“In a Single Garment of Destiny”: A Global Vision of Justice

Baldwin (The Voice of Conscience), a Vanderbilt University religious studies professor and prolific King scholar, offers a slender, focused selection of King’s “positions on global liberation struggles through the prism of his own words and activities.” Readers most familiar with a dreamer who has been to the mountaintop will rediscover a man whose concerns with the political were often nitty-gritty. Arranged chronologically around broad themes (racism, colonialism, poverty, war), Baldwin’s introductions to each section are models of succinct and pertinent commentary that illuminate and give context to the variety of articles, letters, and brief comments (many published in book form for the first time), along with sermons and speeches. A complex thinker absorbed with worldwide issues as well as the revered spokesperson and activist at the heart of the American civil rights movement emerges as King’s active interest in India, the Middle East, Ghana, Vietnam, Rhodesia, and Algeria is demonstrated. Baldwin’s readable, thoughtful, and fresh compilation gives full voice to King’s belief that “[a]ll inhabitants of the globe are now neighbors.” Agent: Michele Rubin, Writers House. (Jan.)