January 12, 2021– “For most Americans, Malcolm X and Dr. King represent contrasting ideals: self-defense versus nonviolence, black power versus civil rights, sword versus shield. The fight for black freedom is forged with the same contrasts. In his latest book, Peniel Joseph changes long-held preconceptions to transform our understanding of the most iconic African-American leaders of the 20th century, and addresses the complex and nuanced relationship between power and love in perhaps the American social justice movement. defining our time. Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. ‘, a dual biography of these two leaders of the movement, Joseph unpacks the false binaries through which they have been seen to reveal their Shared revolutionary path: in search of black dignity, citizenship and human rights “. (6 readings)

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