"From one of today's foremost King scholars comes the revelatory origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who shaped America. We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became -- but who was he before he stepped into our collective history? In Young King, Lerone Martin offers a new understanding of the preacher and activist's life by turning to his formative years. Until now, we have almost presumed that his path to greatness was a foregone conclusion. But the truth is more complicated. Lerone Martin strips away the mythos and gets to King's roots -- his days as 'Little Mike' on Auburn Avenue, his academic struggles and flashes of brilliance, summers spent in the tobacco fields of Connecticut, his first experiences of racism and encounters with the police, his teenage missteps and adventures in love, and his winding road to seminary. We witness King in his search for a name, an identity, a God, a partner, and a life. Compassionately told and diligently researched, Young King is a testament to how history shapes a leader and a reminder that our heroes -- like ourselves -- are human, extraordinary and ordinary at once." -- Dust jacket.