On Thursday, January 29, the Beyond the Dream Series will feature a keynote by Dr. Lerone A. Martin entitled “Young King,” taken from the title of his forthcoming book Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr., which examines King’s childhood and how that influenced his life and work. The keynote will take place in the Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room from 4:40 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Registration is requested.
“I think of Martin Luther King Jr. as a conversation partner in our studies of history and in helping us think about the future,” Martin said. Martin’s book Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr. about the adolescence and calling of Martin Luther King, Jr. will be published by HarperCollins in May 2026.
A historian of religion in the twentieth century, Dr. Lerone A. Martin is the faculty director for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, where is also an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His books and scholarship program critical context for the forces of religion, politics, and race that have shaped the contemporary American political and social landscape.
His appointment to the position of Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor was the result of a national search to succeed the storied King Institute’s founding director after more than 40 years in the role, making Martin only the second faculty director. One of his most important directorial responsibilities is the ongoing work of editing King’s significant sermons, speeches, published writings, correspondence and unpublished papers. In June of 2023, under Martin’s leadership, the Institute received the largest gift in its history, which will support the digitization of Dr. King’s writings, and offering those through a new, searchable online database that will be available to the public and to scholars worldwide.
All Beyond the Dream Series events are sponsored by the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement and are open to the public.
For additional information contact Simanti Lahiri, Program Coordinator for Public Engagement.