This Wednesday we’ll interview Peniel Joseph, and author of The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Peniel E. Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and professor of history and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author and editor of six books on African American history.
About his new book:
“This dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century’s most iconic African American leaders. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement’s militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.”
As a national commentator, Joseph has spoken to NPR, the 2008 Democratic and Republic National Conventions, PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and CSPAN. He has also appeared on NBC’s Morning Joe, and the Colbert Report. He is the recipient of fellowships from Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center and the Hutchins Center at the W.E.B. du Bois Research Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Ford Foundation. His essays have appeared in The Journal of American History, The Chronicle Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Black Scholar, Souls, and American Historical Review, and he is a frequent contributor to CNN and Newsweek.
Be sure to check out a new story of slavery in the United States as told in the New York Times 1619 Project, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.