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In "Going Down Jericho Road," Michael K. Honey painstakingly recreates the explosive situation [Martin Luther] King stepped into. On Feb. 12, 1968, Memphis's 1,300 sanitation workers, almost all of them African American, went on strike. They didn't ask for much: recognition of their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; an agreement that the city would withhold union dues from workers' paychecks; a small pay raise; and improved safety standards. But for men who had always lived under the crushing weight of white supremacy, even such simple demands represented an exhilarating assertion of human rights.-- Review: ( King's Last Mission, Jan. 14, 2007) .

Michael K. Honey, author of "Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Campaign," will be online to field questions and comments about his new book and civil rights history.

Michael K. Honey teaches African-American, Ethnic and Labor Studies and American History at the University of Washington, Tacoma. He is a recognized civil rights history scholar and the author of several books on the topic.

Join Book World Live each Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET for a discussion based on a story or review in each Sunday's Book World section.

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Michael K. Honey: Hello. This is Michael Honey. I'm online, willing to chat.

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Harrisburg, Pa.: Had Martin Luther King, Jr. lived, what was next on his activist agenda after the Memphis sanitation strike?

Michael K. Honey: King was in the midst of his Poor People's Campaign. He went to Memphis because he was called there by the local movement. If he had lived, his next stop was Washington, D.C., where he hoped to encamp thousands of poor people to lobby the government. The demand was to redirect military spending to housing, health care, job training, and a living income for those who did not have jobs. He proposed to abolish poverty directly. This was a form of income redistribution -- away from the military, to the people.

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Bill, Huntington Beach, Calif.: Whom do you see as positive African-American role models in today's society and whom have you been disappointed in that should have more of a civic-minded duty but do not exhibit these qualities? Thank you.

Michael K. Honey: I don't think so much about role models in terms of public figures. I think those media images are very subject to a lot of hype. More important is who is helping young people in their daily lives, and a vast array of such people are working every day to point in a better direction.

For myself, I listen to Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, Michael Dyson, and other democratic minded public intellectuals have to say. I'm not sure this reaches youth, but it would be good if it did.

I have to say I was very disappointed in Colin Powell, who should have known better than to throw in with the Bush scoundrels, and Condoleezza Rice, who I thought had some principles but doesn't seem to act on them if she does. Let us hope that Barack Obama, who seems to have some wisdom and compassion, also has the nerve to stand up to the radical right. If he does, we should support him every step of the way.

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Arlington, Va: How did you get interested in studying civil rights history?

Was King the inspiration or was it a mixture of muses?

Michael K. Honey: I didn't just study it. I started out for six years (1970-76) as an organizer in the South. I started studying African American history at Howard University in 1976, and have been doing it ever since. King inspired me when I was a young person, and helped me to see that violence is not an answer to any problem we face.

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Washington, D.C.: Hello Mr. Honey-

Could you please recommend one or two biographies of Dr. King that give an overview of his activist work in the context of the larger political and social situation in the country at the time? I was born in 1978 and while I know what everyone learns in high school about Dr. King and I realized recently that I'd like a more in depth picture.

Thank you.

Michael K. Honey: What you read on King depends on how much time you have. There is a lot. You could start with King's Autobiography, edited by Clayborne Carson, and other books of King's speeches and sermons. For a short bio, see Peter Ling's recent book, which is very good. For much greater detail, see books by Adam Fairclough and Taylor Branch, who has a marvelous 3-volume history.

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Montclair, Va: Unlike the TV program, "Citizen King" on PBS, the review of your book in yesterday's Post does not say that the violence on 3/28/68 was committed by white opponents/infiltrators? Is there any doubt about this?

Michael K. Honey: It wasn't white infiltrators but black infiltrators. In the Movement at that time there were a lot of police agents and informants for the FBI. When street people turned King's 3/28 march into a disaster, it seemed a number of the culprits may have been police agents. However, from what I could gather, the problem was greater than that. The demonstration got held up for a long time waiting for King to arrive from New York, and street people and teenagers who had walked out of school got very agitated, esp. after police had attacked students at Hamilton High. It may not have been a conspiracty that set off the trouble. But the biggest problem is that the police then attacked indiscriminately, and that is where the real violence began. Blame the police.

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Economic Activism: Had MLK lived another thirty years, would his redistributionist politics would have held up to scrutiny--or would his brand of socialism have turned the majority of Americans against him, as they have turned against other socialists?

Would he have become another union-funded shakedown artist like Jesse Jackson, or would he have been able to keep his motivations pure?

Michael K. Honey: Your question reveals the big right wing bias of our times. King, like Jesse Jackson, was a strong supporter of unions. Like Jesse, he would have fought for union rights. Even more than Jesse, he would have called for economic redistribution. So you are right, he probably would be either ignored or attacked by the right if he were alive today. In fact, they hated him in 1968, and so-called conservatives have only started lauding his equal rights philosophy after he is dead, and are twisting his words to make it appear that he would oppose affirmative action, which he supported.

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Virginia Beach, Va.: Hi,

What are the new goals and milestones that are yet to be achieved in the civil rights movement? What kinds of things or areas would Dr. King find lacking from an equality standpoint, or, what would his feelings be about the African-American community and how they've achieved or not achieved in today's society?

Michael K. Honey: King would be appalled at our society. The polarization of wealth and neglect of the poor in this country and the world, the suctioning off of our wealth to the military and to special interests, and the failure of government to redress centuries of economic and racial oppression would make him sick at heart. We are so far from the beloved community that he sought, and those in power seem to be able to get away with the most brutal and unfair use of power in the world. We would have to pick up where he left off, demanding a complete reordering of American priorities and moral values. African Americans cannot get true advances without tackling the problems of militarism, racism, and imperialism, King said, and it still is true for all of us.

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Evil Right-Wing Question: Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the schools and libraries to be open on January 15th, to honor Dr. King by reading and learning?

Of course, taking away a paid holiday would be opposed by the teachers' unions and AFSCME, so let the kids spend the day at the mall, right?

Michael K. Honey: There's no reason for the kids to go to the mall. Here in Tacoma, we have a big gathering at the local stadium, and many other gatherings at museums, colleges and other public places. At the University of Washington, we say it is not a day off, it is a day on: students use their time to get involved in service projects of all kinds. If people choose to turn to consumerism instead of rededicating themselves to serving others, they are missing the whole point.

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Anonymous: If King would be appalled, then what could do, each one of

us, to bring honor to his legacy?

Michael K. Honey: Every person has a circle of power: friends, family, acquaintances. First of all, read and study about King to get beyond the stereotypes of civil rights leader, and see him in his full dimensions as a human rights advocate. Then try to pass that knowledge on to your circle of power. And find a way in whatever community you live in to implement his ideas of peace, justice, and human rights.

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Someone like Obama: Doesn't it annoy you to see an inexperienced token like Barack Obama promoted as the Great Black Hope, when there is much less media fawning over African-Americans who have actually accomplished something, such as Secretary Rice, Justice Thomas, and General Powell?

Michael K. Honey: It doesn' bother me a bit. Obama seems to have a sense of humanity and a world view that these other people seem to lack. I think rather than a Black Hope, he is a hope for many of us who believe that cooperation, empathy, and concern for humanity as a whole is a better route to follow than force. As for Justice Thomas, he is a disgrace to generations of people who have sought to widen the sphere of compassion and human rights.

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Montclair, Va: Comment: You just said "read and study about King" - and others of like mind - you can't list them all - but my comment is: particularly study GHANDI.

Michael K. Honey: Yes, he and King are the most important advocates of nonviolence of the twentieth century.

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washingtonpost.com: Thanks to Michael Honey and to all who participated.

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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.