King: A Life - Jonathan Eig

Prologue and Weekly Reading Schedule

Photo by Florida Memory on Unsplash

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most well-known historical figures in US history. There are hardly any American citizens (or even world citizens) that do not have some idea of his name and his influence during the Civil Right Movement. We even have a national holiday dedicated to his memory. One of the things I have realized after reading a biography of every US President (and many other biographies) is that the historical figure that we know about from school is a much more complicated character and more human than we often realize.

This is certainly the case with MLK. Well known for his “I have a dream speech” and his leadership with the nonviolent movement during the Civil Rights era. One of the things that stands out the longer you study history is that certain people were born for a certain time to make a certain impact on the world. I believe King is one of those men.

Jonathan Eig is a writer who is perhaps best known for his biography of Muhammed Ali and was also producer for the PBS series on Ali. (I have not watched or read this work but have heard great things). Eig’s MLK biography was published in 2023, and claims to be filled with newly released FBI documents, phone conversations, speeches, and other sources. This is important as much has been written about King and Eig needs to give us a new perspective in order to stand out or presenting new material.

If you haven’t already purchased the book, you can buy it at my affiliate link below at my Book Shop at BookShop.org.

King - Jonathan Eig

Prologue:

Eig claims that by Dec 1955, King was one of America’s founding fathers. In many ways this is true in the fact that he used the founding documents, Constitution and Declaration of Independence to argue that the America that we claim to live in was a divided America and was not holding true to it’s promises in it’s founding documents by continuing to treat African Americans as second-class citizens.

“Before King, the promises contained in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution had been hollow. King and the other leaders of the twentieth century civil rights movement, along with millions of ordinary protesters, demanded that America live up to its stated ideals.” (p.4)

King and other Civil Right leaders built their movement on non-violence and peaceful protests. But as Eig points out,

“We’ve mistaken King’s nonviolence for passivity. We’ve forgotten that his approach was more aggressive than anything the country had seen – that he used peaceful protests as a lever to force those in power to give up many of the privileges they’d hoarded.”

Eig also states that King “has been deliberately mischaracterized in his lifetime and remains so today.” Eig’s goal is to lay out the life of King, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Keeping him in the place in history he belongs but also presenting the complicated man and human man that he was.

“But those closest to King saw his flaws all along and understood that his power grew from his ability to grapple with contradiction, to wrestle with doubt just as his biblical heroes did.”

The Read and Think Deeply Book Club is open to all subscribers. We will be covering King: Alife with Jonathan Eig’s biography from January through April 2025. We will be reading at a reasonable pace as to not take away from other reading and responsibilities. Feel free to read ahead, stick to the schedule, or just read my weekly recaps and discussions. Also, if you get behind, that is okay as well. The posts will be available to catch up. As this is a book club, my hope is that you will comment and we can get discussions going in the comments on each post, each week. The more diverse and lively the discussions, the better the Book Club will be as we all have different views. I only ask that you be respectful of other’s views and opinions. Each week we will cover 3 chapters. I will post the weekly recaps and discussions every Sunday that will cover the chapters assigned for that week. Comment below if you have any questions or comments.

Here is the reading schedule for King from January through the end of Aril:

January 5-11: Chapters 1-3

January 12-18: Chapters 4-6

January 19-25: Chapters 7-9

January 26-Feb 1: Chapters 10-12

Feb 2-8: Chapters 13-15

Feb 9-15: Chapters 16-18

Feb 16-22: Chapters 19-21

Feb 23-March 1: Chapters 22-24

March 2-8: Chapters 25-27

March 9-15: Chapters 28-30

March 16-22: Chapters 31-33

March 23-29: Chapters 34-36

March 30-April 5: Chapters 37-39

April 6-12: Chapters 40-42

April 13-19: Chapters 43-45

April 20-26: Epilogue and Summary of book

Starting in May, we will switch to C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity. More to come as we get closer to that time.