Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare

Overview

"Cone gives insight in what I've always felt was shared by these two widely opposite-imaged men: that either could so easily have been the other."—Alex Haley

"An immensely valuable, landmark analysis by a scholar uniquely qualified to interpret both King and Malcolm X."—David J. Garrow

"White as well as Black Americans are in the debt of James Cone, whose important book will revise and refocus the legacies of King and Malcolm X."—The New York Times Book Review

"Martin & Malcolm & America I bequeath to my children and grandchildren as the cornerstone of their spiritual inheritance. This book sums up me and my generation. It is about my life as a Black man and as an American. Thank God it has finally come." --Ossie Davis

This ground–breaking and highly acclaimed work examines the two most influential African-American leaders of the past century. While Martin Luther King, Jr., saw America as "essentially a dream . . . as yet unfulfilled," Malcolm X viewed America as a living nightmare. James Cone cuts through superficial assessments of King and Malcolm as polar opposites to reveal two men whose visions were complementary and moving toward convergence.

James H. Cone (1938-2018) was the Bill and Judith Moyers Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. His books include A Black Theology of Liberation, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare, and The Cross and the Lynching Tree, winner of the 2018 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. This year he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.