Good Read, Inadequate Portrait of The Man
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When I bought this book, I wanted a personal account of the man behind the myth. On that score the book failed to deliver. Maybe, it is because I overlooked the fact that Dr Martin Luther King achieved so much at a young age. He was only 27 during the Alabama bus boycott, was 35 when he received the Nobel Peace Prize and was barely 39 when he was assassinated. If he were alive today he'd be 78 years old, some 9 years younger than Dr Nelson Mandela.
While the book is not a personal, touch-feely account of his life, it gives an insight into Dr King's intellectual development. I was fascinated, for example, by his knowledge of the Classics, philosophy, religion, ethics and the struggle of the newly independent African States. The autobiography paints the picture of a man, who struggled with making the "right" decisions but yet believed in the essential goodness of human nature. His conviction that non-violence was the means for Black Americans to achieve equal protection under the law, seems to have crystallised after a long, reasoned personal intellectual debate, drawing on the example of Mahatma Gandhi.
Dr king's genius was his ability to inspire the troops, even during the darkest nights of the Civil Rights Movement. His personal letters showed his disgust with the so-called White Moderate, who, in his view, wanted incremental change for the Negro and not the kind of change that he was espousing. However, he was no starry-eyed prophet. He knew, for example, that for all the human compassion that striking may generate, it is dollars and cents that count. Hence, he knew that the Birmingham bus boycott would only bear fruit if it was targeted at the economic interests of the bus company.
One gets the feeling that it is an incomplete autobiography of a great life, which was cut short by James Earl Ray's bullet that fateful day in 1968. I do not know of any really personal accounts of his life out there. Maybe the time is not yet ripe for peeling back the myth and revealing the man behind so monumental, and yet so recent, a change in American life.
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Good attempt slightly unsatisfying
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This book is a skilful effort to create from the writings and speeches of Martin Luther King a comprehensive narrative that details the man's life in his own words. It provides a good introductory insight into his thoughts on the major events in his life and the moral issues that shaped his convictions.
However due in part to the material from which it is composed and the author's discretion it flounders between an attempt to provide King's views on a historical account of the events of the civil rights movement and a comment on the development of his ideas and aspirations, failing to provide a wholly satisfying version of either.
With the exception of a brief couple of chapters at the beginning of the book about his childhood and family the main emphasis is on the civil rights struggle. It becomes a little tedious in places with listing of campaign after campaign in which King repeats many of the similar views and arguments, and does not provide a full account of events. Therefore readers not already familiar with King's life and actions looking to learn more from a historical perspective will be disappointed. Concomitantly readers looking to find an account of spiritual and ideological development akin to Gandhi's autobiography will be similarly disappointed as it lacks the neat structure that can only be provided by the concerted writing of an auto biographer.
However this volume does include King's key speeches and is a good attempt to provide a glimpse of man and his ideas from a collection of his unorganised speeches and writings.
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Required reading...
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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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An insight into the man
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I bought this book after a trip to Atlanta, GA. I was only a child when Dr King was murdered, so missed him and his message. In my childish innocence, I did not realise what was happening to people because of the colour of their skin. Now, as a man, I appreciate Dr King's wisdom, intelligence and inner strength. This book is thoughtfully written and, if it truly reflects the man that Dr King was, then it cannot but help to increase the level of respect for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as a man and the message that he brought to the world. The book was revealing and uplifting. It demonstrated what can be acheived by peaceful protest in the face of outright violence. I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to know what Dr King did, his struggle and the humanity behind the man and his cause.
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not bad, not good
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After recently finishing this book I am not as impressed as I thought I would be. Not meaning to offend but in all honesty it is a bit bland and all it does is detail what most people already know. I feel the inclusion of Kings speeches is insight but slightly tedious and the last chapter is one of his speeches. This book is perfect for people who need to study King, civil rights or black oppression as it tells the story of the struggle, how it starts and how it is resisted by white America. Although King and his co-workers think up some cunning ways to get around the resistance to the freedom movement the book didnt grip me and I only felt compelled to read it as King was such a huge influence on modern America and all civil right conflicts. If you dont mind a lot of preaching and a bit of falseness then buy this book as it does build up a good picture of the man and what he achieved.
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