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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
"A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make."
An amazing autobiography.
An amazing autobiography.
Don't think, as a white brother I'll ever totally get the black experience in America. That said I dont think one book has ever stirred more empathy. Though a chronicle of relentless ignorance and cruelty perpetrated by my people the book only serves to stir hope. For the first time in a very long time I was left with a feeling of moral purpose and optimism. I cannot recommend this book enough. MLK was most righteous. I underlined half of every page and found myself craving to be a better human. This book shows how I can do it. Love carries a big stick.
Audiobook: 09hr 35m
The relevant message of Martin Luther King Jr’s words in 2020 is gutting.
MLK’s steadfast hope for true and universal equality for Black people — sometimes expressed in his own voice, thanks to historic recordings — has yet to be realized. We are living in a political moment that echoes so closely the civil rights fight of 1960’s America, and as we march the streets to proclaim “Black Lives Matter,” there is much we can learn from the fierce and gentle man who led the same movement almost sixty years ago.
This book is a curation of MLK’s writing and speeches, and not a true autobiography because he was killed before he’d had the chance to pen a full memoir of his own. I pray the leaders of this wave will be spared his fate while still embracing his heart for non-violent action and true justice.
The relevant message of Martin Luther King Jr’s words in 2020 is gutting.
MLK’s steadfast hope for true and universal equality for Black people — sometimes expressed in his own voice, thanks to historic recordings — has yet to be realized. We are living in a political moment that echoes so closely the civil rights fight of 1960’s America, and as we march the streets to proclaim “Black Lives Matter,” there is much we can learn from the fierce and gentle man who led the same movement almost sixty years ago.
This book is a curation of MLK’s writing and speeches, and not a true autobiography because he was killed before he’d had the chance to pen a full memoir of his own. I pray the leaders of this wave will be spared his fate while still embracing his heart for non-violent action and true justice.
I am not certain, fifty years later, that White America can really appreciate what Martin Luther King, Jr. did for this country. Beyond the necessary needed to be done for the African-American population, it is difficult - impossible, really - to imagine how much our nation would have further suffered had MLK not been the one to lead the charge for change. As a middle-class white man in 2014 would I have been able to relate to a militant, angry, disenfranchised black man/woman willing to kill or die for an improvement in his/her world had MLK not preached - and lived by example - a course of non-violent yet aggressive resistance to the unjust status quo? What would life be like in a 2014 America rife with two races at war - a land that might not look too different from a country today brutalized by sectarian strife? If a 50 year course of escalating violence, bombings, retaliations and continual reprisals had happened, what else could occur other than Perpetual Other Hatred? Reading this book made me realize how very close we were to this reality. MLK didn't save a race, he saved a nation, and perhaps the world.
A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution. MLK's goals may have been lofty, but he understood that to eat the elephant you must do so a teaspoon at a time. Mistakes and mis-steps yielded fast learnings, and as a Christian philosopher of the soul he always was certain to allow his sensitive filters to absorb the fundamentals of what makes us human, black or white, and then to assimilate that understanding into becoming a better person. And leading others to understand the same.
This wonderful book was carefully created by Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University academian that focused specifically on compiling the narrative history of MLK in King's own words, taken from countless documents and primary source material. I am not certain that had MLK lived to be 100 that he would have (re)written this portion of his life any better. His original words, presented in historicaly chronological context, show his maturity as a leader, an author and an agent of change.
I wish that this book was required reading in every American school. William Vollmann first pointed me to this text, and then friend Rowena, but honestly - I should have read more of MLK long ago. I am proud to count him as a hero - and I want to understand (and learn from his example) how to be a non-violent positive agent of change.
A fantastic autobiography taken from excerpts of Dr. King’s writings and speeches that focuses primarily on his role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Dr. King remains one of the most influential Americans and for good reason. He spoke and wrote with such eloquence and power, it was no wonder he became the de facto face of the Civil Rights Movement. The editor did a great job compiling Dr. King’s writings into a comprehensive work. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to gain more insight into MLK or the Civil Rights Movement in general.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
An interesting read the parts that are mlk words are moving but the fact that it's not directly written by him lowers the stars.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book is incredibly moving. It's not a true autobiography, but rather a compilation of MLK's writings and speeches. It begins with an introduction by the compiler/editor Clayborne Carson, followed by LeVar Burton reading the book. His readings are interspersed with actual recordings of MLK's speeches and segments of African-American spirituals. I can see why the audiobook won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album! LeVar Burton does an excellent job. About a year ago, I listened to Clayborne Carson's entire African American History course on iTunesU (he teaches at Stanford), so it was cool to hear his voice in this book's introduction.
Before listening to this book, I had read some of MLK's speeches and heard snippets of others, but it was so inspiring to hear his speeches in their entirety and in context. I was moved to tears a few times, and came away feeling very inspired. MLK has always been a hero of mine, but now I have a much deeper understanding of what he actually accomplished. I have a greater appreciation for the risks he and the other activists took in using civil disobedience to fight for the rights that should have been theirs all along. My only lament is that I didn't write down my favorite quotes as I heard them. I guess I'll just have to listen to it again!
Before listening to this book, I had read some of MLK's speeches and heard snippets of others, but it was so inspiring to hear his speeches in their entirety and in context. I was moved to tears a few times, and came away feeling very inspired. MLK has always been a hero of mine, but now I have a much deeper understanding of what he actually accomplished. I have a greater appreciation for the risks he and the other activists took in using civil disobedience to fight for the rights that should have been theirs all along. My only lament is that I didn't write down my favorite quotes as I heard them. I guess I'll just have to listen to it again!
So many moving speeches and the context of the Civil Rights movement in which they were given. Very heartening even now in disheartening times.