Introduction: Martin Luther King, Jr., and political philosophy / Brandon M. Terry and Tommie Shelby -- Part I. Traditions: The Du Bois-Washington debate and the idea of dignity / Robert Gooding-Williams -- Moral perfectionism / Paul C. Taylor -- The roots of civil disobedience in republicanism and slavery / Bernard R. Boxill -- Showdown for nonviolence: the theory and practice of nonviolent politics / Karuna mantena -- Part II. Ideals: From anger to love: self-purification and political resistance / Martha C. Nussbaum -- The prophetic tension between race consciousness and the ideal of colorblindness / Ronald Sundstrom -- Integration, freedom, and the affirmation of life / Danielle Allen -- A vindication of voting rights / Derrick Darby -- Part III. Justice: Prisons of the forgotten: ghettos and economic injustice / Tommie Shelby -- Gender trouble: manhood, inclusion, and justice / Shatema Threadcraft and Brandon M. Terry -- Living "in the red": time, debt, and justice / Lawrie Balfour -- The costs of violence: militarism, geopolitics, and accountability / Lionel McPherson -- Part IV. Conscience: The path of conscientious citizenship / Michele Moody-Adams -- Requiem for a dream: the problem-space of black power / Brandon M. Terry -- Hope and despair: past and present / Cornel West -- Afterword: a sense of somebodiness: dignity as a weapon of love / Jonathan L. Walton.
Summary:
Martin Luther King, Jr., may be America's most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and streets names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King's assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of King's writings and political thought remains underappreciated. In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the marginalization of King's ideas reflects a romantic, consensus history that renders the civil rights movement inherently conservative--an effort not at radical reform but at "living up to" enduring ideals laid down by the nation's founders. On this view, King marshaled lofty rhetoric to help redeem the ideas of universal (white) heroes, but produced little original thought. This failure to engage deeply and honestly with King's writings allows him to be conscripted into political projects he would not endorse, including the pernicious form of "color blindness" that insists, amid glaring race-based injustice, that racism has been overcome. Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with King's understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice. In King's exciting and learned work, the authors find an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our present, and rethink the legacy of this towering figure.-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.