Martin Luther King, Jr.: Love Conquers Evil

This biography about Martin Luther King, Jr. is worth reading because it’s not only based on research, interviews, personal letters, White House telephone recordings, etc., but also FBI classified documents that were released recently.

Dr. King was the most public figure, activist and preacher who was very much being tapped by the FBI (at that time the FBI was led by J. Edgar Hoover) since he led the civil right movement to demand equal rights for the black people in America. He also got several attempts of assassination.

He actually was a pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He had studied at Morehouse College, continued to Crozer Theological Seminary at Chester, Pennsylvania, and Ph.D of theology at Boston University.

However his journey of life was different from the plan after he saw black people were at risk of murder for being colored, segregated in any social life: schools, buses, even toilets, and got injustice treatment in the society.

He announced that he was a man who had been called by God to act from an early age. He lived his life accordingly. The revolution that led by Dr. King was built on Christian love, on non violence, and on faith in humankind. Hence despite being very much active in the civil rights movement, he remained preaching to the congregation wherever he went.

His famous speech “I have a dream” ignited the spirit of resistance throughout America, which was later proven to make black people in America achieve the equal position as others. “I have a dream that one day the country will live out the true meaning of its creed and make it a reality that all men are created equal,” he said.

The author of the biography, Jonathan Eig wrote it with a technique of storyteller that makes the thick book nice to read. The book does not only tell the heroism of Dr. King, but also revealed the dark side of his life, his complicated relationship with his wife and family.

Dr. King received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his leadership in the nonviolent struggle for civil rights. But his struggle was stopped by a bullet that struck him in the face, and ripped through his neck when he was stood-up on a balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

He died on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39.

***

Serpong, 5 Sep 2025

Titus J.

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