A great account of Dr. King's life. I learned things I had never read in other publicatioins. Good analogy of the labor movement in the Civil Rights Time. I really enjoyed this read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although I received the book in this manner, it did not affect my opinion of this book nor my review.

<p>I hate it when I read a book and I then struggle to say much about it. So let me try and force a bunch of words out for no other reason than I got this book for free in exchange for a review, and so I will keep my promise and review it.</p>

<p>So I read <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20944789/book/155054990">To The Promised Land</a>, spurred on by a comment from a university course I took many years ago: Most people know Martin Luther King Jr. from his anti-segregation work and his <i>I Have A Dream</i> speech (and looky looky -- I reviewed <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/10556019/reviews/87115649">a book about that speech</a> a few years ago) from 1963. He was assassinated in 1968. So there's five years where, for the most part, the popular narrative stops. Why? Because he spent a lot of those five years advocating not just for civil-rights for African Americans, but also advocating for the poor, against classicism, and working with unions. And while voting rights and desegregation was one thing, working for economic equality was a whole other kettle of fish.</p>

<p>And so, I got <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20944789/book/155054990">To The Promised Land</a> because of that university professor many years ago and because <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20944789/book/155054990">To The Promised Land</a> has a sub (under?) title: <i>Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice</i>. Okay. So I was going to learn about those missing five years.</p>

<p>So I did. I read <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20944789/book/155054990">To The Promised Land</a> (in April, and now it's June). I made precisely zero notes on my kobo. I highlighted nothing. I read it and I remember basically nothing. My fault for being disengaged with the process or the book's fault for informing without captivating me with language or story-telling or whatever it was that didn't have the words worm their way deep into my brain? But this is the second book in a row about <a href="http://www.reluctantm.com/?p=6528">someone working to make the world better that I've read</a> to which my response has been a precisely mid-range, not-even-angry-about-it, <i>meh</i>. </p>

<p>Martin Luther King Jr. tried to make the world better for all Americans, then they shot him, and that makes me sad. Later I read a book about him. There was a sanitation strike in the book. He still got shot. I am still sad, but I do know that my being sad is not really what this is all about. Still sad though. Still a big blank space in my brain where this book should have gone. Sorry.</p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20944789/book/155054990">To The Promised Land</a> by Michael K. Honey went on sale April 3, 2018.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

Once upon a time in High School I had to do an essay on a person that inspired me. Whilst many of my peers chose some popstar or football (soccer) player or other, I chose Martin Luther King. Unfortunately, I did not remember anything I found out about him whilst researhing for that all those years ago, but when I saw this book I knew I would love to revisit this extraordinary and inspiring individual.

This is not just a book on Martin Luther King. It looks at a very turbulent time in not only black history, but in the history of the United States in general. Poverty was a nationwide issue, and not only for the black community, but across the board. The black population were still not seen as equal to the whites and mechanisation caused a slew of job losses. However, Martin Luther King fought for civil rights for all the poor, not just the African American community.

This book highlights the economic struggles of the times against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. The inequality makes you angry and breaks your heart. Martin Luther King remained an example of non-violence throughout, eventhough he was portrayed differently in the press. How can you stay calm amongst such hate and misunderstanding?

I learned so much about black and American history from this book. It has a clear timeline without being too structured. The various union and party abbreviations all blended into each other after a while, but I do not think that mattered too much.

This is one of those books that leaves you feeling a little bit wiser than when you started it and in my book that is always a good thing.

Martin Luther King’s political life seemingly had two phases: the first from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 until the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, when his primary focus was on removing social and legal segregation, and the second comprising what turned out to be the last three year’s of his life (to which the Poor People’s March formed the coda), in which his attention centred upon addressing economic injustice.

King’s brutal early death, aged 39, meant that in crucial respects his dream for America went unfulfilled for, as King himself put it “… we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters” for “What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”

Michael K. Honey’s ‘To the Promised Land. Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice’ performs the very useful service of pointing out that although King’s commitment to greater economic equality and the empowerment of the poor of all colours increasingly dominated his actions from 1965, his commitment to those causes was an important strand running throughout his entire political life.

Honey ably draws upon what he describes as “a plethora of scholarship”, including his own substantial work in the field, to make it possible for a wider audience to appreciate that King preached the Christian Social Gospel long before he expressed solidarity with the sanitation workers of Memphis. To put it another way, Honey indirectly vindicates J. Edgar Hoover’s view that King challenged the very warp and weft of the fabric of US society.