The Martin Luther King, Jr. Companion: Quotations from the Speeches, Essays, and Books of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let freedom ring from every hill
and molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountaintop, let freedom
ring. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the dusty back roads of Montgomery, Alabama, to the legendary March on Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr., brought a stirring message of peace, equality, and justice to a divided people. He aspired only to be a Baptist minister, but by the time he was tragically assassinated in 1968 at the age of thirty-nine, he had led a movement that destroyed segregation in the South, and he had won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Now, a quarter century after his death, his words are as significant and moving as they were in the 1960s. Watts burns today as it did then; issues of race, justice and human dignity are still the most critical problems facing our nation. This handsome quotation book represents the finest of the Reverend King's words; it is a classic volume compiled from his essays, lectures, and speeches by his wife, Coretta Scott King. Excerpts form his most famous speech-"I Have a Dream" and "I've Been to the Mountaintop"-are included, as well as equally powerful but lesser known quotations. King's vision of healing and forgiveness is a timeless message that American can ill afford to ignore.