Books to Read for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated every third Monday of January to honor the Civil Rights Movement leader’s life and legacy. This year, MLK Day falls on Jan. 20.
Celebrate MLK Day by reading about the icon’s advocacy for racial equality (and equity), working classes and other oppressed groups.
For Adults
There are several nonfiction accounts of MLK in our collection, including King: A Life by Jonathan Eig. Released in 2023, Eig’s work won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It was also a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award and named one of the best (or most notable) books of the year by several publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.
King spans decades of the MLK’s life as it paints a portrait of the preacher, activist, deep thinker, radical and strategist who led one of history’s greatest movements.
Read about King’s early career in The Seminarian by Patrick Parr. The illustrated biography is billed as the “first definitive, full length account of King’s years as a divinity student at Crozer Theological Seminary.”
For Teens & Tweens
Nic Stone’s YA fiction novel Dear Martin follows Justyce, a Black teen who is racially profiled by a police officer despite his academic achievements and Ivy League acceptance. As he grapples with racism, Justyce looks to MLK for answers.
You can also check out Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowery; as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley. Released in 2015, the book was a 50th anniversary tribute to the youngest person to complete the Selma to Montgomery March. Lowery, still living in Selma, Alabama, now works as a case manager at a mental health center. Lowery was jailed nine times before her fifteenth birthday as she fought alongside the likes of MLK for civil rights.
For Children
There are several board books, easy reader and juvenile reads chronicling MLK in our collection! Learn with your young one with books like Be a King by Carole Boston. The juvenile read presents a dual narrative of key moments in MLK’s life alongside moments in a modern-day classroom as students work on a project about his accomplishments.
In We March by Shane Evans, follow the events of the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., where MLK delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.