“Leisure Reads” for January 2026 and MLK Day
January 2026's “Leisure Reads” is in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life and legacy will be celebrated on around the country on January 19. Below you will find books by Dr. King himself, as well as ebooks about him, his circle, and the Civil Rights Movement. This bibliography corresponds to the MLK Day display in our Library Lobby.
The Trumpet of Conscience by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In November and December 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered five lectures for the renowned Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Immediately released under the title Conscience for Change after King’s assassination, it was republished as The Trumpet of Conscience. Each oration speaks prophetically to today’s perils, addressing issues of equality, conscience and war, the mobilization of young people, and nonviolence. The book concludes with “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” a powerful lecture about nonviolence as a path to world peace that was broadcast live from Ebenezer Baptist Church on Christmas Eve in 1967.” – Publisher’s Summary
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind-for the first time-has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.” – Publisher’s Summary
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his most memorable and inspiring speech to a country divided by riots over racial injustice. With the words "I have a dream," King invoked his vision of a racially harmonious America, where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." This edition features the complete text and a foreword by King's daughter, the Reverend Bernice A. King. I Have a Dream presents a moving portrait of a visionary at the peak of his influence.” – Publisher’s Summary
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“‘We want to be free.’ So begins the remarkable last speech given by our century's greatest civil rights leader and orator, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King spoke those words to a cheering crowd on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, as he stood on a motel balcony, the thirty-nine-year-old minister was shot and killed. Eloquently revealing the courage, conviction, and faith that roused the conscience of a nation and the world, I've Been to the Mountaintop offers a determined vision of justice, a timeless message of faith, and, in retrospect, a poignantly prophetic portrait of a brave man at peace with himself.” – Publisher’s Summary
Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Martin Luther King, Jr. rarely had time to answer his critics. But on April 16, 1963, he was confined to the Birmingham jail, serving a sentence for participating in civil rights demonstrations. ‘Alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell,’ King pondered a letter that fellow clergymen had published urging him to drop his campaign of nonviolent resistance and to leave the battle for racial equality to the courts. In response, King drafted his most extensive and forceful written statement against social injustice—a remarkable essay that focused the world's attention on Birmingham and spurred the famous March on Washington. Bristling with the energy and resonance of his great speeches, Letter from the Birmingham Jail is both a compelling defense of nonviolent demonstration and a rallying cry for an end to social discrimination that is just as powerful today as it was more than twenty years ago.” – Publisher’s Summary
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In these short meditative and sermonic pieces, some of them composed in jails and all of them crafted during the tumultuous years of the civil rights struggle, Dr. King articulated and espoused in a deeply personal compelling way his commitment to justice and to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual conversion that makes his work as much a blueprint today for Christian discipleship as it was then.” – Publisher’s Summary
“‘We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop. . . . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.’ These prophetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his ‘promised land’ of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life. These words and others are commemorated here in the only major one-volume collection of this seminal twentieth-century American prophet's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections. A Testament of Hope contains Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential thoughts on nonviolence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.” – Publisher’s Summary
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Drawing on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s unpublished writings and other materials housed in Stanford University's archives, a civil rights scholar assembles a continuous first-person narrative of King's life....It begins with his boyhood as the son of a preacher, his education as a minister, his ascendancy as a leader of civil rights, and his complex relationships with leading political and social figures of the day.” – Publisher’s Summary
In this collection Stanford scholar Dr. Clayborne Carson has compiled the most moving sermons ever delivered by Dr. King, which remain incredibly meaningful decades later. Covering the full range of his career as a minister, it begins with the earliest extant audio recording of his preaching, and ends with the very last sermon he ever gave, only a few days before his assassination. A Knock at Midnight shows how Dr. King practiced what he preached as he became the father of the Civil Rights Movement.
Ripples of Hope by Josh Gottheimer
“Including a never-before published speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., this is the first compilation of its kind, bringing together the most influential and important voices from two hundred years of America's struggle for civil rights, including essential speeches from leaders, both famous and obscure. With voices as diverse as Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Betty Friedan, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, this anthology constitutes a unique chronicle of the nation's civil rights movements and the critical issues they've tackled, from slavery and suffrage to immigration and affirmative action. This is an indispensable compilation of the words—the ripples of hope—that, collectively, have changed American history.” – Publisher’s Summary
A Victory for Democracy: NAACP v. Alabama and Freedom of Association by C. W. Eagles
“In a landmark First Amendment case that Martin Luther King Jr. called 'a victory for democracy,' NAACP v. Alabama (1958) established the right to form groups to share and promote ideas without government interference. Charles W. Eagles traces the case from its origins in local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) activism and in white segregationist politics, through battles in state and federal courtrooms, to four decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court. He explains the obstruction by Alabama officials, the NAACP lawyers' persistence, the Justices' deliberations, and the case's unexpected impact on later Court decisions.” – Publisher’s Summary
King and the Other America by Sylvie Laurent
“Shortly before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a radical redistribution of economic and political power to transform the whole of society. In 1967, he envisioned and designed the Poor People's Campaign, an interracial effort that was carried out after his death. This campaign brought together impoverished Americans of all races to demand better wages, better jobs, better homes, and better education. King and the Other America explores this overlooked and obscured episode of the late civil rights movement, deepening our understanding of King's commitment to social justice and also of the long-term trajectory of the civil rights movement….” – Publisher’s Summary
Living the Dream by Daniel T. Fleming
“Living the Dream tells the history behind the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Though Coretta Scott King's mission to honor her husband's commitment to nonviolence was upheld, conservative politicians have sought to use the holiday to advance a whitewashed, nationalistic and even reactionary vision of King's life and thought. This book reveals the lengths that activists had to go to elevate an African American man to the pantheon of national heroes, how conservatives took advantage of the commemoration to bend the arc of King's legacy toward something he never would have expected, and how grassroots causes, unions and antiwar demonstrators continued to try to claim this sanctified day as their own.” – Publisher’s Summary
“The labor of black workers has been crucial to economic development in the United States. Yet because of racism and segregation, their contribution remains largely unknown. This work tells the hidden history of African American workers in their own words from the 1930s to the present. It provides first-hand accounts of the experiences of black southerners living under segregation in Memphis, Tennessee, the place where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated during a strike by black sanitation workers. Eloquent and personal, these oral histories comprise a unique primary source and provide a new way of understanding the black labor experience during the industrial era. Together, the stories demonstrate how black workers resisted apartheid in American industry and underscore the active role of black working people in history.” – Publisher’s Summary