Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Southern Christian Leadership Conference

David Garrow

HarperCollins, 1986 - Biography & Autobiography - 800 pages

Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive book ever written about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on more than 700 interviews with all of King's surviving associates, as well as with those who opposed him, and enhanced by the author's access to King's personal papers and tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents, this is a towering portrait of a man's metamorphosis into a legend. Garrow traces King's transformation from a young, earnest pastor of a modest church into the foremost spokesperson of the black freedom struggle. The book's central unifying theme is King's growing awareness of the symbolic meaning of the cross as his sense of mission deepened, matured, and was transmuted by sometimes-reluctant degrees into acceptance of a life and a role that would end by demanding the ultimate in self-sacrifice. This is a powerful portrait of a man at the epicenter of one of the most dramatic periods in our history.

About the author

David J. Garrow is an American historian, born in Massachusetts in 1953. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and earned his Ph.D. from Duke University. He has taught at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the City University of New York, The Cooper Union, the College of William and Mary, American University, and Emory University. Currently, he is Professor of Law & History and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is the author of numerous essays, articles, and academic writings. His books include Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade; Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Protest at Selma. His book, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Biography, and the seventh annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. His latest book is Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Author: David Garrow
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: HarperCollins, 1986
• ISBN: 0688166326, 9780688166328
• Length: 800 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General; Biography & Autobiography / General; Biography & Autobiography / Historical