Cover: The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr., from Harvard University PressCover: The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me in PAPERBACK

The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me

The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Acknowledgments
    • 1. The Artistry of Argument
  • Part I. Inside the Circle of the Tribe
    • 2. The Geometry of Belonging
    • 3. Brotherhood and Brotherhood
    • 4. Backstage and Blackstage
    • 5. Race Men and Real Men
    • 6. The Prophetic Backstage
  • Part II. Son of a (Black) Preacher Man
    • 7. Flight from the Folk?
    • 8. Homilies of Black Liberation
    • 9. Raw and Refined
  • Part III. King in the Mass Meetings
    • 10. Beloved Black Community
    • 11. The Physics of Deliverance
    • 12. The Rationality of Defiance
    • 13. The Courage to Be
    • 14. Free Riders and Freedom Riders
  • Part IV. Crossing over into Beloved Community
    • 15. Artifice and Authenticity
    • 16. Practicing What You Preach
    • 17. Validating the Movement
    • 18. The Allure of Rudeness
    • 19. Black Interludes in the Crossover Moment
  • Notes
  • Index
  • Illustrations:
    • “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King’s last speech, Memphis, April 3, 1968.
    • Martin Luther King in the study of Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1961.
    • Bernard Lee, Andrew Young, Robert Green, Martin Luther King, Lawrence Guyot, Harry Bowie, and Stokely Carmichael at a meeting during the Meredith March, June 1966.
    • Reverend King at Ebenezer Baptist Church, November 8, 1964.
    • Martin Luther King speaking at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi, June 1966.
    • Martin Luther King with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on the Selma to Montgomery march, March 1965.

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