The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.was not written in a conventional manner; it was painstakingly assembled from King’s writings and speeches by Stanford University historian, Clayborne Carson. After Carson’s introduction, in which he explains the editorial choices he made in order to turn the source material into a more coherent narrative, King introduces his early life, beginning with his birth in Atlanta, in the 1920s. For the most part, his childhood and adolescence were happy, and he grew up in a relatively well-off Black community, raised by loving parents. Although deeply religious, the only real issue that caused the teenage King to question the Bible was the mandate that Christians must love even those who wrong them, which King found difficult to do when faced with hateful white racists. However, his religious beliefs and his opposition to segregation were largely complementary forces in his life and, exploring philosophy and theology at college, he began to see that he had to fight for freedom and equality as part of his Christian duty. As he continued his studies at a seminary, he reinforced this belief and became particularly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, whose non-violent defiance would greatly influence King’s political philosophies throughout his life.

King next took his studies to Boston University where he continued to examine the interaction of religion and philosophy and to question ways of achieving social justice through love and faith, eventually achieving his PhD. While in Boston, King met, and later married, Coretta Scott, a fellow social justice activist. The two would go on to have four children. Scott was from Alabama and the two were often apart until King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. Here, he became a popular figure within the religious community and began to be heavily involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. King was one of the first people to hear that Rosa Parks had been arrested for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white person, and he quickly became a key figure in organizing a boycott of the bus service. The boycott grew rapidly, and King became increasingly well known.

As King’s fame increased, so did the threats to his safety. He received death threats, was arrested by racist white police officers, and even had his house bombed. Throughout, however, he held on to his commitment to non-violent resistance and managed to encourage his community to do the same, despite growing anger and calls for retaliation.As large-scale, non-violent activism continued, the police began using mass arrests on the Black community, and King was himself arrested. However, in 1956, the protest succeeded and buses were desegregated. Encouraged by this success, the movement continued to grow, as did King’s recognition and experience. He travelled to Ghana to witness the fight against—and, later, victory over—British rule and to India to see Gandhi’s ongoing legacy.



Back in America, white supremacists continued to try to silence King, some through arrests and threats of long prison sentences, and others through the more overt violence of further bombings. All were unsuccessful, and the movement continued to grow in numbers and strength. When they staged the famous March on Washington protest in 1963, where King would deliver his legendary “I have a Dream” speech, around a quarter of a million people attended, including many allies from white churches and unions.Elsewhere, however, white supremacist violence continued, with numerous racist acts, including the murder of Black children and frequent beatings by the police. Nevertheless, in 1964, thanks to the dedicated struggle of the movement, the Civil Rights Act was passed while, the same year, King won the Nobel Peace Prize. Both events marked significant progress for the civil rights movement, but they were by no means the end of the struggle.

Black communities faced growing divisions about how victory could or should be achieved. In contrast to King’s commitment to nonviolence, Malcom X and many other Black people felt that violent responses and retaliation were necessary. The two leaders only met once, and both disagreed significantly with each other’s tactics and political philosophies, but King still felt it was a great tragedy and wrongdoing when the younger leader was assassinated. Despite the internal conflicts and ongoing white supremacist violence, the civil rights movement was able to get the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, securing the right to vote for racial minorities.

After the success of the Voting Rights Act, King spent time working in poverty-stricken, inner-city areas of Los Angeles and Chicago, responding to economic racism, segregated public schools, and other abuse and discrimination. Although King still preached non-violence, riots broke out, triggered by the sheer desperation of the poor and oppressed, and by the ongoing provocative violence by racist whites. Against great opposition, King and others struggled to secure livable housing in Chicago to alleviate the desperate suffering of the slum-based communities, but were only partially successful. Although the Black Panthers and other factions of the growing “Black Power” movement were focusing on retaliatory force, King held firm on his opposition to violence in the civil rights movement and further afield, becoming a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, despite heavy criticism.He continued to reject violence and strive tirelessly for social justice until his assassination on April 4, 1968. The book closes with a number of writings and speeches that reassert King’s dedication to social justice and show his hope that he would be remembered as always seeking to fulfill his duties as a Christian by struggling for justice and fighting for the rights of the oppressed.



Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most significant political figures of all time. His dedication to equality and justice, his opposition to violence, and his powerful oratory are all legendary. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. gives an unprecedented insight into the man, not just as a community leader,but as a community member, a philosopher, a husband, and a father.