The book of choice for this week’s book review is titled the Radical King. A collection of sermons, speeches and selected writings by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and commentary given by the intellectual giant Cornel West. This books provides a fresh view of Dr. King that many of have never seen via school, church, media etc. Most of us have a very watered down and sanitized view of Martin Luther King, but the Radical King shows us a very different side to our slain hero. One of the major problems I find when it comes to historic heroes is that people only use their sound bites and pictures, but not many have taken the proper time and effort to read the actual words that the spilled from their pens. In reading some of the selected speeches we learn that “non violence” isn’t a passive method after all and we can read a blow by blow account of just how much planning, preparation and funding went into so many famous monumental moments that we have come to love our heroes for, that may have seemed happen chance without proper research. Between Dr. King’s eloquent words and Cornel West’s verbal gymnastics, this book reads like some of your hip hop lines with the metaphors, parallels, double entendre and descriptive imagery both these scholars use to explain even the most basic concepts at time. I was surely left running to my dictionary many of nights reading this mind buster of a publication. Another fantastic feature of this book, in particular the audio version, Cornel West has some of the biggest and baddest voices in the world of film and comedy; giving the work a great texture that you won’t find in most audiobooks. Some of the narrators include: Mike Colter, Levar Burton, Cornel West, Danny Glover and Wanda Sykes to list a few. The Radical King is a must read in every house, seeing the world from the actual eyes of King during his day to day struggles, trials, battles and defeat, we can further learn just how deep and radical his love was for his people. Now we must try to lead a legacy of our own, decide what is really worth fighting for, and how will we attempt to leave this world better than we found it.
