Young King: The Making Of Martin Luther King Jr. -- Lerone A. Martin In Conversation With Kama Bethel Pierce

From the venue:

Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr. — Lerone A. Martin in conversation with Kama Bethel Pierce

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is encouraged. Register here. This event takes place at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30303. Doors open at 6pm. Event begins promptly at 6:30pm.
Charis and the Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Lerone Martin in conversation with Kama Bethel Pierce for a celebration of Young King, the origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero.
We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became, but who was he at the beginning of his life? How did his youth inform his outlook and activism?
Before Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader, a Nobel Laureate, and a global hero, he was an emotional boy, a middling high school student devoted to fashion, dancing, and dating. Lerone A. Martin, Faculty Director of the Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford University, traces these roots to develop a fuller understanding of the influential preacher’s emotional life, his youthful confusion about his future and career direction, his teenage missteps, and his inspiration to fight for justice.
Revelatory, humanizing, and compassionate, Young King unearths:

MLK's Childhood on Auburn Avenue: his days as “Little Mike"—the ever-eager middle child and a precocious prankster—spent at Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Auburn Avenue Library in Atlanta
Early Encounters with Racism: his early experiences of segregation and the summers he spent on a Connecticut tobacco farm, his first trip outside the Jim Crow South
College Life at Morehouse: his transformative time at Morehouse, playing basketball, hosting parties, studying sociology, and joining the Ministers’ Union
Path to Seminary and Activism: his winding path to seminary and the co-development of his activist consciousness, his spiritual devotion, and his relationship with Coretta, his wife-to-be

As America undergoes another era of turmoil and change, this powerful biography provides a vital roadmap for how greatness comes to light. This essential work is a testament to how history shapes a leader.
Young King includes rarely seen black-and-white photographs of an adolescent MLK from his high school days and college years.
About the author
Lerone A. Martin is the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Dr. Martin is an internationally recognized award-winning author and public speaker. His writing and commentary have been featured on the Today show, the History Channel, PBS, NPR and C-SPAN as well as in the New York Times and The Boston Globe. He currently serves as a senior editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project and was an adviser on the PBS documentary series Gospel. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the conversation partner 
Kama Bethel Pierce serves as Chief Program Officer at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, guiding the Center’s exhibitions, education work, and public programming—including be part of its recent ambitious expansion. With a career spanning museums, the practice of law, higher education, and nonprofit leadership, Kama is known for bringing history to life and connecting communities through bold, inclusive storytelling. She is the curator of Broken Promises: The Legacy of Reconstruction, the Center’s new permanent exhibition which opened in December 2025.
A former law professor and academic dean, public defender, and museum Chief Operating Officer, Kama draws on three decades of cross-sector leadership to help institutions imagine what justice, memory, and learning can look like today. She lives in Atlanta and is a graduate of Georgetown University and Northwestern University School of Law.
About the Venue / Accessibility 

Masks are encouraged but not required.
The entire building is wheelchair accessible with ramps, including the front and back entrances. Both entrances have powered doors. There are wheelchair accessible bathroom stalls.
AARL has a free parking lot accessible via Courtland street. There are three dedicated wheelchair accessible parking spots. Please park and enter the library to get a guest pass and place it on your dashboard before getting settled in the auditorium. 

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. Donate via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.
Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. 
By attending our event, you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to Charis staff immediately or email info@chariscircle.org.

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