Hajar Yazdiha — The Struggle for the People’s King Book Publicity Case Study

This book publicity case study outlines the work Coriolis Company performed for Professor Hajar Yazdiha’s book, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement published by Princeton University Press on May 30, 2023. The Struggle for the People’s King outlines how the misuses of Martin Luther King’s legacy divide us and undermine democracy.

2024 PROSE Award North American and US History Finalist

2024 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award Honorable Mention

July 31, 2023, Hajar Yazdiha with Shay Bouley-Stewart, hosted by Back Cove Books, Portland, ME

August 15, 2023, Author Event: The Struggle for the People’s King, in conversation with David C. Turner III, hosted by Los Angeles Public Library, Palms-Rancho Park Branch, Los Angeles, CA

August 28, 2023, Hajar Yazdiha, In Conversation with Gina Clayton-Johnson, Discusses The Struggle for The People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of The Civil Rights Movement, hosted by Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA

September 15, 2023, Book Signing, in conversation with Amber Payne, hosted by Frugal Bookstore, Roxbury, MA

October 14, 2023, The Struggle for the People’s King at the AAMLO, in conversation with Bamidele Agbasegbe-Demerson and Zachary Norris, hosted by African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland, CA

November 16, 2023, Hajar Yazdiha and Gene Demby for THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PEOPLE’S KING, hosted by Loyalty Bookstore, Washington, DC

March 28, 2024, 6:30 – 8pm PST, hosted by Racial Justice Allies of Sonoma County, Virtual

September 25-26, 2024, Bridging Divides, Charting Futures: The Transformative Power of Memory from the Civil Rights Movement to Youth Activism Today, at Lehigh University

June 19, 2023, How the Memory of the ’60s Civil Rights Era Is Being Co-Opted with Jeff Schechtman, WhoWhatWhy

June 24, 2023, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. Talking with Dr. Hajar Yazdiha with Jim Herlihy, The San Francisco Experience

August 10, 2023, In conversation with Hajar Yazdiha with Valentina Cantori, AMSS Section Sociology Podcast

August 15, 2023, Interview with David Fettig, Write On! Radio—KFAI

August 24, 2023, Hajar Yazdiha – Episode 94 with Angela Ross, SoCal Voices

August 27, 2023, The Struggle For The People’s King, A Moment with Erik Fleming

September 8, 2023, ‘Humanity’ – Hajar Yazdiha with Terry McMullen, What’s the Value

September 12, 2023, The Politics of Martin Luther King’s Legacy with Kevin Hockmuth, The Interesting Times

September 14, 2023, Collective Memory and Civil Rights: A Dialogue with Hajar Yazdiha, Converging Dialogues with Xavier Bonilla

September 26, 2023, Wake Up With WURD w/ Solomon Jones 9.26.23 – Hajar Yazdiha

September 27, 2023, The Co-optation Of History and MLK with Marina Franklin, Friends Like Us

October 5, 2023, MLK’s Contested Legacy, Scholars Strategy Network

October 16, 2023, Life & Work with Hajar Yazdiha, VoyageLA

October 24, 2023, Frankenstein History w/ Hajar Yazdiha with Adam William, Water Cooler Talk Podcast

October 24, 2023, How We Can Fix the Culture Gap and Reclaim Dr. King’s Powerful Message, The Living Numbers Podcast with Tony Rambles

October 26, 2023, Interview With an Author: Hajar Yazdiha by Daryl Maxwell, Los Angeles Public Library Blog

October 30, 2023, The Douglas Coleman Show VE with Hajar Yazdiha

November 1, 2023, Dreams, Homes, and a Distorted Legacy: Hajar Yazdiha & Steve Stinson, The Conversation with Al McFarlane

November 2, 2023, Shaping Collective Memory: Hajar Yazdiha with Mila Atmos, Future Hindsight

November 6, 2023, Putting The United Back Into The United States: Author Hajar Yazdiha On The 5 Things That Each Of Us Can Do To Help Unite Our Polarized Society, Authority Magazine

November 9, 2023, Ep.252 – ‘The Struggle For The People’s King’ W/ Dr. Hajar Yazdiha, What’s Good? W/ Charlie Taylor

December 31, 2023, The Making of Ignorance and Cultural Divisiveness with Dr. Hajar Yazdiha with Dr. Karen Bryson, The Curious Professor

January 10, 2024, Everyone from the Tea Party to immigrants rights groups want a piece of Dr. King with Gene Demby, Code Switch

January 11, 2024, Hajar Yazdiha joins Tavis Smiley, The Tavis Smiley Show

January 12, 2024, Hajar Yazdiha on The Struggle for the People’s King, UpFront KPFA

January 12, 2024, Hajar Yazdiha, ‘The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement’ (Princeton UP, 2023) with Mark Klobas, Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

January 15, 2024, ‘His dream’s been weaponized into his nightmare’: how Martin Luther King Jr’s words have been co-opted by Andrew Lawrence, The Guardian

January 15, 2024, Outrage Bonus – How distorted memories of the Civil Rights Movement fuel today’s divisions – Hajar Yazdiha with David Beckemeyer, Outrage Overload

January 15, 2024, Episode 98 – Reclaiming the Legacy of Dr. King w/Hajar Yazdiha with Adi, Greenhouse Gaslighting

January 30, 2024, Prof Hajar Yazdiha – Writing when it’s not warm & fuzzy with Chelsea McCoy, Women Winning at Writing

February 10, 2024, The Struggle for the People’s King with Hettie Williams, Black in Boston and Beyond

February 19, 2024, Hajar Yazdiha on the Struggle for the People’s King with Joseph Nathan Cohen, Annex Sociology Podcast

February 28, 2024, In History: Martin Luther King Jr, a misunderstood icon of US history by Riley Farrell, BBC

April 24, 2024, Systems Of Inequality Are Still Alive with Hannah, Heba, and Inyoo, The Round Table: A Next Generation Politics Podcast

“The book shows how powerful, wide-ranging groups from the right-wing conservatives to antiabortion activists, gun-rights proponents, and others have (mis)appropriated civil rights figures and language since the 1980s for competing political ends.”—Thomas J. Davis, Library Journal

“(The) Struggle for the People’s King is a book that will be revealing to students and useful to activists.”—S. M. Barndt, Choice

“Yazdiha’s compelling analysis opens up important new lines of inquiry in social movement studies and, perhaps, even overturns prevailing wisdom held among many who study contentious politics.”—Rory McVeigh, Social Forces

“As Yazdiha convincingly argues, trying to construct an egalitarian political movement atop these egregious myths ultimately opens the door for reactionary forces to both dismiss these radical movements as threatening to the existing social order while also allowing them to position themselves as the true arbiters of the American ethos.”—Jared Clemons, Perspectives on Politics

December 22, 2023, The best books for understanding the politics of revisionist history, Shepherd

January 10, 2024, Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against the Vietnam War offers lessons on how to fight for peace in the Middle East, The Conversation

January 14, 2024, Martin Luther King is not your mascot by Leah Donnella, Code Switch

January 15, 2024, MLK’s words resonate with both sides of Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Russell Contreras, Axios

January 16, 2024, The Problem With Comparing Today’s Activists to Martin Luther King Jr., Time

February 28, 2024, In History: Martin Luther King Jr, a misunderstood icon of US history by Riley Farrell, BBC

January 20, 2024, Jan. 20, 1986: First National Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, Zinn Education Project