From Library Journal
Director and senior editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, Carson (history, Stanford Univ.) presents another successful effort by the project to research and document the Montgomery bus boycott and Martin Luther King Jr.'s elevation to prominent Civil Rights proponent. It contains annotated transcriptions of King's vital sermons, speeches, correspondence, published writings, unpublished manuscripts, and so on. Like the preceding volumes (Vol. 1: Called To Serve, Jan. 1929-June, 1951, 1992; Vol. 2: Rediscovering Precious Values, July 1951-Nov. 1955, 1994), it includes a calendar of documents with an extensive list of important scholarly King-related primary and secondary sources covering 1954-56. Overall, it is a comprehensive, in-depth, and focused documentation. Highly recommended for African American studies collections.?Edward G. McCormack Lib., Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long BeachCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In magisterial regularity, volumes of King's complete collected papers, planned to span 14 volumes, emerge one at a time. Only a single year is represented in the current installment, but what a consequential year it was for King and the civil rights movement. The brief but significant chronological range encompasses King's involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott following Rosa Park's arrest for not surrendering her bus seat to a white person. Documents compiled in this volume mark the growth of King's success as a protest leader, his "signal contribution to the Montgomery movement [being] to infuse it with a Christian ethos of nonviolence and explicitly Gandhian precepts of nonviolent action." The format duplicates that of the previous two volumes (which appeared in 1992 and 1994): a lengthy and enlightening biographical introduction preceding gathered correspondence, speeches, and other documents. Not for most browsers, but invaluable for public library research needs. Brad Hooper


The Black Scholar
"Historians and King scholars owe the editors and staff of the King Papers Project a profound debt of gratitude."


Ebony
"One of those rare publishing events that generate as much excitement in the cloistered confines of the academy as they do in the general public."


Book Description
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideashis call for racial equality, his faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, his insistence on the power of nonviolence to bring about a major transformation of American societyare as vital and timely as ever. The wealth of his writings, both published and unpublished, is now preserved in this authoritative, chronologically arranged multi-volume edition. Volume III chronicles the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956 and Dr. King's emergence as a public figure who attracted international attention. Included is the galvanizing speech he gave on the first day of the bus boycott, transcribed from a fragile tape recording and published here in its entirety for the first time. Also included are his remarks to an angry crowd after the bombing of his home and his powerful speech at the 1956 NAACP convention. King's words from this period reveal the evolution of his distinctive blend of Christian and Gandhian ideas and show his appreciation of the broader significance of the Montgomery movement, a protest that revealed the "longing for human dignity that motivates oppressed people all over the world." The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. is a testament to a man whose life and teaching continue to have a profound influence not only on Americans, but on people of all nations.


About the Author
Clayborne Carson is Director and Senior Editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project and Professor of History at Stanford University. He is author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s, which won the 1982 Frederick Jackson Turner Award. Susan A. Carson, Managing Editor, joined the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project in 1987 as librarian and archivist. Peter Holloran is a Contributing Editor with the Papers Project. Dana L. Powell earned her B.A. in History from Howard University and is currently working as a community organizer in Washington, D.C. Stewart Burns, a Stanford historian and resident fellow, is author of Social Movements of the 1960s and coauthor of A People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideas—his call for racial equality, his faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, his insistence on the power of nonviolence to bring about a major transformation of American society—are as vital and timely as ever. The wealth of his writings, both published and unpublished, is now preserved in this authoritative, chronologically arranged multi-volume edition. Volume III chronicles the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956 and Dr. King's emergence as a public figure who attracted international attention. Included is the galvanizing speech he gave on the first day of the bus boycott, transcribed from a fragile tape recording and published here in its entirety for the first time. Also included are his remarks to an angry crowd after the bombing of his home and his powerful speech at the 1956 NAACP convention. King's words from this period reveal the evolution of his distinctive bl of Christian and Gandhian ideas and show his appreciation of the broader significance of the Montgomery movement, a protest that revealed the "longing for human dignity that motivates oppressed people all over the world." The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. is a testament to a man whose life and teaching continue to have a profound influence not only on Americans, but on people of all nations.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal