2. James Lawson, interview transcript, July 8, 1970, tape 244, series X, 60, SSAP; Tines report, 42.
3. Warren interview.
4. Rogers interview.
5. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 362.
6. Abernathy, Partners to History, 147.
7. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 47.
8. Ibid., 185.
9. Ibid., 47.
10. Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (New York: Ballantine, 1958), 204.
11. King, Where Do We Go from Here, 149.
12. Edward E. Redditt, field report, to Memphis Police Dept., April 4, 1968, Exhibit F-299, HSCA, vol. 4, 205–7.
13. Arkin, Civil Disorders, 42.
14. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 359–60.
15. Ibid., 358.
16. Interview by the Commercial Appeal, posted online April 1, 2008.
17. Ibid., 431.
18. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 430–31.
19. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 363.
20. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 432.
21. King, “I See the Promised Land,” 279.
22. Lewis, King, 51.
23. Belafonte, My Song, 247.
24. Andrew Young and Kabir Sehgal, Walk in My Shoes: Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 154.
25. Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65 (New York: Touchstone, 1998), 541.
26. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 432.
27. Clayborne Carson, e-mail to author, May 17, 2015.
28. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 433.
29. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 417.
CHAPTER 15: FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP
“Palm Sunday Sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi, Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,” March 22, 1959, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Stanford University, https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218225655/ http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol5/22Mar1959_PalmSundaySermononMohandasK.Gandhi,DeliveredAtDext.pdf.
1. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 364.
2. King, “I See the Promised Land,” 279.
3. Kyles interview.
4. King, Stride Toward Freedom, 59.
5. King, “I See the Promised Land,” 279.
6. Martin Luther King Jr., “Our God Is Marching On,” Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965, in Washington, Testament of Hope, 227.
7. Lischer, Preacher King, 232.
8. King, Parting the Waters, 65–66.
9. Notebook of Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr., Collection, Woodruff Library.
10. King, “I See the Promised Land,” 286.
11. Schulke and McPhee, King Remembered, 59–60.
12. Frank, An American Death, 89.
13. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Drum Major Instinct,” February 4, 1968, in Washington, Testament of Hope, 266–67.
14. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 284.
15. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 452.
16. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 292.
17. Cody interview.
18. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 368.
19. “Power, Prescience of King’s ‘Mountaintop’ Speech,” Weekend Edition, National Public Radio, January 14, 2007, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6854154.
20. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 433.
21. Frady, Jesse, 226.
22. Jackson, Commercial Appeal video.
23. Kyles interview.
24. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 368.
CHAPTER 16: LONG NIGHT
Georgia Davis Powers, I Shared the Dream: The Pride, Passion and Politics of the First Black Woman Senator from Kentucky (Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press, 1995), 225–27, 173.
1. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 427.
2. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 434.
3. Ibid.
4. Report of the Department of Justice Task Force to Review the FBI Martin Luther King, Jr., Security and Assassinations Investigations, January 11, 1997, 29, National Archives, Washington, DC.
5. Georgia Davis Powers, author interview, Louisville, March 15, 2013.
6. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 222.
7. Ibid., 221.
8. Edward T. Brethitt, interview transcript by Betsy Brinson, February 24, 2000, Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project, Kentucky Historical Society, Lexington.
9. Powers interview.
10. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 85.
11. Ibid., 96.
12. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 100.
13. Ibid., 146.
14. Ibid., 172.
15. Ibid., 180.
16. Powers interview.
17. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 145–46.
18. Powers interview.
19. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 136.
20. Ibid., 162.
21. Powers interview.
22. Ibid.
23. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 621.
24. Powers interview.
25. Powers, I Shared the Dream, 225–27.
CHAPTER 17: HOME PRESSURES
1. Marc Perrusquia, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last 32 Hours,” Commercial Appeal, April 4, 2013.
2. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 290.
3. Abernathy, Partners to History, 193.
4. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 58.
5. Coretta Scott King as told to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, My Life, My Love, My Legacy (New York: Henry Holt, 2017), 166.
6. Carson, Martin’s Dream, 191.
7. King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, 7–10.
8. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 24.
9. Carson, Martin’s Dream, 182.
10. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 38.
11. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 677.
12. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 391.
13. King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, 97.
14. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 142.
15. Dyson, I May Not Get There with You, 298.
16. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, 94–95.
17. Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, “SNCC: Born of the Sit-Ins, Dedicated to Action: Remembrances of Mary Elizabeth King,” from Trinity College SNCC Reunion, April 1988, Civil Rights Movement Veterans, http://www.crmvet.org/nars/maryking.htm, originally published in A Circle of Trust: Remembering SNCC, ed. Cheryl Lynn Greenberg (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998).
18. Branch, Pillar of Fire, 325.
19. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 375.
20. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 158–59.
21. Branch, Pillar of Fire, 339.
22. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 204.
23. Memo from the New York FBI Bureau, BU 100–442529, October 16, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. FBI FOIA file.
24. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 471.
25. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 678, 744; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 617.
26. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 55.
27. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 472–73.
28. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 374.
29. Ibid., 96.
30. Garrow, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr, 125–26.
31. Young interview.
32. King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, 259.
33. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 471.
34. Martin Luther King Jr., from sermon “Unfulfilled Dreams,” March 3, 1968, quoted in Dyson, I May Not Get There with You, 162.
35. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 617.
CHAPTER 18: INVADERS’ EXIT
“Why We Must Go to Washington,” transcript of King’s remarks at SCLC retreat, January 16, 1968, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, 10, King Center archives.
1. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 622.<
br />
2. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 428.
3. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, 263.
4. Perrusquia, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last 32 Hours.”
5. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, 264.
6. Hearing transcript, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., April 3, 1968, US District Court, Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, 59–61.
7. Young interview.
8. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 428
9. Hooks interview.
10. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 437.
11. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 381.
12. Ibid., 384.
13. Quoted in “As American as Apple Pie, Cherry Pie—and Violence.”
14. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 365–66.
15. Ibid., 359–60.
16. “Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, March 30, 1968,” report from the Memphis FBI office to J. Edgar Hoover, MLK Exhibit 457, HSCA, vol. 6, 576.
17. James Lawson, interview transcript, July 8, 1970, tape 244, SSAP, 5.
18. Memo from Memphis FBI office, April 6, 1968, Ernest Withers FOIA File, 2.
19. FBI, Sanitation Workers Strike report, Exhibit 457, 573–76.
20. Marrell McCollough, November 20, 1978, HSCA testimony, vol. 6, 414–15.
21. Robert Blakey statement, November 20, 1978, HSCA testimony, vol. 6, 444.
22. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 432.
23. Memo from Memphis FBI office, April 6, 1968, Ernest Withers FOIA File, 8.
CHAPTER 19: MELANCHOLY AFTERNOON
Let the Trumpet Sound, 468.
1. Arkin, Civil Disorders, 43.
2. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 437–38.
3. Frank, American Death, 57.
4. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 292.
5. Powers interview.
6. King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, 5.
7. Branch, Parting the Waters, 40.
8. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 76.
9. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 761.
10. Powers interview.
11. Martin Luther King Jr., “All Labor Has Dignity,” ed. Michael K. Honey (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), xxxiii.
12. Logan interview.
13. King, “Showdown for Non-Violence,” 25.
14. Memo from Hosea Williams to Bernard Lafayette, February 11, 1968, item 3837, folder 1, box 198, William Rutherford Files, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Records, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University (hereafter Rutherford Files).
15. Andrew Young, A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew W. Young (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 100.
16. “SCLC finances,” FBI memo from Sullivan to Moore, October 28, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 00000119.TIF.
17. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 189.
18. King, “All Labor Has Dignity,” 153.
19. Memo from New York FBI office to Director, July 1, 1966, presumably based on wiretap of Stanley Levison, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 100–149194.TIF; memo from New York FBI office, September 21, 1966, quoting New York Times, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 00000063.TIF.
20. Letter from William Rutherford to Marlon Brando, February 28, 1968, item 3959, box 198, folder 14, Rutherford files.
21. Abernathy testimony, August 14, 1978, HSCA, vol. 1, 28–29.
22. “Re SCLC finances,” February 29, 1968, FBI memo from Moore to Sullivan, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA File, 00000180.TIF.
23. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 369.
24. “Re: SCLC Finances and Poor People’s Campaign,” FBI memo, March 26, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 00000131–132.TIF.
25. “Why We Must Go to Washington,” transcript of King’s remarks at SCLC retreat, January 16, 1968, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, 16, King Center archives.
26. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 440.
27. King, “Showdown for Non-Violence,” 24.
28. “Re Washington Spring Project,” FBI memo from Moore to Jackson, Mississippi, office, March 11, 1968, HSCA, vol. 6, 27–29, 30.
29. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 380.
30. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 438.
CHAPTER 20: RAY’S LUCKY BREAKS
King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 227.
1. James Earl Ray, interviewed by Dan Rather, CBS Special Reports, March 9, 1977, HSCA, vol. 1, 209.
2. Frank, An American Death, 59.
3. Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the US House of Representatives, JFK Assassination Records, Findings in the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., National Archives, Washington, DC, 299.
4. McMillan, Making of an Assassin, 301.
5. Michael Finger, “31 Hours, 28 Minutes: A Timeline of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Last Hours in Memphis,” Memphis, April 2008, 53.
6. Opening statement by Shelby County district attorney Philip Canale, State of Tennessee v. James Earl Ray, Criminal Court of Shelby County, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, 2.
7. Charles Stephens’s affidavit, exhibit in Tennessee v. Ray, 2, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.
8. Department of Justice task force report, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, 49.
9. Canale opening statement, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, 2.
CHAPTER 21: DARK NIGHT
Martin Luther King Jr., transcript of speech in Waycross, Georgia, 1.
1. Young interview.
2. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 440.
3. Jesse Jackson, interviewed online by Jeff McAdory, Commercial Appeal, April 4, 2013.
4. Frank, An American Death, 154.
5. Autopsy report by J. T. Francisco, M.D., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Tennessee Department of Public Health, Memphis, April 11, 1968, 1, http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Celebs/king%20jr,%20martin%20luther_report.pdf.
6. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 440.
7. Young, Easy Burden, 464.
8. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 383.
9. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 440–41.
10. Ibid., 442.
11. Attachment to findings in “United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” June 2000, regarding alleged involvement of Memphis police officers, Harold Weisberg Archive, http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/F%20Disk/FBI/FBI%20Office%20of%20Professional%20Responsibility%20Conclusions%20King/Item%2004.pdf, 37–42. See “List of Attachments,” US Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/crt/list-attachments-0.
12. Young, Easy Burden, 465.
13. Jaynes note to author.
14. Young and Sehgal, Walk in My Shoes, 23.
15. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 314.
CHAPTER 22: REDEMPTION
Paul Weeks, “Dr. King Under Heavy Guard on Arrival Here,” Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1965.
1. Abernathy, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 22.
2. Branch, Parting the Waters, 58–61.
3. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 48.
4. Young, Walk in My Shoes, 23.
5. Maxine Smith interview.
6. Branch, Parting the Waters, 59–60.
7. Carson, Martin’s Dream, 206.
8. King, Stride Toward Freedom, 94.
9. Ibid., 92.
10. Carson, Martin’s Dream, 180.
11. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 26.
12. King, Stride Toward Freedom, 34–35.
13. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 151.
14. Martin Luther King Jr., “Suffering and Faith,” Christian Century, 1960, 182–83.
15. Martin Luther King Jr., “Speech Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize,” in Washington, Testament of Hop
e, 226.
16. Lischer, Preacher King, 192.
17. King, Why We Can’t Wait, 128–29.
18. King, “Showdown for Non-Violence,” 26.
19. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 364.
20. Young interview.
21. Martin Luther King Jr., “Salute to Freedom,” speech to Local 1199 of National Health Care Workers’ Union, New York City, March 10, 1968, in The Radical King, ed. Cornel West (Boston: Beacon Press, 2015), 240.
22. King, “Drum Major Instinct,” 259–67.
23. Washington, Testament of Hope, 267.
EPILOGUE
1. Frank C. Holloman, “Civil Disorders—Where To Now?,” speech to the 14th Annual Seminar, American Society for Industrial Security, Fort Worth, Texas, September 11, 1968, Holloman Collection, 6.
– Acknowledgments –
MUCH OF THIS BOOK’S ORIGINALITY is owing to a series of interviews that I conducted with people who were close associates of Martin Luther King Jr. in March and April of 1968 or who were immersed in the events that brought him to Memphis at that time. I am indebted to them for having shared their recollections with me.
To document events that occurred five decades ago, I relied on extensive archival research. Particularly helpful in guiding me through the maze of relevant archives were Sara Cantrell of the National Civil Rights Museum, Ed Frank of the Ned R. McWherter Library at the University of Memphis, and Laurel Davis of the Boston College Law Library. I thank them, as well as Kira Jones, who researched the William Rutherford papers in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. I benefited, moreover, from access to records at the Memphis Public Library and Information Center, Shelby County Courthouse, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newton (Massachusetts) Free Library, and US National Archives and Records Administration.
I am beholden to the Atlanta University Center for having awarded me a travel grant to research the King Collection at its Robert W. Woodruff Library. I thank the Intellectual Properties Management, Inc., for permission to copy documents at the Woodruff Library. I am grateful to Ryan Jones, whose commentary during a tour of the National Civil Rights Museum deepened my understanding of what happened at the Lorraine Motel in April 1968. Vince Hughes, Ron Borod, and Wayne Dowdy kindly briefed me about events and context related to their city of Memphis. Friends Martha and Jerrold Graber shared their knowledge of Memphis and housed and fed me during several visits to the city. Philip and Ellen Rosenbloom graciously offered their hospitality in Louisville.
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