Edited by James M. Washington
HarperOne
1986, paperback
SKU: 9780060646912
"We've got some difficult days ahead," civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., told a crowd gathered at Memphis's Clayborn Temple on April 3, 1968. "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.
Reviews:
"The most powerful and enduring words of the man who touched the conscience of the nation and the world." - Kansas City Star
"Reveals the breadth and depth of [King's] philosophical thinking, his tough-mindedness, and the sophistication and forensic skill that he could bring to argument."- The New Yorker
"Here, in [King's] own words, are the philosophy and strategy of nonviolent protest .... King's persuasiveness comes through again and again ....This book richly demonstrates . . . [that] King had a piercing intellect."- New York Times Book Review
"The volume and quality of this intellectual work is breathtaking .... His writings reveal an intellectual struggle and growth as fierce and alive as any chronicle of his political life could possibly be."- Washington Post
"Brings us King in many roles--philosopher, theologian, orator, essayist, interviewee, and author."- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review