King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South (PB) (2026)

From the New York Times bestselling author, a radical reframing of the life and work of MLK

The Martin Luther King Jr. of popular memory vanquished Jim Crow in the South, but award-winning and New York Times-bestselling historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King's time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago--outside Dixie--was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly highlights the book's "stellar" writing, and reveals that King of the North "makes a persuasive case that Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign for racial justice has been significantly misrepresented."

In this bold retelling, "Theoharis depicts a complex, radical King whose fight against Northern racism alternately inspires and infuriates" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). King emerges here as someone who not only led a movement but who showed up for other people's struggles; a charismatic speaker who also listened and learned; a Black man who experienced police brutality; a minister who lived with and organized alongside the poor; and a husband who--despite his flaws--depended on Coretta Scott King as an intellectual and political guide in the national fight against racism, poverty, and war.

In a book Democracy Now! calls "a major reexamination of the civil rights leader," King of the North speaks directly to our struggles over racial inequality today.