[Note: As regular readers of this blog know, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., remains one of my heroes, and I try to recognize Dr. King and his accomplishments annually, usually around his national holiday. Over the past few years, I’ve broadened my approach to Dr. King’s contributions to American history (e.g., here and here) Yet, I keep coming back to King’s role as the face and the voice of the Modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

So, this is another of those early posts, delving into my lifelong interest in the career of Dr. King, how I first learned about him, as a young boy growing up in an industrial suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. This year, I want to go back to the beginning, reprinting a post that first appeared in 2012, and again in 2015. Over the years, it has been one of the most popular posts at “Retired But Not Shy,” as well as my personal favorite. I hope you’ll enjoy it!]

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Civil Rights–and Wrongs: Reflections on The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and His Legacy

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For those interested in reading more of my reflections on history, here are links to my books on the subject:

Rancorous Enmities and Blind Partialities:  Parties and Factions in Georgia, 1807-1845 (University Press of America, 2015)

In Pursuit of Dead Georgians:  One Historian’s Excursions into the History of His Adopted State (iUniverse, 2015)

Politics on the Periphery:  Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1783-1806 (University of Delaware Press, 1986)