Contrary to popular belief, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a revolutionary democratic socialist Christian who believed in the power of prayer, preaching, policy, and protest to free America and the globe from white supremacy. His gospel wasn’t just love, it was liberation.

He well articulated both his theological and political beliefs about Jesus, Blackness, power, and democracy. Anyone who tells you he would be against Black Lives Matter today doesn’t know King or the Christianity he came from. Then again, we would know if he wasn’t assassinated.

I find it incredibly ironic that people who evoke King’s legacy make him into a race transcendent evangelical martyr of unity. Just wait until...you know.. they read his chapter “Racism and White Backlash”. The movement today is our Civil Rights Movement & the work of the Spirit.

Also, read these two books. They’re very much similar but Dorrien reads King’s theological reflection in a larger tradition before and after him. Joseph narrates King’s revolutionary politics in conversation with the larger Black freedom struggle. Both are must-reads.