Living the Dream tells the history behind the establishment of
Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the battle over King's legacy that
continued through the decades that followed. Creating the first
national holiday to honor an African American was a formidable
achievement and an act of resistance against conservative and
segregationist opposition. Congressional efforts to commemorate
King began shortly after his assassination. The ensuing political
battles slowed the progress of granting him a namesake holiday and
crucially defined how his legacy would be received. Though Coretta
Scott King's mission to honor her husband's commitment to
nonviolence was upheld, conservative politicians sought to use the
holiday to advance a whitewashed, nationalistic, and even
reactionary vision of King's life and thought. This book reveals
the lengths that activists had to go to elevate an African American
man to the pantheon of national heroes, how conservatives took
advantage of the commemoration to bend the arc of King's legacy
toward something he never would have expected, and how grassroots
causes, unions, and antiwar demonstrators continued to try to claim
this sanctified day as their own.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!