Guides: Heritage Months and Celebrations: MLK Day/National Day of Healing from Racism (January)

MLK Day and National Day of Healing from Racism

Photo: Minnesota Historical Society, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday, recognizes the birthday of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr and is marked annually - since 1983 - on the third Monday in January. This year (2023), MLK Day takes place Jan. 16.

The 7th Annual Day of Racial Healing takes place Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. It is celebrated annually on the Tuesday after MLK Day.

This guide serves as an introduction to and source of information on these celebrations as well as the people and events that inspired them. A Detroit Mercy log-in or library card may be required to access many of the resources included here. The libraries have many more resources than what is included here. If you have questions or would like assistance finding a resource not included here, please contact a Detroit Mercy librarian.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Resources

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr by Clayborne Carson
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 A52 1998
Publication Date: 1998-11-01
Celebrated Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson is the director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project; with thousands of King's essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, Carson has organized King's writings into a posthumous autobiography.
Crusader Without Violence by L. D. Reddick; Derryn E. Moten (Introduction by)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018-06-01
Published to critical acclaim in 1959 and long out of print, Crusader Without Violence was the first biography of the dynamic leader who emerged from the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott as the spokesman of the twentieth-century American civil rights movement. NewSouth's 60th Anniversary Edition, with a new introduction containing new biographical details about its author.
Martin Luther King, Jr by Peter J. Ling
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 L55 2015
Publication Date: 2015-03-09
.... a thorough re-examination of both the man and the Civil Rights Movement, showing how King grew into his leadership role and kept his faith as the challenges facing the movement strengthened after 1965.

Martin Luther, King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize
Facts, biography, and the text of King's acceptance speech.

The Seminarian: Martin Luther King, Jr. Comes of Age
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 J67 2020
Publication Date: 2020-03-31
This dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic African American leaders. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright.

March by John Lewis; Andrew Aydin; BookSource Staff (Compiled by)
Call Number: PN 6727 .L49 M37
Publication Date: 2013-08-13
Congressman John Lewis (Georgia) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolr
Martin's Dream by Clayborne Carson
Call Number: E 185.97 .C273 A3 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-08
... Coretta Scott King selected Dr. Carson--then a history professor at Stanford University-- to edit the papers of her late husband. ... Written from the unique perspective of a renowned scholar, this highly readable account gives readers valuable new insights about the global significance of King's inspiring ideas and his still unfolding legacy
Misremembering Dr. King by Jennifer J. Yanco
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2014-02-27
Yanco reminds us that King was a strong critic of militarism who argued that the United States should take the lead in promoting peaceful solutions rather than imposing its will through military might; that growing materialism and an ethos of greed was damaging the moral and spiritual health of the country; and that in a nation where racism continues unabated, white Americans need to educate themselves about racism and its history and take their part in the weighty task of dismantling it.
My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. by Coretta Scott King
Call Number: E 185.97 .K53 K5
Publication Date: 1996-12-01
First edition of Coretta Scott King's memoir.
Growing up King by Dexter Scott King; Ralph Wiley
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 K52 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-09
Memoir of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s son, Dexter.

Detroit 1957 and Beyond
Library of Congress Exhibit
The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 Visit to Detroit
Story from Michigan Radio (NPR).
Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 Speech in Detroit
From Deadline Detroit.

Books on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
From the Detroit Mercy Libraries collection.
How the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Became a Holiday
From the National Constitution Center.
The 15-Year Battle for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
From the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

A Testament of Hope by Martin Luther King; James M. Washington (Editor)
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 A25 1986
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
A collection of the most important writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., from such sources as sermons, speeches, essays, and interviews.

King Papers
From Stanford University.

Martin Luther King's Biblical Epic: His Final, Great Speech by Miller, Keith D.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2012
In his final speech ""I've Been to the Mountaintop,"" Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his support of African American garbage workers on strike in Memphis. Although some consider this oration King's finest, it is mainly known for its concluding two minutes, wherein King compares himself to Moses and seems to predict his own assassination. But King gave an hour-long speech, and the concluding segment can only be understood in relation to the whole. King scholars generally focus on his theology, not his relation to the Bible or the circumstance of a Baptist speaking in a Pentecostal setting.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Companion by Martin Luther King; Coretta Scott King (Selected by); Dexter Scott King (Introduction by); Martin Luther King
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 A25
Publication Date: 1992-12-15
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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream Speech
Video of the Aug. 28, 1963 speech in Washington, DC.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by King, Martin Luther Jr. and Clayborne Carson
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2010
Chronicles the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott sparked by Mrs. Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white male, describing the plans and problems of a nonviolent campaign, reprisals by the white community, and the eventual attainment of desegregated city bus service.
Voice of Deliverance by Keith D. Miller
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 M49 1992
Publication Date: 1991-11-01
Miller explores King's words and tries to find the sources of his speeches and essays. He argues that King's language and imagery comprised a skilful blending of the oral tradition of the Afro-American folk church and the style of the printed sermons of white, liberal preachers.
Where Do We Go from Here by Martin Luther King; Coretta Scott King (Foreword by); Vincent Harding (Introduction by)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind-for the first time-has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.
Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King; Jesse Jackson (Afterword by)
Call Number: E 185.61 .K54
Publication Date: (1st ed., 1964)
Martin Luther King's classic exploration of the events and forces behind the Civil Rights Movement--including his Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.

An Easy Burden by Andrew J. Young
Call Number: E 840.8 .Y64 A3 1996
Publication Date: 1996-11-06
The highly regarded statesman and former mayor of Atlanta provides an insider's perspective on the civil rights movement and plots a course for America's future.

Eyes on the Prize Documentary
From the University of Detroit Mercy Libraries.

Going down Jericho Road by Michael K. Honey
Call Number: HD 5325 .S2572 1968
Publication Date: 2007-01-15
With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America.

Official Program from the March on Washington (1963)
From the National Archives.

Ring Out Freedom! The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement by Fredrik Sunnemark
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2004
...explores how King used words to define a movement. From a place situated between two cultures of American society, King shaped the language that gave the movement its identity and meaning. Fredrik Sunnemark shows how materialistic, idealistic, and religious ways of explaining the world coexisted in King's speeches and writings.

Books, Audio Visuals, and Articles on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the Detroit Mercy Libraries.
Investigation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassination
From the U.S. Department of Justice

An Act of State by William F. Pepper
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 P45 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-17
"... An Act of State lays out the extraordinary facts of the King story of the huge groundswell of optimism engendered by his charismatic radicalism, of how plans for his execution were laid at the very heart of government and the military, of the disinformation and media cover-ups that followed every attempt to search out the truth... An Act of State remains the most compelling and authoritative account of how King s challenge to the US establishment led inexorably to his murder."
April 4 1968 by Michael Eric Dyson
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2009-01-06
Dyson ... uses this landmark anniversary as the starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of Black America over the four decades that followed King's death.
Killing the Dream by Gerald Posner
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 P67 1998
Publication Date: 1998-03-31
"... Killing the Dream lays to rest three decades of conjecture and distortion--much of it spawned by Ray's frequently changing stories--to make the case for what happened in Memphis in 1968, and what most certainly did not...."

The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Education, research, scholarships, programs, and events dedicating to promoting the principles and philosophy of Kingian nonviolence.

King Me by Clinnesha D. Sibley
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2013-05-01
A trio of short dramas set in the South and spanning 1968 to the present, King Me features compelling characters and relevant themes that examine our ongoing understanding of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King by Vincent Harding
Call Number: E 185.97 .K5 H275 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
In this collection of essays, noted scholar and activist Vincent Harding reflects on the forgotten legacy of Martin Luther King, and the meaning of his life today.
Martin Luther King Jr. , Heroism, and African American Literature by Trudier Harris
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2014-11-15
Examines how representations of Martin Luther King Jr.'s character and persona in works of African American literature have evolved and reflect the changing values and mores of African American culture

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
From Stanford University.

To Shape a New World by Tommie Shelby (Editor); Brandon M. Terry (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018-02-19
Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with King's understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice.
Toward a Theology of Radical Involvement by Luther D. Ivory
Call Number: BX 4827 .K53 I96 1997
Publication Date: 1997-06-01
King's perspective raises permanent, generative tensions in the contemporary church, academy, and culture. Ivory thus promotes a re-reading of King that gives due credence to the too-often overlooked but profound level of critical analysis, proactive revolutionary challenge, and the bold transformative vision King inspired.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Memphis Sanitation Workers
Educator resources from the National Archives.

Citizen King (DVD)
"This story begins on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It comes to a bloody end almost five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. In the years since those events unfolded, the man at the center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic figure, a minister whose oratory is etched into the minds of millions of Americans, a civil rights activist whose words and image are more hotly contested, negotiated and sold than almost anyone else's in American history."
Images from the Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Photos from the Life Magazine Archive.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Related Images
From the National Museum of American History.
Streaming Videos and DVDs About or Featuring Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the University of Detroit Mercy Libraries collection. Log in required to access streaming.
Video of the March on Washington (1963)
From the National Archives.

Day of Healing from Racism Resources

A Different Shade of Justice by Stephanie Hinnershitz
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2017-08-10
"... As Asian Americans attempted to establish themselves in the South, they found that institutionalized racism thwarted their efforts time and again... this book tells the story of their resistance and documents how Asian American political actors and civil rights activists challenged existing definitions of rights and justice in the South..."
Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Call Number: BF 575 .P9 E34 2019
Publication Date: 2019-03-26
"How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? Eberhardt shows us how we can be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip. Racial bias is a problem that we all have a role to play in solving."
Campus counterspaces : Black and Latinx students' search for community at historically white universities by Keels, Micere
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: E 184 .A1 K344 2019
Publication Date: 2019-08-13
"... Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism."
Islamophobia in Higher Education by Shafiqa Ahmadi (Editor); Darnell Cole (Editor); Shaun R. Harper (Foreword by)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2020-08-11
The Latino Threat by Leo Chavez
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2013-04-01
Directly opposing ideas constructed and perpetuated by pundits and the media at large, The Latino Threat challenges the suggestion that Latino immigrants are unwilling to integrate and reveals that citizenship is not just about legal definitions, but about participation in society.
Islamophobia and Racism in America by Erik Love
Call Number: E 184 .M88 L68 2017 (and as eBook)
Publication Date: 2017-05-23
Myths America Lives By by Richard T. Hughes
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018-09-05
"Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others."
Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience by Angelo Ancheta
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2010-01-10
In" Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience," Angelo N. Ancheta demonstrates how United States civil rights laws have been framed by a black-white model of race that typically ignores the experiences of other groups, including Asian Americans... Ancheta examines legal and social theories of racial discrimination, ethnic differences in the Asian American population, nativism, citizenship, language, school desegregation, and affirmative action. In the revised edition of this influential book, Ancheta also covers post-9/11 anti-Asian sentiment and racial profiling..."
Reel Inequality by Nancy Wang Yuen
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2016-12-12
"Nancy Wang Yuen interviewed nearly a hundred working actors and drew on published interviews with celebrities, such as Viola Davis, Chris Rock, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac, Lucy Liu, and Ken Jeong, to explore how racial stereotypes categorize and constrain actors. Their stories reveal the day-to-day racism actors of color experience in talent agents' offices, at auditions, and on sets. Yuen also exposes sexist hiring and programming practices, highlighting the structural inequalities that actors of color, particularly women, continue to face in Hollywood."
Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference by Katherine Cramer Walsh
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2010-01-11
"It is a perennial question: how should Americans deal with racial and ethnic diversity? More than 400 communities across the country have attempted to answer it by organizing discussions among diverse volunteers in an attempt to improve race relations. In "Talking about Race," Katherine Cramer Walsh takes an eye-opening look at this strategy to reveal the reasons behind the method and the effects it has in the cities and towns that undertake it...Walsh prescribes a practical politics of difference that compels us to reassess the place of face-to-face discussion in civic life and the critical role of conflict in deliberative democracy."
Teaching Race by Stephen D. Brookfield
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018-11-05
"... practical tools and techniques for teaching and discussing racial issues at predominately White institutions of higher education..."
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Call Number: E 185.625 .T38 2017
ISBN: 9780465060689
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
"... Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? How can we get past our reluctance to discuss racial issues? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism..."

Asian Americans
Documentary from PBS, in the Detroit Mercy Libraries.
Color Blind or Color Brave?
From Mellody Hobson.
The Difference Between Being Racist and Anti-Racist
From Ibram X Kendi
I Am Not Your Negro
Race: The Power of An Illusion
Videos About Race and Racism
From the Detroit Mercy Libraries database, Academic Video Online. Log-in required.

Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation
"Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) is a comprehensive, national and community-based process to bring about transformational and sustainable change. Through TRHT, collaborators address the historic and contemporary effects of racism in their communities and institutions. They work to replace the deeply held belief system that fuels racism with one that sees the inherent value of all people."
National Day of Racial Healing from TRHT
From Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation.
#ChangingtheNarrative Documentary Series
From NBCUniversal and the WK Kellogg Foundation's TRHT.

Events at Detroit Mercy

National Day of Racial Healing Dialogues
Tues., Jan. 17 from Noon - 4 p.m.
McNichols Campus Library
Breaking Down Barriers (Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Wed., Jan. 18 6:30 - 8 p.m.
McNichols Campus Library

Heritage Months and Celebrations

Recommended Reads

Databases

MLK Day and National Day of Healing from Racism

Martin Luther King, Jr. Resources

Day of Healing from Racism Resources

Events at Detroit Mercy

University of Detroit Mercy and Jesuit and Mercy Resources

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