Born in 1899 to a family of sharecroppers in Stockbridge, Georgia, Martin Luther King, Sr., came of age under the looming threat of violence at the hands of white landowners. Growing up, he watched as his family was crushed by the weight of poverty and racism, and he resolved to escape to Atlanta to answer the calling to become a preacher. Before he engaged in acts of political dissent and stepped to the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he would preach for more than forty years, King Sr. strove to earn high school and college diplomas while working double shifts as a truck driver, and fought to win the heart of his future wife, Alberta “Bunch” Williams.

Originally published in 1980, this poignant memoir chronicles the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Here, King Sr. recalls the joys and struggles of his journey: the pain of leaving his mother, father, and siblings on the farm; the triumph of winning voting rights for blacks in Atlanta; and the feelings of fatherly pride and anxiety as he watched his son put himself in danger at the forefront of the movement.