Title: M.L.K.: Journey of a King2008 NCTE Orbis Pictus Winner
Author: Tonya Bolden
Published: 2007
Interesting Facts: (1) "...there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression...we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong" (pg 22). (2) In 1957 during MLK's participation in the Montgomery bus boycott MLK received an anonymous phone call, "Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess...we're going to blow your brains out and blow up your house" (pg 26). Martin prayed, "I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid...I am at the end of my powers." Martin listened to his inner voice, " 'Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth, and God will be at your side forever' " (pg 26). (3) "That night, ML. was at a mass meeting when told that his home had been bombed...he was 'on the verge of corroding hate...' He dug deep for the strength to love...he understood well what the love Jesus preached really meant. He knew that it was neither the love that he felt for...his friends, nor...for Coretta, but rather agape...a higher, harder love: a love that has nothing to do with liking a person, a love worthy of people who do you no good and even do you wrong. Agape says to see past a person's sins to the soul God loves" (pg 28-29). (4) "Nothing could tear M.L. away from the movement. Not defeat in Albany. Not the lure of a guaranteed annual inome of $100,000...Not nonstop death threats. Not a pummeling from a burly neo-Nazi, Roy James, during an address. M.L. made no attempt at self-defense. At one point, he even lowered his hands from his face. 'I'm not interested in pressing charges,' he later said. ' I'm interested in changing the kind of system that produces this kind of man...' " (pg 67) (5) MLK's letter to clergymen who felt that blacks fighting for the promises of democracy were being too impatient, "We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights...Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, 'Wait...' when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous cloud of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people...when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of 'nobodiness--' then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait" (pg 74).
Curriculum/Pathfinder Suggestion:
US National History Standards, Grades K-4, Standard 4C: Describe how historical figures in the United States and other parts of the world have advanced the rights of individuals and promoted the common good, and identify character traits such as persistence, problem solving, moral responsibility, and respect for others that made them successful.
US National History Standards, Grades 5-12, Postwar United States, Standard 2C: Evaluate how Vietnamese and Americans experienced the war and how the war continued to affect postwar politics and culture.
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