Becoming King

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of a National Leader: Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century

By: Troy Jackson

Narrated by: Andrew L. Barnes

"The history books may write it Reverend King was born in Atlanta, and then came to Montgomery, but we feel that he was born in Montgomery in the struggle here, and now he is moving to Atlanta for bigger responsibilities."

Member of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 1959 Preacher - this simple term describes the 25-year-old PhD in theology who arrived in Montgomery, Alabama, to become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954. His name was Martin Luther King, Jr., but where did this young minister come from? What did he believe, and what role would he play in the growing activism of the civil rights movement of the 1950s?

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.

Drawing on countless interviews and archival sources, Jackson compares King's sermons and religious writings before, during, and after the Montgomery bus boycott. Jackson demonstrates how King's voice and message evolved during his time in Montgomery, reflecting the shared struggles, challenges, experiences, and hopes of the people with whom he worked.

Many studies of the civil rights movement end analyses of Montgomery's struggle with the conclusion of the bus boycott and the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Jackson surveys King's uneasy post-boycott relations with E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks, shedding new light on Parks's plight in Montgomery after the boycott and revealing the internal discord that threatened the movement's hard-won momentum. The controversies within the Montgomery Improvement Association compelled King to position himself as a national figure who could rise above the quarrels within the movement and focus on attaining its greater goals.

Though the Montgomery struggle thrust King into the national spotlight, the local impact on the lives of Blacks from all socioeconomic classes was minimal at the time. As the citizens of Montgomery awaited permanent change, King left the city, taking the lessons he learned there onto the national stage. In the crucible of Montgomery, Martin Luther King, Jr. was transformed from an inexperienced Baptist preacher into a civil rights leader of profound national importance

©2008 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Jackson's storytelling skill and broad perspective make this a worthy addition to the literature of the U.S. civil rights movement." (Publishers Weekly)

"Jackson shows in glowing detail how King raised the sights of a local movement to encompass large moral issues and shaped the black struggle for freedom into a human rights movement with international dimensions...This book is a fundamental freedom movement primer." (Journal of American History)

Honors those involved in Montgomery Bus Boycott

Loved the historical themes that tell the full story of those who participated in this movement towards justice in Montgomery.

good book, weak reader

The book offers useful and interesting context for the familiar story of the 1955 bus boycott. The reader, however, needed guidance and direction. He misreads/mispronounces a number of words (did he leave his reading glasses at home?) and tries to "do voices" for quoted material from MLK and various other figures. His MLK impersonation is so bad as to sound mocking and the women's voices (always a problem with male readers) are foolish sounding. I'm not even going to try describing his attempts to voice various cracker sheriffs and politicians . . .

The book is worth a listen in spite of the reader.

We all have a role to play

In the face of centuries-long struggles, it’s easy to think that problems are “too big” for regular people to have an impact on; that we must wait for the Great Men of history. Jackson’s book is an excellent reminder that it takes all of us for progress to happen.

Jackson’s work outlines the truly remarkable thoughts and deeds of King during the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. But he goes further, showing how dozens (indeed hundreds) of others played critical—if often unsung—roles that led to monumental change. Truly, King did not make Montgomery; the people of Montgomery made King.

Very well written, I found myself looking forward to listening to it each day. Well worth a listen, especially these days.