Much focus has been placed on Dr. Martin Luther King and his profound effect on the civil rights movement. However, how much do we really know about him? For instance, how did he become involved with the movement in the first place? What people and places shaped him into the leader he became? In short, how did he grow from a novice preacher at a small Baptist church in Montgomery to a nationally recognized leader of the movement?

Troy Jackson answers all these questions and more in his book Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader. Jackson addresses the beginnings of King’s career as he skyrocketed to fame as the spokesperson of the Montgomery bus boycott. He also investigates the role the people of Montgomery played in shaping King as a national leader.

Jackson builds upon the vast documentation of the King Papers Project, an endeavor begun in 1985 to collect and publish a definitive edition of King’s papers, sermons, and speeches. The project consists of hundreds of thousands of documents that illuminate King’s life and the lives of those affected by his work. Jackson uses his own work on the project as well as additional research to paint a more detailed picture of one of the least understood portions of King’s life. He also documents the evolution of King’s views on racial segregation and discrimination and investigates how he turned these ideas into action during his time at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery.

In Becoming King, Jackson makes an important connection between King’s early history and his eventual role as a civil rights leader. He illustrates the importance the people of Montgomery’s ambitions and hopes for the future and demonstrates that without their passion, King would have struggled to make his voice heard. King never lost sight of the importance of his followers and of the people in Montgomery, insisting that he was “just a symbol of the movement,” and this dedication to his cause helped turn a movement into a social revolution that forever changed the face of the country.

Troy Jackson, senior pastor at University Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, is an editor of The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr., Volume VI: Advocate of the Social Gospel, September 1948–March 1963. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Kentucky and his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary.

MORE INFORMATION: Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader By Troy Jackson $35.00 cloth

As always, the American Folklore Society Annual Meeting was a great conference for UPK, and it was especially good for us this year since the meeting was held in Louisville. The books that attracted the most attention were Killing Tradition, Tales from Kentucky Doctors, Putting Folklore to Use, Kentucky Ghosts, and Monsters of Our Own Making. There were fewer exhibitors than in 2006: Scholar’s Choice, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, Indiana, and Wayne State, and Appalshop, along with various AFS sections and a couple of Library of Congress sections. Everyone seemed impressed by our booth. We had successful book signings in the booth for William Lynwood Montell’s new book, Tales from Kentucky Doctors, and Simon J. Bronner’s latest, Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights Controversies. Other UPK authors in attendance included Erika Brady, Bill Ellis, Michael Owen Jones, Elaine Lawless, Lucy Long, Nancy McEntire, Peter Narváez, Jack Santino, Sharon Sherman, Betty N. Smith, Jacqueline Thursby, and Michael Ann Williams, as well as the family of the late Leonard Roberts. Leonard Roberts’s family is enthusiastic about reissuing some more of his out-of-print books, along with articles from the spring 1987 issue of Appalachian Heritage that memorialize him. I will be meeting with Carl Lindahl, who moderated the session dedicated to Roberts, about these projects. In addition, Simon J. Bronner expects to deliver his next manuscript next month. I also spoke to a number of other people about projects in progress that could add new dimensions to our successful folklore list, and I’m looking forward to receiving their proposals.