The Radical King

By: Cornel West - editor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Narrated by: LeVar Burton, Gabourey Sidibe, Cornel West, Mike Colter, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Leslie Odom Jr., Michael K. Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

Wanda Sykes, LeVar Burton, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Gabourey Sidibe head a cast of beloved actors performing 23 selections from the speeches, sermons, and essays of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—many never recorded during his lifetime. For the first time, teachers, students, and thoughtful listeners can hear dramatic interpretations of Dr. King’s words, chosen and introduced by Cornel West.

Many Americans didn’t experience Dr. Martin Luther King’s oratory, or the hope and fears of the Civil Rights era. His words and dreams remain relevant, necessary, and inspirational today. The Radical King was a labor of love for Audible, the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and an A-list team of activist voice talent. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2015 Coretta Scott King and the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Cornel West (Introductions) (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

An Alternative View of Martin Luther King

A thought-provoking listen made enjoyable by the many famous actors who read key Martin Luther King Jr speeches, articles and letters, which show King in a more radical light. Here, you will find King's finest work "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "Black Power" in which he discusses his feelings about using this as a slogan when Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) introduced it. Cornel West provides an introduction for each piece of King's writing providing an understanding of King's views in a radical context.

Not the best MLK audiobook

There’s some gold in here but I’d recommend MLK’s “autobiography” over this as an audiobook. This book is a similar approach - collected King writings. Instead of being all in King’s voice, they’re interspersed by Cornel West interludes. At times he’s trying too hard with hundred-dollar words, at others he’s telling you what King “would have” done/believed in modern situations. You can tell he’s passionate about King, and the earlier ones are stronger, but many don’t add much. The narrators are uneven. The best are very good (while obviously falling short of the man himself). The worst are uninspired readings, some mispronouncing words. The autobiography is Levar Burton interspersed with actual MLK recordings and is a MUCH better audiobook.

I didn’t know

I grew up in Atlanta. Countless visits to the King memorial. I never knew anything beyond the I have a dream speech. As much as I regret the blindfold I’ve had on, I’m so grateful to the people that put this work of art together that I’ve been able to digest the last 2 weeks. And the wonderful thing is I was finally influenced by the medium of sports media (bomani Jones show) to even think that Dr. King was a radical.

Hearing Truth

Listen and feel the truth of radical love permeate your body and soul. The only way to deny it is to let the great eternal lie block your senses.

The radical revolution is as valid today as it was in the time of King.

Fifty years and this old white man still mourns his tragic death.

Remember Martin Luther King

50 years ago, an assassin killed Martin Luther King. King led the country through the ugliness of civil wrongs connected to the Vietnam War, and we remember him for his Gandhi-like leadership. What is forgotten is his weaponized non-violence and his belief in socialism. Americ beatifies our heroes, which is what we've done with MLK.

This book, edited by Cornel West, is a compilation of King's speeches. The words remind of why I so admired him. The audible version employs a wide variety of actors and actresses to read the King's words. I might have preferred to hear MLK, but this demonstrated that the real power is in words, not the speaker.

50 years later and his words are not dated. I would not be surprised to hear these speeches from Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

I miss his voice, his words, his leadership.

Narrations are fine, but it isn't King's voice

Summary: If all you remember from Martin Luther King Jr is his "I have a dream…” speech, The Radical King will round out his legacy.

Last week I finished up an audiobook collection of Howard Thurman’s sermons, prayers, and teachings. What I loved about it was that it was actually Thurman’s voice. The quality was not up to current standards, but there was value in hearing his actual voice. The problem with the collection was that it was mostly snippets of content, rarely more than 10 minutes of any particular talk.

The Radical King, edited by Cornel West has the opposite problem. This is full-length sermons or speeches, but they are read by modern celebrity narrators. All of the narrators do a fine job and the audio quality is excellent, but it is not King’s voice and King’s voice is one of the most recognizable of the last century. The reality is that for both of these collections, there are just limitations based on what is available. Cornel West is trying to give insight into the breadth of King’s thinking. Radical seems to promise a bit too much, King was radical for his time, but while there was an article celebrating, Norman Thomas, a prominent socialist, there was also more than one instance of King showing why he was not a communist or socialist.

The Radical King does a good job showing the changes toward the end of his life, paying more attention to economic issues, speaking to a trade union, or his anti-Vietnam bent. He also addresses the Black Power movement, colonialism, antisemitism, and throughout it all, his strong commitment to anti-violence. There are prominent talks or articles here, like The Drum Major Instinct, the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop and Where Do We Go From Here. But the emphasis is on is lesser know work.

Cornel West is not particularly trying to show his Christianity here, but as always with King, that faith shines through in almost everything that Martin Luther King Jr says and does.

A much fuller picture of an extraordinary human being

I was a young man when Dr. King was taken from us. As a man now in my early 70’s the Radical King brought me back to a time of discontent, with the perspective of over fifty years, which highlights his strength as a leader for all people and a man of vision, passion and faith. His message still rings loudly today and I am grateful for the sharing of his love, strength and non-violence.

Was hoping for more analysis

There's a few pieces that I haven't heard already but honestly about half of the book seemed to be speeches that you can hear from King himself relatively easily.

I'd recommend for someone just learning about MLK - but if you've already read/ listened to his work it may not be the best use of your time.

Disappointing waste of an opportunity

This book was bad; a disappointing series of assumptions which played into the fears of simple-minded, bumper-sticker philosophers. It was an offense to MLK’s example, the boldness that made MLK such a hero of thought and ideals. It was dumb and silly. It was angry and it was shallow. The struggle against the one dimensional silliness of racism continues with my deletion of this book. We are too in need of quality moral leadership to give in to the word play and sophomoric jingoism of the stupid rantings in this book. A waste.

Book was a waste of my time.

The book was fine until they started pushing religion and praising anti-black racist Mahatma Gandhi. It was fine during King’s time when the truth about Gandhi was being suppressed, but the author should of known better.

11-hour biblical battering-ram to the head

Martin Luther King was such a wonderful man, and his labour strikes are what enamoured me to him. But this book, my goodness, really was an ordeal to get through. It was like having a bible repeatedly, and painfully rammed down my throat relentlessly. For long stretches of time, you realise just how poorly the bible and Christianity has served the African American communities so affected by racism - it lumbers people who have an absolute right to justice with absolutely addling garbage that tells people to submit to a god and pray their way to justice. Love your enemy but stand your ground and gain equality through action! All power, to all the people.

So much of this book is just an excuse to inject biblical babble into simple concepts. Racism is bad because we're all human, and skin colour, just like class, is abstract and meaningless. Labour rights are important because everyone deserves fairness. Quite easy to express no?

This book expresses those two simple concepts with the word "JESUS" so many times, you want to take Cornel West and ram a bible up his behind sideways. You want my support and solidarity against class, racism, capitalism, inequality, injustice - you will always have it and I will never tire of your eloquence. You want my ear when you're talking about racism and class, inequality and greed? You have it, you're wonderful. You want to wax lyrical about JHAYYYSUUSSS for hours on end? Take a hike!

Honestly, I love Cornel West and the rest, but after hearing 11 hours of absolute biblical rubbish I put this book down, deleted it off my phone, and I will never, ever, read it again. What a bunch of complete drivel.