The Essential Nature of Momentum in Civil Rights Movements

Welcome to the final topic of Origin Story season seven: the extraordinary life and legacy of Dr Martin Luther King. By Origin Story standards, there’s an unusual moral clarity to this story — a genuinely good man up against genuine horrors — but that doesn’t make it a straightforward one. The mainstream caricature of King as a kindly, colour-blind saint is not just a simplification but a cynical misrepresentation, designed to drain his example of its power.

Born in Atlanta in 1929, the son of a prominent pastor, King was a brilliant student who developed a sophisticated worldview grounded in both Christianity and philosophy. His Gandhi-inspired belief in nonviolent resistance became central to the civil rights struggle when he was thrust onto the frontlines during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-6 and quickly became the most admired black man in America. He was just 27.

King’s new role as leader and symbol of the movement was both an honour and a burden. Abused, threatened, assaulted and jailed, he wrestled with his own feelings of inadequacy and guilt as well as the violent forces of white racism and the obsessive attention of the FBI. We follow him through his great triumphs — Montgomery, Birmingham, the March on Washington, Selma — but also his setbacks, his mistakes and his complicated relationships with presidents and fellow activists.

What made this previously unknown preacher the unrivalled leader of the civil rights movement for more than 12 years? How did he develop, and evolve, his philosophy of nonviolence? Who were his loyal allies, vicious antagonists and complicated frenemies? How did he play to his strengths and transcend his weaknesses? And what gave him the strength to carry on in the face of both the American South’s barbaric racism and his own

ceaseless insecurities?

This is an inspiring and often surprising story of moral courage and strategic leadership pitted against terrible odds — one with vital lessons for anybody who seeks to change the world for the better.

Plus! Another Origin Story playlist, featuring songs about and inspired by Martin Luther King. It’s sequenced to tell his story chronologically.

Reading list

• Ralph Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography (1989)

• Jonathan Eig, King: The Life of Martin Luther King (2023)

• Marshall Frady, Martin Luther King, Jr: A Life (2001)

• Martin Luther King Jr, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958)

• Martin Luther King Jr, Why We Can’t Wait (1963)

• Martin Luther King Jr, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

• Dr Martin Luther King Jr, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches, edited by James Melvin Washington (1986)

• Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr (1982)

• Jason Sokol, The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr (2018)

Articles

• Renata Adler, ‘The Selma March’, The New Yorker (1965)

• Jelani Cobb, ‘Martin Luther King, Jr.’s History Lessons’, The New Yorker (2022)

• Alex Haley (uncredited), Playboy interview: Martin Luther King (1965)

• Howell Raines, ‘Driven to Martyrdom’, New York Times (1986)

• Kelefa Sanneh, ‘Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Perilous Power of Respectability’, The New Yorker (2023)

• Time, ‘THE SOUTH: Attack on the Conscience’, Time (1957)

• Time, ‘America’s Gandhi: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’, Time (1964)

• Calvin Trillin, ‘The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi’, The New Yorker (1964)

Video

• 60 Minutes interview with Martin Luther King (1966)

• BBC Face to Face interview with Martin Luther King (1961)

• Martin Luther King, ‘I Have a Dream’ speech (1963)

... Full reading list continues on Patreon

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production

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