Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Stewart Burns

Aired February 14, 2004 - 14:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Just in time for black history month -- a knew book about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We turn to biographer Stewart Burns, he is the author of the new King book "To the Mountaintop." The sub title is King's Sacred Mission to Save America. Stewart Burns is in Albany, New York. Thank you for joining us.
STEWART BURNS, AUTHOR, "TO THE MOUNTAINTOP:" I'm pleased to be here with you.

ARENA: Well so much has been written about this man. What did you learn on your journey?

BURNS: Well, I learned many things. One thing I learned was that he had an extraordinary sense of humor. He was a fantastic joke teller. He was a genius at listening, at compassionate listening. He suffered through an unbelievable moral anguish, especially in the last years of his life.

Most important I learned that he was a prophet for our time. Even more than his own time, that his message speaks more clearly, more urgently to our own situation with war around the world, with poverty and despair around the world than it did even to his own time.

ARENA: Do you think that that message, though, is one that can be heard by the young people of today?

BURNS: I would certainly do I think it can be heard by young people even more today than in the past because I think young people are hungry for some kind of vision. Some kind of guidance to help them find their way, and it's not -- it's very easy to get lost in this very bewildering world right after 9/11. It's a very complicated world to find your way in. I think King had some messages for young people especially. He especially spoke to the young.

ARENA: Um-hum. Obviously we know his major message was peace but he also had quite a spiritual message, didn't he?

BURNS: He certainly did and this is not really come out much in other biographies of King in the past. That his spiritual journey was at least as important as his journey of political leadership, and he actually -- he actually used his spiritual journey as a powerful force to guide him towards the changes that he went through.

He went through a first -- a first conversion when he was -- during the Montgomery busboy the cot, but then he went through a second converse toward the end of his life when he came out against the Vietnam War. And that's when he embraced Jesus more tightly, more firmly than ever before.

And really saw himself as the second coming of Christ. He really saw himself as walking in Jesus' footsteps especially in relation to his disciples. He had disciples who were often contentious and not fully trusting and he tended to relate to his disciples very much the way Jesus related to his own disciples.

ARENA: What was it about Martin Luther King Jr. that compelled to you write a book after so many had been written?

BURNS: I felt that there was a great deal about King that was missing. That the public did not know about him. I especially felt that the public did not know about the intense moral anguish that he went through. While he was this great leader who could speak to millions and speak so eloquently, I heard him at the march on Washington in August of 1963, at the same time he was going through this inner hell that he was going through a dark night of the soul inside his own heart and soul.

And that that was partly what projected him into the -- the greatness that we know him as today.

ARENA: Um-hum, have you gotten any response from his family?

BURNS: I'm sorry?

ARENA: Have you gotten any response from his family?

BURNS: No, I haven't. Not yet. I look forward to it. I think they will like the book. But we will have to wait and see.

ARENA: All right, all right, thank you so much. The new book "To the Mountaintop." The author Stewart Burns. Thank you very much.

BURNS: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 14, 2004 - 14:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: Just in time for black history month -- a knew book about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We turn to biographer Stewart Burns, he is the author of the new King book "To the Mountaintop." The sub title is King's Sacred Mission to Save America. Stewart Burns is in Albany, New York. Thank you for joining us.
STEWART BURNS, AUTHOR, "TO THE MOUNTAINTOP:" I'm pleased to be here with you.

ARENA: Well so much has been written about this man. What did you learn on your journey?

BURNS: Well, I learned many things. One thing I learned was that he had an extraordinary sense of humor. He was a fantastic joke teller. He was a genius at listening, at compassionate listening. He suffered through an unbelievable moral anguish, especially in the last years of his life.

Most important I learned that he was a prophet for our time. Even more than his own time, that his message speaks more clearly, more urgently to our own situation with war around the world, with poverty and despair around the world than it did even to his own time.

ARENA: Do you think that that message, though, is one that can be heard by the young people of today?

BURNS: I would certainly do I think it can be heard by young people even more today than in the past because I think young people are hungry for some kind of vision. Some kind of guidance to help them find their way, and it's not -- it's very easy to get lost in this very bewildering world right after 9/11. It's a very complicated world to find your way in. I think King had some messages for young people especially. He especially spoke to the young.

ARENA: Um-hum. Obviously we know his major message was peace but he also had quite a spiritual message, didn't he?

BURNS: He certainly did and this is not really come out much in other biographies of King in the past. That his spiritual journey was at least as important as his journey of political leadership, and he actually -- he actually used his spiritual journey as a powerful force to guide him towards the changes that he went through.

He went through a first -- a first conversion when he was -- during the Montgomery busboy the cot, but then he went through a second converse toward the end of his life when he came out against the Vietnam War. And that's when he embraced Jesus more tightly, more firmly than ever before.

And really saw himself as the second coming of Christ. He really saw himself as walking in Jesus' footsteps especially in relation to his disciples. He had disciples who were often contentious and not fully trusting and he tended to relate to his disciples very much the way Jesus related to his own disciples.

ARENA: What was it about Martin Luther King Jr. that compelled to you write a book after so many had been written?

BURNS: I felt that there was a great deal about King that was missing. That the public did not know about him. I especially felt that the public did not know about the intense moral anguish that he went through. While he was this great leader who could speak to millions and speak so eloquently, I heard him at the march on Washington in August of 1963, at the same time he was going through this inner hell that he was going through a dark night of the soul inside his own heart and soul.

And that that was partly what projected him into the -- the greatness that we know him as today.

ARENA: Um-hum, have you gotten any response from his family?

BURNS: I'm sorry?

ARENA: Have you gotten any response from his family?

BURNS: No, I haven't. Not yet. I look forward to it. I think they will like the book. But we will have to wait and see.

ARENA: All right, all right, thank you so much. The new book "To the Mountaintop." The author Stewart Burns. Thank you very much.

BURNS: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com