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A review by worldlibraries
Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr by Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King Jr.
5.0
Are you tired of resisting?
I have the cure!
The United States has seen much worse times of hatred, oppression and racism. Listening to this incredibly inspiring audiobook narrated by Levar Burton, with audio of Martin Luther King Jr. himself spliced in, will give you the fortitude to not sit down in weariness but to continue the march toward the midterms elections!
One of the most fascinating chapters in this book concerned Birmingham, Alabama. Wow, such active and horrible hatred was directed toward black people. So thoroughly had white people made it hard for blacks to vote there through various tactics, that only 350 out of a possible 15,000 were registered to do so. Truly, black people have only started representing themselves through the vote since the mid-1960s in the United States thanks to the Voting Rights Act secured under Martin Luther King's leadership. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the vote was one of the most important vehicles for black empowerment possible. He has a marvelous sermon called 'Give Us The Vote!' Do you use yours to its fullest power? Or let it go to waste?
In my education, I learned about the bombing of the black church where four little girls were killed. What I didn't learn about was that bombing black churches and their pastors' homes was 'a thing' in Birmingham. There were seventeen different bombings before the famous one! Imagine! When the famous one occurred, the white mayor of Birmingham went on national TV and 'cried,' yet not a single white official showed up at those funerals to mourn with the black community. How lonely and scared the Birmingham black community must have felt! You can feel the sorrow so deeply hearing King's eulogy for those little girls. It feels like you are there. To not have given in to bitterness, despair, or sitting down in frustration at that moment is a lesson for all of us.
In many ways this book doesn't feel dated. It feels contemporary. King felt that violence toward black people and poor whites had morphed from the days of lynching to gun violence as the method of keeping them cowed. Sound contemporary? It does to me. He felt that militarism would be the spiritual death of America, as we spend money on killing people who look different than the American white majority, rather than on improving the lives of American people at home. Sound contemporary? It does to me. We just increased the defense budget by 80 billion (even prior to that budget increase our nation spent more than the next 12 countries combined). The USA is getting ready to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security next. It was inspiring to hear him try and head off that 'spiritual death' for my generation.
The resistance continues. How can we all help the United States of America avoid 'spiritual death?2
I have the cure!
The United States has seen much worse times of hatred, oppression and racism. Listening to this incredibly inspiring audiobook narrated by Levar Burton, with audio of Martin Luther King Jr. himself spliced in, will give you the fortitude to not sit down in weariness but to continue the march toward the midterms elections!
One of the most fascinating chapters in this book concerned Birmingham, Alabama. Wow, such active and horrible hatred was directed toward black people. So thoroughly had white people made it hard for blacks to vote there through various tactics, that only 350 out of a possible 15,000 were registered to do so. Truly, black people have only started representing themselves through the vote since the mid-1960s in the United States thanks to the Voting Rights Act secured under Martin Luther King's leadership. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the vote was one of the most important vehicles for black empowerment possible. He has a marvelous sermon called 'Give Us The Vote!' Do you use yours to its fullest power? Or let it go to waste?
In my education, I learned about the bombing of the black church where four little girls were killed. What I didn't learn about was that bombing black churches and their pastors' homes was 'a thing' in Birmingham. There were seventeen different bombings before the famous one! Imagine! When the famous one occurred, the white mayor of Birmingham went on national TV and 'cried,' yet not a single white official showed up at those funerals to mourn with the black community. How lonely and scared the Birmingham black community must have felt! You can feel the sorrow so deeply hearing King's eulogy for those little girls. It feels like you are there. To not have given in to bitterness, despair, or sitting down in frustration at that moment is a lesson for all of us.
In many ways this book doesn't feel dated. It feels contemporary. King felt that violence toward black people and poor whites had morphed from the days of lynching to gun violence as the method of keeping them cowed. Sound contemporary? It does to me. He felt that militarism would be the spiritual death of America, as we spend money on killing people who look different than the American white majority, rather than on improving the lives of American people at home. Sound contemporary? It does to me. We just increased the defense budget by 80 billion (even prior to that budget increase our nation spent more than the next 12 countries combined). The USA is getting ready to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security next. It was inspiring to hear him try and head off that 'spiritual death' for my generation.
The resistance continues. How can we all help the United States of America avoid 'spiritual death?2