#Biography King: A Life
- Author: Jonathan Eig
- Title: King: A Life
- Genre: non-fiction (688 pg)
- #20BooksOfSummer24 (second list)
- Rating: A++++++
Conclusion:
- MLK pivoted his work from a civil to a political movement.
- August 1966 King: ” If people from Mississippi wanted to feel hate, go to Chicago.”
- Under the pressure of marches in white suburbs…
- …mayor Daley agreed to changes in Chicago’s housing.
- The marches helped galvanize support for the passage of the
- …Civil Rights Act of 1968 against discrimination to private housing.
- I reached the biography’s final section.
- I had an awarness of the clock ticking down (April 1968),
- …a terrible feeling that I couldn’t save him.
- The book gave me purpose for many summer days during my morning walk,
- 2-3 chapters in an hour.
- It was at times a comforting read to compare 1960s civil rights struggle
- and the progress, yes progress …Obama, Kamala Harris, the USA
- …has made all thanks to the couragous
- …MLK and the people how believed in the cause.
Last thoughts:
- This book included more information about MLK
- …recently revealed in released FBI files.
- The next information will be made public in 2027.
- We will get the tapes and transcripts of wire taps done by the FBI
- Who autorizied these taps….who collected the information and
- …most importantly why did the government
- …want to weaponize MLK’s private life.
Notes:
July 31, 2024 –
50.0%“Audio book “King:A Life” – ch 21-22 – Strange to listen to the civil rights struggles on the 1960s while we are at the moment in time when a woman of color could become president! The words are true: “…we shall overcome…someday!””
August 3, 2024 –
58.72% “Ch 26-27-28: What was King’s greatest strength? He could speak with great eloquence and move people’s hearts and minds with
POETRY-PRAYER-PATRIOTISM!”
August 4, 2024 –
69.04% “Ch 29-30: Kennedy was shot in November 1963. Harry Belafonte noticed in the summer of 1964 that King developed a “twitch”…but it disappeared a few months later. Belafonte asked why King stopped “twitching”. King said: “I’ve come to peace.” His friend pressed him…peace with what? King said:
“…with death”. This was one of the most moving parts of the book!”
August 5, 2024 –
72.67% “Ch 30-31 – LBJ wanted the “salacious ” material J.Edgar Hoover was collecting (wiretaps) about MLK but did not want to appear he was getting it. That is why he had Hoover’s letters sent to LBJ’s private secretary and she stored them in LBJ’s secret safe.
On a lighter note…MLK visted the Vatican in Aug 1964. He told Pope Paul VI that is was remarkable that the Pope was willing to meet a man named Martin Luther!!”
August 8, 2024 –
81.4%“Ch 32-33-34 – February 1965 – King knew what it meant to be maladjusted, psychologically, because he was not normal, psychiatrically. He had multiple periods of severe depression. Near the end of his life, some of his staff tried to get him into psychiatric treatment, but he refused.”
August 10, 2024 –
87.21%“Ch 35-36-37 – A vivid description of the marches in March 1965 to Selma and Montgomry Alabama. King was so torn between the warnings of violence and his determiation to stand by his people and make sure th movement went forward. The marchers showed such courage…even when threatend by state troopers on the Selma “bridge”.”
August 11, 2024 –
94.48%“Ch 38-39-40-41-42 – MLK pivoted his work from a civil to a political movement. August 1966 King: ” If people from Mississippi wanted to feel hate, go to Chicago.” Under the pressure of marches in white suburbs… the mayor Daley agreed to changes in Chicago’s housing. The marches helped galvanize support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 against discrimination to private housing.”
August 12, 2024 –
94.48% “Ch 43-44 – December 1967 MKL preaches at his church that he felt a victim of dreams deferred and blasted hopes. Since 1963 …his “Dream” had turned into a nightmare: Bombing in Birmingham church, racial riots in Los Angles and Detroit, LBJ sent 500.000 young men to fight in Vietnam. But MLK is not giving up and dreams when men will be judged based on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.”
NancyElin.blog 