The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Lewis V. Baldwin

When students walk into my class on Martin Luther King Jr. for the first time, they are unlikely to know that King favored Sweden's democratic socialism over U.S. capitalism, but they certainly know the sensational stories about King's plagiarism and his relationships with women other than his wife. If these college students represent society, Lewis Baldwin and his colleagues face massive obstacles in their attempt to define King's legacy.

Defining that legacy is also difficult because, as Clayborne Carson notes in the foreword, a disappointing effect of celebrating a national holiday in honor of King has been the watering down of his radical critiques of U.S. society. We teach our children that King articulated a wonderful dream in 1963, but we rarely let them know that his dream turned nightmarish soon after, when four little girls were killed in a bombing at a Birmingham church.

Fortunately, Lewis Baldwin, professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University, is up to the task he has set for himself. He has already written extensively on King's cultural and political legacy, and he carefully documents his research--something often absent from King scholarship. Especially refreshing in this collection of essays is Baldwin's combing of the early King writings available through the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project.