Expert says lessons from Martin Luther King Jr. remain relevant to US democracy struggles

LAWRENCE – Few observers are better positioned to comment on the significance of the forthcoming annual observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 16, than University of Kansas scholar Randal Maurice Jelks.

Jelks, professor of African & African-American studies at KU, is an author an ordained Presbyterian clergyman. His fourth and most recent book, “Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America” (Chicago Review Press), was published in January 2022. It’s a heartfelt cry of concern about the state of American democracy, framed as a series of letters to MLK, and an attempt to provide some of his inspiration to today’s young generation. Read more about the book.

“We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day not because of one person’s heroism,” Jelks said. “We celebrate this day to honor all democratic activists, like King, who have used their constitutional right to protest to build a more inclusive society through the right to vote; to empower working men and women economically in the creation of sustainable jobs, homes and wages; and to extend due process to anyone who stands before the branches of the United States judiciary in seeking fair adjudication before the courts of our land.”

Jelks is also the author of “Benjamin Elijah Mays: Schoolmaster of the Movement” (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), a biography of King’s philosophical mentor at Morehouse College in Atlanta. 

To receive a review copy of “Letters to Martin” and/or to interview Jelks, contact Rick Hellman, KU News Service public affairs officer, at rick_hellman@ku.edu.