We all know the name. Martin Luther King, the great American Civil Rights leader. But most people today know relatively little about King, the campaigner against militarism, materialism, and racism—what he called the "giant triplets. " Jennifer J. Yanco takes steps to redress this imbalance. "My objective is to highlight the important aspects of Dr. King’s work which have all but disappeared from popular memory, so that more of us can ‘really see King. ’" After briefly telling the familiar story of King’s civil rights campaigns and accomplishments, she considers the lesser-known concerns that are an essential part of his legacy. Here we are reminded that King was an anti–Vietnam War activist who argued that resources spent on militarism and national security served few at the expense of many; that growing materialism and an ethos of greed was damaging the moral and spiritual health of the country even as it impoverished a disproportionate number of blacks; and that the way to address the harm done to blacks by centuries of racism was to do something special to help them compete on a just and equal basis.
