Beyond the Meme: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday, as the nation remembered and celebrated the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you may have seen many inspiring memes with quotes by Dr. King posted in your social media.

Did the memes make you curious to know more about the Civil Rights Movement leader?

The SWC Library owns many books, e-books, and videos about King and the Civil Rights Movement. The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement by Taylor Branch is just one of the many books you can check out for four weeks with your SWC photo ID card.

Another great source to learn more about Dr. King is the SWC Library's database called Biography in Context. In one place, you can find primary sources, speeches, videos, images, sermons, academic journal articles, and more about Dr. King.

Did you see memes like the one above quoting Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail? Check out a copy of this work in its entirety from the Library and read more.

"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," declared Martin Luther King, Jr. He had come to that city of racist terror convinced that massive protest could topple Jim Crow. But the insurgency faltered. To revive it, King made a sacrificial act on Good Friday, April 12, 1963: he was arrested. Alone in his cell, reading a newspaper, he found a statement from eight "moderate" clergymen who branded the protests extremist and "untimely." King drafted a furious rebuttal that emerged as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"--A work that would take its place among the masterpieces of American moral argument alongside those of Thoreau and Lincoln. His insistence on the urgency of "Freedom Now" would inspire not just the marchers of Birmingham and Selma, but peaceful insurgents from Tiananmen to Tahrir Squares. Scholar Jonathan Rieder delves deeper than anyone before into the Letter-illuminating both its timeless message and its crucial position in the history of civil rights. Rieder has interviewed King's surviving colleagues, and located rare audiotapes of King speaking in the mass meetings of 1963. Gospel of Freedom gives us a startling perspective on the Letter and the man who wrote it: an angry prophet who chastised American whites, found solace in the faith and resilience of the slaves, and knew that moral appeal without struggle never brings justice--Publisher description.

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