David Garrow facts for kids

David Jeffries Garrow (born May 11, 1953) is an American author and historian. He is known for writing books about important moments and people in American history.

One of his most famous books is Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, published in 1986. This book won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1987. He also wrote Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (2017), which tells the story of former President Barack Obama.

Some historians and experts have questioned Garrow's later work about Martin Luther King Jr. This was mainly because of how he used certain FBI files. These experts felt he was too quick to believe the FBI's claims, especially since the FBI was known to try and discredit King during that time.

David Garrow's Journey

David Garrow was born on May 11, 1953, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He went to Wesleyan University and graduated with high honors in 1975. Later, he earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1981.

Garrow often writes about the history of the United States Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement. He shares his knowledge in many publications, including The New York Times and The Nation.

He also worked as a senior adviser for Eyes on the Prize, a well-known TV series on PBS that covered the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1965. Over the years, Garrow has taught history at many universities, including Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Emory University School of Law.

In 2019, Garrow looked at some old FBI files about Martin Luther King Jr. He wrote an article based on his ideas from these files. However, many newspapers and magazines did not want to publish it. It was eventually published in a British magazine called Standpoint.

Many other authors and historians disagreed with Garrow's claims. They pointed out that the FBI had a secret program called COINTELPRO to try and harm King's reputation. So, they felt it was important to be very careful when using FBI reports from that time. Experts like Jeanne Theoharis and Barbara Ransby said that scholars should be very critical of such sources.

Garrow was interviewed for a 2020 documentary called MLK/FBI, which was inspired by his work.

Books by David Garrow

• Protest at Selma (1978)
• The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1981)
• Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1986)
• We Shall Overcome (as editor, 1989)
• Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (2017)
• The Troubling Legacy of Martin Luther King (2019)