Misremembering Dr. King Revisiting the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. [Paperback]

We all know the name. Martin Luther King Jr., the great American civil rights leader. But most people today know relatively little about King, the campaigner against militarism, materialism, and racismwhat he called the giant triplets. Jennifer J. Yanco takes steps to redress this imbalance. My objective is to highlight the important aspects of Dr. Kings work which have all but disappeared from popular memory, so that more of us can really 'see' King. After briefly telling the familiar story of Kings civil rights campaigns and accomplishments, she considers the lesser-known concerns that are an essential part of his legacy. Yanco reminds us that King was a strong critic of militarism who argued that the United States should take the lead in promoting peaceful solutions rather than imposing its will through military might; that growing materialism and an ethos of greed was damaging the moral and spiritual health of the country; and that in a nation where racism continues unabated, white Americans need to educate themselves about racism and its history and take their part in the weighty task of dismantling it.

2015 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Memory and Forgetting
The Misappropriation of Memory
1. What We Remember
Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement
Dr. King and Nonviolence
2. What We Forget: Dr. King's Warning about the Giant Triplets
Militarism
Materialism
Racism
3. Why It Matters
Whose Problem? White America's Special Responsibility
A Challenge for All of Us
Notes

Yancos important book is a reminder that when we raise a transformative figure to a pedestal, we mustnt overlook their most challenging beliefs, even (or especially) if those beliefs force us to realize how far we still have to go.Recalls a Dr. King more militant and pointed in his critique of American society . . . . For many readers this will be something of a shock.A lucid andl3(