Between 1957 and his assassination on April 4, 1968, at age 39, Martin Luther King Jr. gave 2,500 speeches, wrote sermons and homilies and published five books. Meanwhile, the number of books written about King surely number in the thousands. Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is celebrated on Jan. 20, we are providing the following book list on his actual birthday: today, Jan. 15. The list will provide adults and children with a solid foundation about the visionary civil rights leader.
Books for Adults
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
By Martin Luther King Jr.
This compendium includes King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream” speech, both written in 1963. Other writings express King’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance and his hopes for racial integration, freedom, and economic and social justice for Black Americans.
America in the King Years
By Taylor Branch
Three volumes:
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63
This first volume covers King’s childhood and early years as a civil rights advocate. The volume won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for history and National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction.
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65
This second volume examines the many pressures on King and the Civil Rights Movement, the FBI’s surveillance of him and threats from rivals and allies, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and his Nobel Peace Prize.

At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68
The final volume includes King’s involvement with the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches, anti-Vietnam War movement and the period before his assassination.

King: A Life
By Jonathan Eig
In the first major King biography in three decades, Eig delves into the civil rights leader’s mind and complex, intimate relationships. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 2024.
Books for Children
My Dream of Martin Luther King Jr.
By Faith Ringgold
Renowned artist and writer Faith Ringgold died in April, but among her best legacies is this masterful, illustrated book for children in pre-K through fifth grade. The story uses the narrator’s dream of King’s life and death as a vehicle for educating children on the historic prejudice and persecution of Black people, the Civil Rights Movement and King’s work to forge racial and economic justice, harmony and peace. The story ends with an uplifting message relayed by King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
I Have a Dream
By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
At the March on Washington in 1963, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the most important speeches in U.S. history. Nelson, an award-winning illustrator, paired the essential words of the speech that appeal to children with dramatic images of King and integrated audiences of children and adults to create a beautiful message of racial harmony, equity and freedom. The full text of the speech appears at the end of the book, which is written for children ages 3 to 13.
Rhonda Sonnenberg is a senior staff writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Picture at top: “King: A Life” won the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 2024.