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Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Laura Gleason on January 6th, 2023 in Biography, History, Humanities, News and Current Events, Sociology | 0 Comments

Photo of a library book display of books about Martin Luther King and an image that reads, "together we can be the dream - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2023"

 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off.” King recognized the power of service. He famously said, "Everyone can be great because everybody can serve." Observing the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday through service is a way to begin each year with a commitment to making your community a better place. MLK Day of Service encourages all types of service (learn more). Projects build communities and seek to meet the immediate needs of local community members. Our library locations are closed on Monday, January 16, in honor of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We invite you to participate in this year's #MLKDayofService.

 

Save the Date: Martin Luther King, Jr. March and Celebration on the Pocatello Campus of ISU. "The Diversity Resource Center invites everyone to join them on Monday, Jan. 16, for an afternoon of remembrance and celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The event will begin with a march from Holt Arena at 1 p.m. to the Stephens Performing Arts Center for a celebration at 1:30 p.m." (ISU News, Dec. 7, 2022)


See our Suggested Reading Display on the first floor of Oboler Library of books available for checkout:

Cover ArtChallenges to the Dream by Jim Daniels (Editor)
Call Number: PS508 .T44 C43 2017
ISBN: 9780887486289
Publication Date: 2017-10-17
"This anthology celebrates the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Writing Awards at Carnegie Mellon University, a poetry and prose writing contest that, since 1999, has invited Pittsburgh-area high school and college students to write honestly and creatively about race. The mission of the awards is to create a space for daring, eloquent, and inventive writing, in the belief that the process of writing itself can help explore and break down issues of differences in our lives. Their attempts take brave steps to avoid the poisonous silence that Dr. King warned against. This anthology invites you into the struggles of young people trying to make sense of the world as it is - where they encounter difference, discrimination, pride, and prejudice - in order to help all of us to imagine a better one." -- Back cover.

 

 

Cover ArtThe Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph
Call Number: E185.97 .K5 J67 2020
ISBN: 9781541617865
Publication Date: 2020-03-31
"The Sword and the Shield is a dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King that transforms our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic African American leaders. Peniel E. Joseph reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define"-- Provided by publisher.

 

Cover ArtIn an Inescapable Network of Mutuality by Lewis V. Baldwin (Editor); Paul R. Dekar (Editor); Vicki L. Crawford (Foreword by)
Call Number: E185.97.K5 I63 2013
ISBN: 9781610974349
Publication Date: 2013-08-30
"The scholarship on Martin Luther King, Jr. has too often cast him in the image of the Southern black preacher and the American Gandhi, while ignoring or trivializing his global connections and significance. This groundbreaking work, written by scholars, religious leaders, and activists of different backgrounds, addresses this glaring pattern of neglect in King studies. King is treated here as both a global figure and a forerunner of much of what is currently associated with contemporary globalization theory and praxis. The contributors of this volume agree that King must be understood not only as a thinker, visionary, and social change agent in his own historical context, but also in terms of his meaning for the different generations who still appeal to him as an authority, inspiration, and model of exemplary service to humanity. The task of engaging King both in context and beyond context is fulfilled in remarkable ways in this volume, without doing essential violence to this phenomenal figure."--P. [4] of cover.

 

Cover ArtThe Three Mothers: How the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin shaped a nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs
Call Number:  E185.96 .T83 2021
ISBN: 9781250756121
Publication Date: 2021-02-02
"In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, who were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. Berdis, Alberta, and Louise passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue"-- Provided by publisher.

 

Cover ArtBecoming King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the making of a national leader by Troy Jackson; Introduction by Clayborne Carson
Call Number:  E185.97.K5 J343 2008
ISBN: 9780813125206
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
"In Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader, author Troy Jackson chronicles King's emergence and effectiveness as a civil rights leader by examining his relationship with the people of Montgomery, Alabama. Using the sharp lens of Montgomery's struggle for racial equality to investigate King's burgeoning leadership, Jackson explores King's ability to connect with the educated and the unlettered, professionals and the working class. In particular, Jackson highlights King's alliances with Jo Ann Robinson, a young English professor at Alabama State University; E. D. Nixon, a middle-aged Pullman porter and head of the local NAACP chapter; and Virginia Durr, a courageous white woman who bailed Rosa Parks out of jail after Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person. Jackson offers nuanced portrayals of King's relationships with these and other civil rights leaders in the community to illustrate King's development within the community." -- Provided by publisher.

 

 Cover ArtReclaiming the Great World House: the global vision of Martin Luther King Jr by Vicki L. Crawford (Editor)

Call Number: E185.97 .K5 R397 2019
ISBN: 9780820356044
Publication Date: 2019-10-30
"Reclaiming the Great World House in the 21st Century: Cross-Disciplinary Explorations of the Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., does just that. Established and emerging scholars explore Martin Luther King, Jr.'s global vision and his lasting relevance to a globalized rights culture. The editors further explain that this edited collection looks at King afresh in his own historical context, while also refocusing his legacy of ideas and social praxis in broader directions for today and tomorrow. Employing King's metaphor of 'the great world house,' with major attention to racism, poverty, and war - or what he called 'the evil triumvirate'--the focus is on King's appraisal of and approach to the global-human struggle in the 1950s and 60s, and on the extent to which his social witness and praxis takes on new hues and pertinence not only in the ongoing struggles against racism, poverty and economic injustice, and violence and human destruction, but also in the mounting efforts to eliminate problems such as sexism, homophobia, and religious bigotry and intolerance from the global landscape. The conclusion is that King's ideas and models of social protest are not only alive but also growing in vitality and popularity in the 21st century, especially as humans worldwide are struggling daily with the lingering, antiquated thinking and behavior around race and ethnicity, the widening gap between 'the haves' and 'the have-nots,' the mounting cycles of violence, torture, and terrorism, and the frustrating and growing chasms resulting from religious pluralism and the subordination and marginalization of certain sectors of the human family based on gender and sexuality"--Provided by publisher.

 

 Cover ArtThe Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The boundaries of law, politics, and religion by Lewis V. Baldwin with Rufus Burrow, Jr., Barbara A. Holmes, and Susan Holmes Winfield; foreword by Clayborne Carson

Call Number: E185.97.K5 L35 2002
ISBN: 0268033552
Publication Date: 2002-03-01
To witness in Dixie : King, the New South, and southern civil religion / Lewis V. Baldwin -- On the relation of the Christian to the state : the development of a Kingian ethic / Lewis V. Baldwin -- American political traditions and the Christian faith : King's thought and praxis / Lewis V. Baldwin -- King, the Constitution, and the courts : remaining awake through a great revolution / Barbara A. Holmes and Susan Holmes Winfield -- Personalism, the objective moral order, and moral law in the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. / Rufus Burrow, Jr. -- Beyond national borders : King, the United Nations, and global politics / Lewis V. Baldwin -- Epilogue / by Roger D. Hatch.
Cover ArtDeath of a King: The real story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final year by Travis Smiley with David Ritz (As told to)
Call Number: E185.97.K5 S56 2016
ISBN: 9780316332774
Publication Date: 2016-01-12
Chronicles the twelve months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, discussing how he rose above denunciations by the press and assaults on his character to address racism, poverty, and militarism.

 

Cover ArtReclaiming the Great World House by Vicki L. Crawford (Editor); Lewis V. Baldwin (Editor)
Call Number: E185.97 .K5 R397 2019
ISBN: 9780820356044
Publication Date: 2019-10-30
"Reclaiming the Great World House in the 21st Century: Cross-Disciplinary Explorations of the Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., does just that. Established and emerging scholars explore Martin Luther King, Jr.'s global vision and his lasting relevance to a globalized rights culture. The editors further explain that this edited collection looks at King afresh in his own historical context, while also refocusing his legacy of ideas and social praxis in broader directions for today and tomorrow. Employing King's metaphor of 'the great world house,' with major attention to racism, poverty, and war - or what he called 'the evil triumvirate'--the focus is on King's appraisal of and approach to the global-human struggle in the 1950s and 60s, and on the extent to which his social witness and praxis takes on new hues and pertinence not only in the ongoing struggles against racism, poverty and economic injustice, and violence and human destruction, but also in the mounting efforts to eliminate problems such as sexism, homophobia, and religious bigotry and intolerance from the global landscape. The conclusion is that King's ideas and models of social protest are not only alive but also growing in vitality and popularity in the 21st century, especially as humans worldwide are struggling daily with the lingering, antiquated thinking and behavior around race and ethnicity, the widening gap between 'the haves' and 'the have-nots,' the mounting cycles of violence, torture, and terrorism, and the frustrating and growing chasms resulting from religious pluralism and the subordination and marginalization of certain sectors of the human family based on gender and sexuality"--Provided by publisher.

Find more by reading about Martin Luther King Jr. by searching the Library Catalog or OneSearch from the library's homepage to browse a wide variety of books and articles available on King's life and legacy. 

 


 

 


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