King The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is our hope that this beautiful collection of images taken by some of America's leading photographers will serve readers eager to time travel, to project themselves back into the most transformative decades this country experienced after the Civil War, and to better appreciate the complexity, genius, and memorable public ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., as he journeyed from Montgomery to Memphis. Each and every photo on the pages that follow is a portal-a doorway-into a watershed life produced by America's ongoing, unfinished experiment in democracy. -Charles Johnson, from the Introduction Receiving accolades everywhere when it originally appeared in hardcover, this searing documentary volume chronicles and celebrates the life of one of our country's giant figures-Martin Luther King, Jr.-from the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott to the slain civil rights leader's funeral in 1968. A comprehensive collection of images by many of the finest photographers of the 20th century is presented here in this first true photobiography of a hero's journey. Never before has Martin Luther King's life been so richly documented from so many different points of view. Photojournalist Bob Adelman has gathered a powerful array of photographic images-both famous and obscure. These photographs, combined with a moving text by noted writer and National Book Award winner Charles Johnson, detail the pivotal events of King's public and private lives. To add a further dimension, noted civil rights activist Julian Bond contributes a brief but moving foreword especially for this new paperback volume. Johnson reminds us that King "was not only a civil rights activist, but also this country's preeminent moral philosopher, a spiritual aspirant, a father and husband," and he is presented here in all his aspects: as powerful preacher, courageous leader of the civil rights movement, husband and father, and martyr for the cause of racial justice. In one photographic moment we observe King peering calmly through the bars of a jail cell in Birmingham; in another, he tosses his daughter in the air in the family's backyard. In yet another, we see the indelible image of King speaking the immortal words "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In a tragic scene from Memphis, in the seconds after King's assassination, anguished witnesses point in the direction of the gunshots, and in the aftermath in Atlanta, a crush of mourners follows the slain leader's mule-drawn casket through the streets. Not only does this book present the story of this great man's life, but it also traces the history of the civil rights movement itself. In hundreds of photographs, we witness a country being changed and a new era being formed. Through it all, we are given a privileged look at Martin Luther King, Jr., himself-a truly great man who, in life, was both human and a humanitarian and who, in death, has become an American icon.Adelman, Bob is the author of 'King The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.', published 2004 under ISBN 9780810991828 and ISBN 0810991829.