"A rich... retelling of King's life... a compelling account." — The Wall Street Journal

"An engaging, detailed examination... that goes a long way in humanizing the American hero’s public image." — The Atlanta Journal Constitution

From a preeminent King scholar, the origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who would lead the nation and change the world.

We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became, but who was he at the beginning of his life? How did his youth inform his outlook and activism?

Before Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader, a Nobel Laureate, and a global hero, he was an emotional boy, a middling high school student devoted to fashion, dancing, and dating. Lerone A. Martin, Faculty Director of the Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford University, traces these roots to develop a fuller understanding of the influential preacher’s emotional life, his youthful confusion about his future and career direction, his teenage missteps, and his inspiration to fight for justice.

Revelatory, humanizing, and compassionate, Young King unearths:

MLK's Childhood on Auburn Avenue: his days as “Little Mike"—the ever-eager middle child and a precocious prankster—spent at Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Auburn Avenue Library in Atlanta
Early Encounters with Racism: his early experiences of segregation and the summers he spent on a Connecticut tobacco farm, his first trip outside the Jim Crow South
College Life at Morehouse: his transformative time at Morehouse, playing basketball, hosting parties, studying sociology, and joining the Ministers’ Union
Path to Seminary and Activism: his winding path to seminary and the co-development of his activist consciousness, his spiritual devotion, and his relationship with Coretta, his wife-to-be

As America undergoes another era of turmoil and change, this powerful biography provides a vital roadmap for how greatness comes to light. This essential work is a testament to how history shapes a leader.

Young King includes rarely seen black-and-white photographs of an adolescent MLK from his high school days and college years.