First published 2025
Jeanne Theoharis presents Martin Luther King Jr. as a national civil rights leader whose work extended far beyond the South. The book challenges popular memory by focusing on King's campaigns in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Theoharis documents how King battled school segregation, police brutality, housing discrimination, and employment inequality across the North and West Coast. She reveals how white liberals, media outlets, and federal agencies attacked King for these efforts. The author portrays King as a leader who supported other movements, a speaker who also listened, a Black man who faced police violence, and a minister who organized with poor communities. Theoharis emphasizes Coretta Scott King's role as an intellectual and political advisor in the struggle against racism, poverty, and war. The book connects King's northern activism to current racial inequality debates and expands understanding of his complete body of work.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, african-american, non-fiction, 21st-century, activism, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figure, social-justice
Setting: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
400 pages · Hardcover · The New Press