a doubt
one of the most influential and pivotal figures in twentieth-century
history. In addition to his work as a Civil Rights leader,
his role as a father and pastor, he also was an extensively
published writer. However, he never had the chance to write
an autobiography in the traditional sense. We as readers in
the present day and the future have lost the private details
that might have been fleshed out in a proper autobiography,
but this skillfully crafted work by Clayborne Carson has given
us a religious and political autobiography, revealed in King's
almost countless papers (published and unpublished), interviews,
letters, sermons and public statements.
Carson, author and editor of many books relating
to the Civil Rights struggle, edited a collection of King's
speeches entitled 'A Knock at Midnight', and was selected
by the King estate to put together this in conjunction with
(according to Carson) dozens of staff and student workers
forming part of the King Papers Project. Carson used particular
methodology consistently in his reconstruction - that of relying
primarily on the words of King himself (utilising early drafts
of later writings to discern the difference between authorial
and editorial intentions) and developing them as if this overall
narrative account was constructed near the end of King's life.
King's autobiography begins at the beginning,
with is childhood as a preacher's kid (who was himself a preacher's
kid, who was himself a preacher's kid, etc.). King said, 'of
course I was religious.... I didn't have much choice.' King
explains the different strands in his life, that of being
both militant and moderate, idealistic and realistic, as beginning
here. Here he developed questions ('how could I love a race
of people who hated me?') and some answers (he learned that
racial injustice was paralleled by economic injustice, and
realised that poor white people were exploited also).
King's call to ministry and call to ethical
and prophetic witness in the world developed through his schooling
at Morehouse College, Crozer Seminary, and Boston University,
where he developed interest in theology and social philosophy
that would lead him to eventually to his ideas of civil rights
activitsm. This would not take practical shape, however, until
he was back in the South and working at churches and participating
in actual events. He describes his involvement with Rosa Parks
and the Montgomery Movement as a mountaintop experience, which
also led to an awakening, both in King and in the community,
of the power of nonviolent action a la Mahatma Gandhi.
It is almost incomprehensible to read this autobiography
and realise that in a span of barely more than a dozen years
(Rosa Parks was arrested for her action in December of 1955;
King was assassinated in 1968) so much of what we consider
to be the central history of the Civil Rights struggle occurred.
Within the pages of text, King talks about the struggles of
the common people and the dealings with the powerful, from
the police in Alabama jurisdictions to dealing with federal
government officials and organisations.
In the midst of all of this work, King managed
to remain a family man, devoted to his wife and children,
and a tireless worker in the church. Carson admits to not
being able to develop too much of an interior autobiography
in these kinds of sections (as even in King's private papers
and writings, too much remains unrecorded), but his life in
this regard still comes through many aspects of his writings,
sermons and speeches.
This is an incredible book, and should be read
as a required part of the education of an American, as it
recounts a remarkable and astonishing part of history that
continues to shape the direction of the nation to this day.
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