Martin Luther King Memorial Prize

The Martin Luther King Memorial Prize was instituted by novelist John Brunner and his wife and was awarded annually to a literary work published in the US or Britain that was deemed to improve interracial understanding,^[1][2] "reflecting the ideals to which Dr. Martin Luther King dedicated his life".^[3] As of 1984, the author of the winning work was awarded £100 (equivalent to £410 in 2023).^[3] Brunner died in 1995, and it is uncertain if the award has continued.

Winners of the prize have included:

• Because They're Black (1972) by Derek Humphry and Gus John^[2][4]
• Black and White: The Negro and English Society, 1555-1945 (1973) by James Walvin^[5][6]
• The Fight Against Slavery (1975) by Evan Jones^[7]
• A Dry White Season (1980) by André Brink^[8]
• In a Dark Time (1984) edited by Nicholas Humphrey and Robert Lifton^[9]
• The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain (1985) by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe^[10]
• The European Tribe (1987) by Caryl Phillips^[11]
• Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain (1988) by Ferdinand Dennis.^[12]
• Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (1988) by Taylor Branch, 1989 MLK Prize (and 1989 Pulitzer Prize for History)