Berkley Center

Georgetown welcomed acclaimed biographer Jonathan Eig for an April 3 conversation about his new book, King: A Life (2023), a biography of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. that was awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Moderated by Berkley Center Senior Fellow Paul Elie, the discussion focused on the book as well as Eig’s journey in writing it.

The event was part of the Faith and Culture Series, co-sponsored by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Office of the President.

Uncovering King’s Life

From the outset, Eig’s goal in writing was to center King within the story. Rather than writing about the Civil Rights Movement with King at the periphery, he strove to create an intimate portrait that connects the reader emotionally to King. “When we put someone up on a pedestal," Eig reflected, "we lose sight of flesh and blood.”

Highlighting live witnesses to King’s life was the central idea that inspired Eig to write the book.

“It was while I was talking to Dick Gregory. I just had this epiphany that there were still hundreds of people alive that knew King… and that I needed to travel the country interviewing as many of these people as I could.”

Eig not only spent six years speaking with over 200 people that knew King, but he also found tapes made by Martin's wife Coretta Scott King, accessed personal letters between President Lyndon B. Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, consulted writings from King’s personal biographer, and discovered an unpublished biography of King’s father.

Key to his research, though, were the hundreds of hours of audio tape secretly taken by the FBI. The irony of using audio obtained via government subterfuge was not lost on Eig, who believes that in a twisted way the audio meant to ruin King actually humanized him, as his frustrations were laid bare.

King as the Enemy

Another irony Eig pointed out was that the same federal government that treated King as the most dangerous man in America during his lifetime now honors him with a holiday. 

According to Eig, King’s ability to unite people was viewed as a threat that could upset the dynamics of power in the United States, and Hoover saw it as his job to preserve the status quo – one that included pervasive racism. But King had no interest in appeasing the powers that be, caring more about sticking to his morals than being politically correct.

In its efforts to protect the status quo from disruption, Eig argued, the government created the conditions necessary for King to become a target for assassination and bolstered the very people who opposed him.

A Christian and an Activist

Eig emphasized that King saw his activism as an extension of his ministry as a Christian pastor. His job was to save souls, and he felt frustration towards those religious people who dragged their feet and refused to act.

“You can’t really understand King without understanding his faith… and how he felt like the only way to really do what he wanted to do with his life, which was to kill Jim Crow, to fight for democracy, to bring his country and constitution into line with the words in the Bible, was from the pulpit.”

At the heart of his faith-fueled activism was the notion of nonviolence. Joining, and then coming to lead, the Montgomery Bus Boycott showed King the strength of a nonviolent approach, and in the book Eig demonstrated that for King nonviolence was a strategy which turned into a philosophy.

However, as important as the nonviolent approach was to King, it did not mean he was not radical in his work, and he argued that the soul of the country could not be saved until Americans collectively atoned for the sin of slavery.

Such aspects of King’s movement are often overlooked today in what Eig referred to as the “whitewashing of the Civil Rights Movement,” wherein people abuse King’s language because they are afraid of his core ideas. Eig used King’s incredibly moving, yet misunderstood “I Have a Dream” speech to illustrate this point. The first half of the speech—the radical section calling attention to police brutality, income inequality, and reparations—has largely been forgotten.

Responsibility to Make the World Better

In making a public figure like King widely accessible, we tend to focus solely on the aspects of the story that make us comfortable. Eig argues that is exactly what creating a holiday and monument dedicated to King have done. While that approach allows teachers to talk about race and civil rights in classrooms where such conversations can be limited, Eig hopes his work to humanize King will also help us grapple with more challenging themes.

Eig’s overarching goal in writing a biography was to capture King’s life and to do Martin and Coretta justice in sharing their story, yet the journey also taught Eig much about himself.

“I consider myself a person who believes we’re all children of God and we all have a responsibility to make the world better in whatever way we can. And it’s made me reflect on what I’m doing with my time and how I can be a part of that… we all have to do whatever we can. I feel that more seriously than before.”