Should be required reading for all high school students. One might not agree with everything Dr. King says, but his arguments are clear and worth engaging with in order to develop critical thinking

Wow wow wow wow wow. The greatest person the USA has ever produced, and I say that as an atheist about a minister. I'm shocked more than anything by how wide-ranging his knowledge was- philosophy, arts, politics, sociology, history. There's never a misplaced word or phrase. What a guy.

You will not find a greater testament to Martin Luther King’s ideals of equality, justice, and peace than this tome of his writings and speeches. A Testament of Hope is the book I wish I had been required to read in school. Better late than never I suppose.Read one speech or one section or every word. No matter how much of this book you read, you will get to know a man whose powers of persuasion and sense of morality are unmatched. Every line feels like a gut punch or a resounding call to action...

One of the best books from one of the best minds. This collection of speeches, theory, books, and interviews with Dr. King highlights his understanding of the relationship between inequities and social systems that require radical change, not on the grounds of ideology, but moral purpose, which to King means an ethics of love. A call to action and a profound legacy preserved.

A truly remarkable collection of essays, interviews and book extracts. These words are impassioned, eloquent and insightful and tragically still relevant today. One thread that runs through this is that the poor white people are as disadvantaged as black people but the racism blinds them to it. Also disappointing is how few white clergymen rose to the cause, echoing Ghandi's assessment of "I like your Christ, but not your Christianity." although I would like to think that Rev. King's hero would'...

I wore out my pencil underlining magnificent sentences.There is a lot of repetition because he was trying to get his message to many people. Therefore I took my time reading this compilation, almost five years, and that worked out great.

Just starting this, this morning, but it's incredibly thoughtful. Highly recommend

I didn't read all of this because it is LONG and very comprehensive. But these are great essays and speeches, I do recommend reading it if you want to dive deeper into his work.Some key messages that come through in his speeches:1. Nonviolent resistance is necessary, but it is no passive thing. It requires intense effort and dedication. It is not for the fainthearted.2. The time for equality is now. Every day that passed without positive change, every white person or powerful institution who ask...

i hadn't read 90% of these before. it's too bad that really the only thing most people have heard from King is his "I Have a Dream Speech", because although historically important, there are so many even better things that he wrote and spoke about.especially good were many of the writings that he did near the end of his life. King did not shrink from deeply questioning capitalism, poverty, and the U.S. military's campaigns around the world. King's campaigns in these areas were just beginning to

Martin Luther King's Testament Of HopeFirst published in 1986, "A Testament of Hope" remains the most comprehensive single-volume edition of the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. The book consists of 57 selections from King's books, essays,sermons, speeches, and interviews, all of which work to give a broad picture of the thinking and accomplishments of this great American civil rights leader.The book includes works of King that many readers will find familiar including the "I have a Dream" sp...

I'm really enjoying getting to know Martin Luther King, Jr. better. This has also given me a better understanding of the non-violent, passive resistance movement. It is reinforcing my feelings that somehow we need to find a solution to our class problems here in the US. It also reminded me of the fact that although legislation declares rights, it doesn't deliver them. I'm so glad that people, leaders and forces came together in the 60's to start a long-needed movement for civil rights for blacks...

Martin Luther King Jr. has been sanitized. White-washed. Reduced to a single, ostensibly innocuous phrase that fails to make privileged folks uncomfortable. As Cornel West has said many times before, American political society, and particularly white political society, has sterilized the radically love-oriented philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so that his legacy is palatable and, one might say, unthreatening. As Keith Miller succinctly states in his book, Martin Luther King’s Biblical Ep...

I started reading A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. after I was halfway through the autobiography of Malcolm X. It was an interesting contrast. Whereas Malcolm's book is about 450 pages, this one is over 700 pages. This is a great book. Although I often enjoy books even when I'm not sure yet how to think about them, I generally agree with his attitude and his ways of looking at the world. Although Martin was a Baptist preacher, it was simple for

An incredible collection, covering the wide-ranging scope of King's thinking and analysis, most of which we never hear about since he has been restricted to being a Civil Rights leader only, an important role but much narrower than what he was actually doing. King reflected and commented on the economic system, the U.S. international role, the development of other nations, etc., and his thinking remains germane today.The only criticism I have of this book is that it needed a thicker editorial la...

Spending time with King's writings and speeches is always time well spent. There are so many moments in here that are moving and thought provoking. One of the aspects that stood out to me was how many parallels there are to situations today -- in particular, there is an area where he talks about the strength of his convictions and not going along with something just because it is politically expedient. Another element that stuck out to me was how King approached ideas or ideologies that he didn'...

This book is a great example of why star ratings are so problematic for me. I read a lot of books that I think deserve 4 or 5 star ratings, but there are always a few outliers who are so terrific that it feels unfair to lump them in with the others. This is such a book. I decided last year to just buy this book and use it as a devotional of sorts, reading a few pages per night. This is one of the best decisions I've made recently. There is SO MUCH WISDOM to be found in these pages. Most of these...

Excellent book! This literary composition entail speeches and interview transcripts such as Pilgrimage to Nonviolence (1960), Who Speaks for the South? (1958),If Negro Wins, Labor Wins (1962), Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (1964) and Meet the Press interview (1966)

This book was recently gifted to me by one of my dearest friends. It is a collection of speeches, essays, sermons, interviews, and books written by MLK. It highlights his commitment to non-violence, and also shows the importance he gave to the working class, whose plight he compared to Black people in America.When it comes to resistance, my opinions have been largely influenced by my religion (Islam), which teaches us that we cannot idly stand by while injustice is ongoing around us. If people a...

After ordering this book online, I was a bit dismayed to learn it was 670 pages long, thinking I’d never be able to read it all. To the contrary, MLK Jr enthralled, challenged and inspired me—frankly, his intellectual prowess wowed me. For someone who grew up learning about MLK Jr in school, I knew remarkably little about him, especially his deep rooting in the Christian faith. Lots has been said about MLK Jr, but not nearly enough has been heard from his own mouth. Read this.

This compilation of speeches, essays, interviews, and book chapters is the go-to resource that MLK scholar and pastor Mika Edmondson recommended starting with to learn from MLK. Takeaways:1. King's advocacy of nonviolent direct action as an application of the sermon on the mount is the consistent theme throughout his public ministry."Violence begets violence; hate begets hate; toughness begets a greater toughness. It is all a descending spiral, and the end is destruction – for everybody. Along t...