The Radical King
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A revealing collection that restores Dr. King as being every bit as radical as Malcolm X “The radical King was a democratic socialist who sided with poor and working people in the class struggle taking place in capitalist societies. . . . The response of the radical King to our catastrophic moment can be put in one word: revolution—a revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life, and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens. . . . Could it be that we know so little of the radical King because such courage defies our market-driven world?” —Cornel West, from the Introduction Every year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is celebrated as one of the greatest orators in US history, an ambassador for nonviolence who became perhaps the most recognizable leader of the civil rights movement. But after more than forty years, few people appreciate how truly radical he was. Arranged thematically in four parts, The Radical King includes twenty-three selections, curated and introduced by Dr. Cornel West, that illustrate King’s revolutionary vision, underscoring his identification with the poor, his unapologetic opposition to the Vietnam War, and his crusade against global imperialism. As West writes, “Although much of America did not know the radical King—and too few know today—the FBI and US government did. They called him ‘the most dangerous man in America.’ . . . This book unearths a radical King that we can no longer sanitize.”
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9 primary books#11 in King Legacy
King Legacy is a 9-book series with 9 released primary works first released in 1957 with contributions by Martin Luther King Jr..
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Summary: If all you remember from Martin Luther King Jr is his “I have a dream...” speech, The Radical King will round out his legacy.
Last week I finished up an audiobook collection of Howard Thurman's sermons, prayers, and teachings. What I loved about it was that it was actually Thurman's voice. The audio quality was not up to current standards, but there was value in hearing his actual voice. The problem with the collection was that it was mostly snippets of content, rarely more than 10 minutes of any particular talk.
The Radical King, edited by Cornel West has the opposite problem. This is full-length sermons or speeches, but they are read by modern celebrity narrators. All of the narrators do a fine job and the audio quality is excellent, but it is not King's voice and King's voice is one of the most recognizable of the last century. The reality is that for both of these collections, there are just limitations based on what is available. Cornel West is trying to give insight into the breadth of King's thinking. Radical seems to promise a bit too much, King was radical for his time, but while there was an article celebrating, Norman Thomas, a prominent socialist, there was also more than one instance of King showing why he was not a communist or socialist.
The Radical King does a good job showing the changes toward the end of his life, paying more attention to economic issues, speaking to a trade union, or his anti-Vietnam bent. He also addresses the Black Power movement, colonialism, antisemitism, and throughout it all, his strong commitment to anti-violence. There are prominent talks or articles here, like The Drum Major Instinct, the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I've Been to the Mountaintop and Where Do We Go From Here. But the emphasis is on is lesser know work.
Cornel West is not particularly trying to show his Christianity here, but as always with King, that faith shines through in almost everything that Martin Luther King Jr says and does.
