A Rave Booklist Review
Eig (Ali, 2017) has a dream that Americans will remember more about our most famous civil
rights icon than one, partially improvised speech. In the most comprehensive MLK biography to
date, enhanced with newly released FBI records and unpublished memoirs, Eig digs deep into
King’s family history, revealing the fortitude and racial trauma experienced by his grandparents
and the indomitable church culture which forged his father. MLK Junior and Senior were devoted
to each other yet clashed over doctrine and morality and disagreed over the role of the church
and of clergy in social justice movements. Eig notes the influence of Morehouse College in
strengthening King’s sense of Black self worth and identity and of colleagues (and rivals) like
Ralph Abernathy in developing King’s own theology of antiracism. Eig insightfully and forthrightly
addresses critiques of King as a plagiarist and his relationships with women before and after his
marriage to Coretta Scott. Most important, Eig refuses to “defang” King, instead pushing
Americans to recognize the radical nature of his demands for justice and his resistance to not
only racism but militarism and capitalism. “Today his words might help us make our way through
these troubled times, but only if we actually read them, only if we embrace the complicated King,
the flawed King, the human King, the radical King.”
— Lesley Williams
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