Reference Reviews

Lawrence Looks at Books

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Encyclopedia. Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Erin Cook, and Susan Englander. 404 p. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. 978-0-313-29440-2; 2007-35354. $65.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Encyclopedia Christened Michael at birth, the change of name at the age of seven for Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected his father’s transformation into an activist minister who had higher expectations for social reform in Depression-era America. The younger King grew up frequently witnessing his father express his convictions in both his church and the community. However, it was under the influence of teachers at Morehouse College that King chose the ministry to be his own career and took his own first steps toward political activism. Upon completing his divinity studies, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 25. A few months later, the arrest of Rosa Parks in December 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man thrust King into the limelight. As a central figure and eloquent spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycott, King gained national attention. Over the course of the next thirteen months, his home was bombed and shot at, and his family threatened with dynamite a second time. Despite an arrest and conviction for leading an “illegal” boycott, King urged his community to nonviolence and continued commitment to their cause. Eventually federal courts sided with the protestors, and the Montgomery bus lines were desegregated. For the next twelve years, King labored tirelessly for civil rights for African Americans, for relief of the poor, for the support of labor, and against the use of violence. His life’s work and death at the age of 39 epitomized the sacrifices that many had made for the cause of civil rights.

King’s reputation has grown since his death, and the eulogies often obscure the man and his message. Hence the importance of a tool that illuminates the events and ideas that shaped King’s life and work. Few are better equipped to tackle the task than the team of scholars that created this encyclopedia. As editors of his personal papers on staff at the King Research and Education Institute, Clayborne Carson and his colleagues have studied King’s life at a level of detail matched by few others. Their guide begins with an overview of King’s career and a brief chronology of his life. The 285 entries of the encyclopedia describe his relationships with family members, teachers, clerical colleagues, civil rights activists, personal associates, politicians, labor leaders and critics. Also noted are his associations and contacts with various organizations, but especially the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King’s educational and intellectual influences are explored, and the chief ideas of his published works are summarized. From landmark speeches and court cases to awards and trips abroad, the major events that figured in King’s career and intellectual development are described. Each entry cites numerous manuscript and printed sources, reflecting the high level of scholarship throughout. Nonetheless, this excellent guide is highly recommended for high school, public and academic libraries.
—John R.M. Lawrence