MLK A Celebration in Word and Image

A striking collection of twenty-nine black-and-white images combined with powerful quotations by Dr. King, MLK: A Celebration in Word and Image is a photobiography of one of America's greatest figures. Here we see King in all his aspects: as son and student, husband and father, preacher and courageous leader of the civil rights movement, martyr for the cause of racial justice and, finally, American icon. Award-winning photojournalist Bob Adelman intimately captures King's background, from his comfortable middle-class upbringing in Atlanta and his public outings with his wife, Coretta, to his steady ascendance as a forceful preacher thrust into prominence during the civil rights era. The triumph of King's "I Have a Dream" speech is beautifully detailed, but we also see a weary King, weighed down by assassination attempts, harassment, inner-city riots, and the Vietnam War. Toward the end, King displays an eerie sense of calm in a photo taken at the Mason Hall in Memphis the night before his murder, where he declared that he'd "been to the mountaintop."