Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates

Drawing upon a wide-ranging selection of scholarship and popular history, this invaluable 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 variety of books and journals are here brought together for the first time in a clear and insightful volume which introduces readers to key topics, debates and writers in the field.

Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement covers wider movement issues such as:
- national and local leadership styles
- the role of women and gender
- violence and non-violence
- integration and separatism.
It also examines specific issues related to King, including:
- family, church and educational influences
- oratory and authorship
- King's relationship with Malcolm X and other leaders
- King's more radical stand during the final years of his life
- controversies and debates surrounding his assassination
- ongoing efforts to commemorate King's achievements.

Authoritative and stimulating this is an essential resource for anyone with an interest in the man and the movement.

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.