Clayborne Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the movements King inspired. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1975, Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
During his undergraduate years at UCLA, Dr. Carson participated in civil rights and antiwar protests, and many of his subsequent writings reflect his experiences by stressing the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American freedom struggle.
Carson’s scholarly publications have focused on African-American protest movements and political thought of the period after World War II. His other publications include Malcolm X: The FBI File (1991) and African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom (2005, co-author), a comprehensive survey of African-American history.
In 1985, the late Coretta Scott King invited Dr. Carson to direct a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2005, Carson founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute to endow and expand the work of the Kings Papers Project.
Under Carson’s direction, the King Papers Project has produced six volumes of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. — a projected fourteen-volume comprehensive edition of King’s most significant speeches, sermons, correspondence, publications, and unpublished writings.
Dr. Carson also served as senior advisor for the award-winning, public television series on the civil rights movement, “Eyes on the Prize.” In addition, he served as historical advisor for “Freedom on My Mind,” which was nominated for an Oscar in 1995, as well as for “Chicano!” (1996), “Blacks and Jews” (1997), “Citizen King” (2004), “Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power” (2005), and “Have You Heard from Johannesburg?” a multipart documentary about the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa.
Carson’s musical play, “Passages of Martin Luther King,” was first performed by Stanford’s drama department in 1993 and was subsequently performed in various places throughout the United States. The international premiere of “Passages” was produced in 2007 by the National Theatre of China. In 2012 the Palestinian National Theatre performed an Arabic vision of “Passages” in East Jerusalem and other Palestinian communities. In 2014, a documentary, El Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine (2013), recounted Carson’s effort to bring the play and King’s nonviolent message to an Arabic-speaking audience.
In addition to his years of teaching at Stanford, Dr. Carson taught at the UCLA, the University of California, Berkeley, American University, Emory University, Morehouse College, and L’école des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He has lectured throughout the United States and in many other nations, including China, India, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Jamaica, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and France. He has appeared on many national radio and television shows, such as Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, Fresh Air, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, and Marketplace.