Combining the latest scholarship with John Kirk's informed commentary, this sourcebook throws a powerful light on the civil rights movement and its most influential leader. Debates that until now have been carried out across a range of books and journals are here brought together for the first time in a clear, helpful volume which introduces readers to key topics, debates and scholars in the field. Essential reading for all those with an interest in the man and the movement.

About the Author(s)

John A. Kirk

John A. Kirk is Professor of US History at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. He is author of Martin Luther King Jr (2005) and Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970 (2002), which won the J. G. Ragsdale Book Award.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements * Preface * Introduction: Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement * Leadership: National and Local Perspectives * Influences: African American Church, White Academy * Authorship: Plagiarism, Ghost-Writing, and Voice-Merging * Tactics: Nonviolence, Violence, and Armed Self Defence * Comparisons: Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X * Relationships: Women and Gender, Sex and Sexuality * Radicalism: Martin Luther King, Jr's Final Years, 1965-8 * Assassination: Conspiracy or Lone Gunman? * Commemoration: The King Holiday and Street Naming * Bibliography * Index