Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther
King, Jr., And The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference by David
Garrow
I Loved This Book; 4 1/2 Stars
In this 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner, David J. Garrow, through extensive
interviews, and access to F.B.I. transcripts, delves deeply into both Dr.
Martin Luther King’s leadership role and his private life. He attributes
Kings moral and physical courage to his religious faith: King believed that
he had literally been called to do the Lords work. But from 1965, when the
F.B.I. taped King in sexual encounters and sent the tape to S.C.L.L.
headquarters, his associates noted a spiritual depression, even a death
wish. Fear that exposure would ruin his public work dogged him until his
assassination in 1968. While documenting the F.B.I.s dirty tricks, Garrow
never loses sight of Kings achievement and vision, nor of the poignancy of
Kings belief that the cross is something that you bear and ultimately that
you die on.

Personal Review: Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr.,
And The Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David
Garrow
BEARING THE CROSS is a very detailed book on the life and times of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., American hero, civil rights activist, preacher and
admirer of Ghandi and his nonviolent approach to social change. King
came to the forefront of the mid-century civil rights movement when Rosa
Parks, a seamstress, refused to move from her seat on a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama. It wasn't the first time a black woman had been
tossed out of her seat in the Black section of the bus when a white
customer needed a seat. Along with the removal usually went insults and
threats and Ms. Parks just wasn't having it that time. The local activists
asked King, a new preacher at Dexter Baptist Church, if he would take on
the responsibility. Reluctantly, he agreed to do so and thus began the
legend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Over the years, Dr. King has taken on
an almost mythical position in the civil rights movement. Those who were
present at the time find themselves wondering if the Dr. King they
remember is the same man that is now raised in the American
consciousness. He is frequently given a saintly aura that leads children
reading about him in history books to believe there was never anyone like
him before and that there can never be another like him again. David J.
Garrow dispels those myths as he lets us in on the life of the man who led
this country to reconsider its segregationist behavior. We see Dr. King
when he is depressed and feeling unworthy of his position in the
movement, when he is being a chauvinist about his wife, those moments
when he smokes and drinks too much and Garrow gives credence to the
rampant rumors that he had women in his life other than Coretta.In
addition to the very humanness of King, we also get to witness the foibles
of the United States as it dealt with its Black citizens. We get to know the
actions of three presidents of the United States, Eisenhower, Kennedy and
Johnson, as they vacillated about the civil rights movement. None of them
wanted to upset the Southern voting population so they tended to send
mixed messages: on one hand they knew that Blacks were being treated
unfairly but to offer help through legislation, federal troop protection for
besieged nonviolent marchers or verbal support for the movement was
beyond where they wanted to go. The levels to which the FBI stooped to
discredit King are by themselves, phenomenal. Each of the presidents was
definitely aware that King's rights as a citizen of this country were being
abused as his home, his phones, his motels, hotels and friends were
wiretapped. The agency also used the illegally acquired information to
terrorize and blackmail Dr. King. Not one of them objected to this
horrendous invasion of privacy. BEARING THE CROSS is a definite must
read for every caring citizen of the United States who has a desire to
understand and appreciate the civil rights movement, the life and times of
Dr. King and the role that the country has played in keeping some of its
citizens in bondage. I would also recommend it as a reference book for the
civil rights movement.Reviewed by alice Holman

of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
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