Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There With You : The True Martin Luther King, Jr.

Michael Eric Dyson's book, I May Not Get There With You, is important because he takes on the unhelpful deification of Martin Luther King, Jr., which distorts him as a powerful moral example. Dyson thereby faces honestly MLK's foibles and flaws in a way that both humanizes MLK and establishes his moral genius.

Dyson as a writer, and certainly as a speaker, is often more glib and less precise than I tend to favor, but stylistic differences aside, he has done helpful, important work in making possible an ongoing political and moral appropriation of MLK's legacy.

Highly recommended.