DR. KING SIGNS A FIRST EDITION OF HIS 1964 BOOK WHY WE CAN’T WAIT

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (1929-1968).  King was an American civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1964.  The son of a Baptist minister, King received his B.D. from Crozier Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. from Boston University.  He first gained prominence by leading a year-long, non-violent boycott of the Montgomery bus system.  He later founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became its first president.  He was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1964, and the next year, led a march from Selma to Montgomery to secure voting rights.  He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, where he was assisting in a strike by city workers. 

Signed book. 178pg. 1964.  A first edition signed “Best Wishes Martin L King Jr” in black ink on the half title page.  Why We Can’t Wait, published in 1964, is about the strides the Civil Rights movement made in 1963, and it includes the entire text of King’s famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail” starting on page 77.  There are interior photos of King and his associates.  There is a chip to the upper left corner of the dust jacket and some other professional repairs to the jacket.  There are blue ink marks on a number of the pages from where the first owner read the book and made notations, mostly checkmarks.  The condition is fine (not mint).  The Modern Library checklist of best non-fiction books rated Why We Can’t Wait at #78, the only Dr. King book to make the list.