The director of Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Dr. Martin’s books and scholarship provide critical context for the forces of religion, politics, and race that have shaped the contemporary American political and social landscape. His new book, Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr., traces the beginnings of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who would transform a nation. The book has been praised as “bold and brilliant” (Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life) and “searing and soaring” (Bakari Sellers, New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country). Martin regularly speaks to audiences ranging from faith communities, to national conferences, and academic institutions, and his writing and commentary have been featured on the Today show, the History Channel, PBS, NPR, and C-SPAN as well as in The New York Times and Boston Globe.

“Lerone Martin’s masterful Young King puts to rest the persistent myth that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life was a predestined, divinely ordained climb toward civil rights leadership and martyrdom. Martin instead gives us a far more enriching, powerful, and real story, one that that shows how King the person developed his conscience and convictions in the context of family, community, education, love, and struggle.”

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In addition to his role at the Institute, Martin will become Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Stanford in the fall of 2026. He also serves as senior editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, a comprehensive and digitized collection of King’s most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts. In 2027, Volume 8 of the papers will be published and the first searchable database of MLK’s words will launch. “I think of Martin Luther King Jr. as a conversation partner in our studies of history and in helping us think about the future,” Martin said.

Having witnessed first-hand the Bureau’s engagement with faith communities during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Martin was inspired to write The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism, the shocking untold story of of the FBI partnered with white evangelicals to champion a vision of America as a white Christian nation. Scholars have long noted how Hoover’s FBI surveilled and antagonized clergy and faith communities, but the Bureau’s embrace and endorsement of faith are less well known. Drawing on thousands of declassified FBI documents and interviews with retired special agents, Martin explains why white evangelicals rose in the halls of power, and shines a light on how the religious movement became a political force that has shaped our current politics. The Gospel is “a fresh and invigorating look at the interplay between faith, politics, and American law enforcement” (Publishers Weekly). The book has garnered praise from numerous national and international publications including The Nation, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and History Today.

Martin’s first book, the award-winning Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion, tracks the role of the phonograph in the shaping of African American religion, culture, and politics during the first half of the twentieth century. The book was the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for outstanding scholarship in religious history by a first-time author from the American Society of Church History. A “tight, well-conceived narrative,” Preaching on Wax “demonstrates persuasively how religious, commercial, and technological forces came together in the making of modern African American Christianity. Most important, perhaps, its crisp, accessible prose makes it a pleasure to read” (Journal of American History).

In support of his research, Martin has received a number of nationally recognized fellowships and grants, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, The American Council of Learned Societies, The Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), the Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion, the Teagle Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust (a $187,000 grant for the study of Harnessing Religious Values to Increase Public Virtue), and the Forum for Theological Exploration. Most recently he was named Co-Director of “The Crossroads Project” to advance public understanding of the history, politics, and cultures of African American religions, as part of a million dollar grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Martin has also been recognized for his teaching, receiving institutional teaching awards as well as fellowships from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. He has created numerous accessible college-level courses for high school students in low-income communities: “Citizenship and Freedom: From Plato to Maya,” a grant-founded program in the St. Louis region on humanities and civics, and “Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom,” as part of the dual-credit course partnership between Stanford Digital Education and National Education Equity Lab. Martin has served as a research consultant for continuing education and recidivism at New York’s Sing Sing State Prison, as well as an instructor at Georgia’s Metro State Prison. He has been an instructor at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center with the WashU Prison Education Program.

Martin’s lectures on the intersection of religion and politics in American life have been featured at national conferences, faith communities, as well as leading universities including Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Georgetown. He was previously the Director of American Culture Studies, Associate Professor of Religion and Politics in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and Associate Professor of African & African American Studies at Washington University in Saint Louis. His commentary and writing have been featured on The Today Show, The History Channel, PBS, and CSPAN, as well as in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CNN.com, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was an advisor on the 2024 PBS documentary series Gospel, and currently serves as Senior Editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project.

Martin earned his B.A. from Anderson University and his Master of Divinity Degree from Princeton Theological Seminary before completing his Ph.D. at Emory University in 2011.