CHAPTER 1: ATLANTA DEPARTURE
Ralph David Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 419.
1. Coretta Scott King, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 290.
2. G. Wayne Dowdy, A Brief History of Memphis (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011), 63.
3. Joan Turner Beifuss, At the River I Stand: Memphis, the 1968 Strike, and Martin Luther King (orig. pub., 1985; Memphis: St. Lukes Press, 1990), 256.
4. E. H. Arkin, Civil Disorders, Memphis, Tennessee, Feb. 12–April 12, 1968, report of Memphis Police Dept., 36–37, Frank Holloman Collection, Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library, Memphis, Tennessee (hereafter Holloman Collection).
5. Michael K. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), 376.
6. Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 238.
7. David L. Lewis, King: A Critical Biography (New York: Praeger, 1970), 383.
8. Ibid.
9. FBI memo from New York Bureau to headquarters, April 1, 1968, transcript of conversation between King and Stanley Levison, King FOIA file 00000172–176.TIF.
10. David Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Leadership Conference (orig. pub., 1986; New York: Perennial Classics, 2004), 391; Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 323; and Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 513.
11. Gerold Frank, An American Death: The True Story of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Greatest Manhunt of Our Time (New York: Doubleday, 1972), 91.
12. Harry Belafonte with Michael Shnayerson, My Song: A Memoir (New York: Knopf, 2011), 311.
13. Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year (New York: Little, Brown, 2014), 74.
14. Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Free Press, 2000), 6.
15. Ralph Abernathy, testimony, August 14, 1978, in Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the US House of Representatives Ninety-Fifth Congress, Second Session (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1979) (hereafter cited as HSCA testimony), vol. 1, 18.
16. Dorothy F. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Atria Books, 2012), 260.
17. Dorothy F. Cotton, author interview by telephone, February 18, 2013.
18. Andrew Young, author interview, Atlanta, October 12, 2012.
19. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 428.
CHAPTER 2: DETOUR
Martin Luther King Jr. at Stanford, “The Other America,” 1967, available at YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3H978KlR20.
1. Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” National Cathedral, Washington, DC, March 31, 1968, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., ed. James M. Washington (New York: HarperOne, 1986), 272–73.
2. Ibid., 275.
3. Briefcase contents, Morehouse College: Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, Atlanta (hereafter cited as Woodruff Library).
4. Martin Luther King Jr., unpublished manuscript, October 14, 1966, 1–2, Woodruff Library.
5. Helen B. Shaffer, “Negroes in the North,” in Editorial Research Reports 1965, vol. II, 779–97 (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1965), http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1965102700.
6. Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (orig. pub. 1964; Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), 21.
7. Ibid., 107.
8. Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” speech delivered April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church, New York City, Common Dreams, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115–13.htm.
9. Martin Luther King Jr., “Need to Go to Washington,” unpublished transcript of a news conference, Atlanta, January 16, 1968, 1–6, archives of King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta (hereafter King Center archives).
10. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 615.
11. King, “Remaining Awake,” 272–73.
12. Martin Luther King Jr., transcript of a speech, Waycross, Georgia, March 22, 1968, 3–6, King Center archives.
13. King schedule, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Records, William Rutherford Files, box 197, folder 9, item 3810, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta.
14. Marion Logan interview by Paul Steckler, December 9, 1988, in Eyes on the Prize II Interviews, Blackside, Inc., Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection, http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/log5427.0673.097marianlogan.html.
CHAPTER 3: THE STRIKE
1. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 143.
2. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 457.
3. Taylor Rogers, author interview, Memphis, October 12, 2006.
4. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, author interview, Memphis, April 13, 2007.
5. Ibid.
6. Gene Dattel, Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power (Lanham, MD: Ivan R. Dee, 2009), 331.
7. Joe Warren, author interview, Memphis, October 12, 2006.
8. Ibid.
9. Rogers interview.
10. Warren interview.
11. Ibid.
12. Martin Luther King Jr., “Speech to Sanitation Workers,” transcript, Memphis, March 18, 1968, 2, King Center archives.
13. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 63.
14. T. O. Jones, interview transcripts, August 8, 1969 and January 30, 1970, folders 108–10, Sanitation Strike Archival Project, Special Collections Department, Ned R. McWherter Library, University of Memphis (hereafter SSAP).
15. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 32.
16. Warren interview.
17. Ibid.
18. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 38.
19. Rogers interview.
20. Larry Scroggs, “New Union Command Post Hints ‘We’re Here to Stay,’” Commercial Appeal, March 18, 1968.
21. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 375.
CHAPTER 4: AIRPORT ARRIVAL
Hampton Sides, Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin (New York: Doubleday, 2010), 122.
1. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 375.
2. “Re: Security and Surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Memphis police report by Inspector G. P. Tines, July 17, 1968, 2, Holloman Collection (hereafter Tines report).
3. James Lawson, author interview, Nashville, April 16, 2007.
4. Tines report, 4.
5. “King Challenges Court Restraint, Vows to March,” Commercial Appeal, April 4, 1968.
6. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 12.
7. Author’s recollection of comments heard while riding in a squad car during the summer of 1968.
8. Flip Schulke and Penelope O. McPhee, King Remembered (orig. pub., 1986; New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), 240–41.
9. Edward Estes Redditt, author interview, Somerville, Tennessee, October 12, 2006.
CHAPTER 5: THE INVITATION
Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” National Cathedral, Washington, DC, March 31, 1968, http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_remaining_awake_through_a_great_revolution.1.html.
1. Samuel S. B. (Billy) Kyles, interview transcript, July 30, 1968, tape 280, 10, SSAP.
2. Kyles interview.
3. Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., interview transcript, July 8, 1970, tape 243, 8, SSAP.
4. Young interview.
5. Andrew Young, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 190.
6. Ibid.
7. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 464.
8. Benjamin Hooks, author interview, Memphis, October 11, 2007.
9. “Young Criticizes Dr. King for Viet Statement,” Washington Post, September 12, 1965.
10. Young, Easy Burden, 434.
11. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, 209.
12. Young interview.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 296.
16. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 256.
17. Kyles interview, SSAP, 18–19.
18. King, “Speech to Sanitation Workers,” 7.
19. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 259.
CHAPTER 6: THE MAYOR
Martin Luther King Jr., “Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike,” King Encyclopedia, http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_memphis_sanitation_workers_strike_1968/.
1. Young interview.
2. Lewis R. Donelson III, Lewie (Memphis: Rhodes College, 2012), 166–67.
3. Dowdy, A Brief History of Memphis, 27.
4. Frank L. McRae, author interview, Memphis, October 11, 2006.
5. Joseph Sweat, author interview, Nashville, April 16, 2007.
6. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 62.
7. Quoting an ad from the Memphis Appeal, December 2, 1846, in Paul R. Coppock, Memphis Memoirs (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1980), 98.
8. Ibid., 73–74.
9. Sweat interview.
10. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 206.
11. McRae interview.
12. King, “Speech to Sanitation Workers,” 4.
13. McRae interview.
14. Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (orig. pub. 1963; New York: Signet Classic, 2000), 122.
15. Sweat interview.
16. Lewis R. Donelson, author interview, Memphis, April 4, 2014.
17. Quoted in Frank Murtaugh and Marilyn Sadler, “The Lions in Winter: Ten Civil Rights Pioneers Take Us Back to the Dark Days of April 1968,” Memphis, April 8, 2008, 65.
18. Sweat interview.
19. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 20.
20. Ibid., 71.
21. Henry Loeb, interview transcript, tape 18, SSAP, 19.
CHAPTER 7: LORRAINE CHECK-IN
Sides, Hellhound on His Trail, 123.
1. W. P. Huston, “Supplemental Report on James Earl Ray,” August 22, 1968, 2, Criminal Investigation Division, Memphis Police Department.
2. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 355.
3. Abernathy, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 32.
4. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 356.
5. Abernathy, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 32.
6. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 365.
7. Charles Cabbage, quoted in Southern Patriot (Southern Conference Educational Fund) article by Robert Analvage, as reported by the Memphis FBI bureau, April 5, 1968, Ernest Withers, FOIA file, 13.
8. Cotton interview.
9. Young interview.
10. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, xiv.
11. Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 169.
12. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 742.
13. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 379.
14. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 742.
15. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 281–82.
16. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 742.
17. Cotton interview.
18. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 289.
19. Marshall Frady, Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 226.
CHAPTER 8: DAMAGE CONTROL
Transcript of interview with James M. Lawson Jr., July 8, 1970, tape 243, SSAP, 7.
1. David Caywood, author interview, Memphis, April 7, 2014.
2. Frank Holloman, May 23, 1978, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 258.
3. Donald Smith, May 23, 1978, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 259–61.
4. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 354.
5. Memo from Memphis FBI office, April 6, 1968, “Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tennessee, Racial Matters,” 7–8.
6. Jesse Jackson, Commercial Appeal, video posted on its website, April 1, 2008.
7. Order of Judge Bailey Brown, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., April 3, 1968, US District Court, Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, Memphis.
8. Martin Luther King Jr., “I See the Promised Land, April 3, 1968,” in Washington, Testament of Hope, 282.
9. Lawson interview.
10. McRae interview.
11. Lawson interview.
12. Young interview.
13. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 219.
14. Hooks interview.
15. Lawson interview.
CHAPTER 9: THE INJUNCTION
Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 191.
1. Tines report, 2.
2. Hearing transcript, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., April 4, 1968, US District Court, Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, Memphis, 203.
3. J. Michael Cody, author interview, Memphis, October 7, 2009.
4. Lucius E. Burch Jr. (1912–1996), The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Version 2.0, http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/.
5. Caywood interview.
6. Cody interview.
7. Ibid.
8. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 352.
9. Lucius Burch, interview transcript, September 3, 1968, tape 88, SSAP, 3.
10. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 356.
11. Burch interview, 7, SSAP.
12. J. Michael Cody, quoted in “The Lions in Winter,” 58.
13. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 357.
14. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” in Washington, Testament of Hope, 293.
15. Burch interview, SSAP, 7.
16. Caywood interview.
17. Cody interview.
18. Ibid.
CHAPTER 10: INVADERS
1. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 382.
2. Martin Luther King Jr., In a Single Garment of Destiny: A Global Vision of Justice, ed. Lewis V. Baldwin (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012), 128–29.
3. Martin Luther King Jr., “Need to Go to Washington,” 9.
4. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 334.
5. Cotton, If Your Back’s Not Bent, 204.
6. Coby Smith, author interview, Memphis, October 8, 2007.
7. Quoted in “As American as Apple Pie, Cherry Pie—and Violence,” This Day in Quotes, July 27, 2015, http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2013/07/as-american-as-apple-pie-cherry-pie-and.html.
8. Appendix to field report from Memphis FBI office, “Black Organizing Project,” Invaders FOIA file, 1.
9. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 235.
10. “Re: Sanitation Workers Strike, March 29, 1968,” field report from Memphis FBI office, Exhibit F-456, in HSCA, vol. 1, 475.
11. FBI field report from Memphis office, February 27, 1968, Ernest Withers FOIA file, WP13, 4–5.
12. David J. Garrow, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From “Solo” to Memphis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 191.
13. Memo from Memphis FBI office, April 3, 1968, “Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tennessee, Racial Matters.”
14. Donzaleigh Abernathy, Partners to History: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Crown Publishers, 2003), 184.
15. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 289.
16. John Burl Smith, HSCA testimony, November 20, 1978, vol. 6, 489.
17. Charles Cabbage, HSCA testimony, November 20, 1978, vol. 6, 516.
18. Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 380.
19. Marrell McCollough, HSCA testimony, vol. 6, 417.
20. Field report from Memphis FBI, April 6, 1968, Ernest Withers FOIA file, WP 14, 8–9.
21. Cabbage, HSCA testimony, 518.
22. John Burl Smith, HSCA testimony, November 20, 1978, vol. 6, 465–66.
23. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 414.
24. Charles Cabbage, HSCA testimony, November 20, 1978, vol. 6, 518.
CHAPTER 11: NINE-TO-FIVE SECURITY
Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 607
1. John Lewis with Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 404.
2. Frank C. Holloman affidavit, filed April 3, 1968, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., US District Court, Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, 4.
3. Frank Holloman, testimony April 3, 1968, hearing transcript, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., US District Court, Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, 9.
4. Holloman, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 253.
5. Tines report.
6. Young interview.
7. King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 226.
8. Young interview.
9. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 353.
10. Holloman testimony, City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King Jr. et al., 55.
11. Donald Smith, HSCA testimony in executive session, March 1978, vol. 4, Exhibit F-188, 259–61.
12. Tines report, 4.
13. Holloman, HSCA testimony, vol. 1, 263.
14. Ibid.
15. Frank Holloman, interview transcript, May 9, 1973, tape 355, SSAP, 8.
16. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 191.
17. FBI memo from Las Vegas Bureau, May 15, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 00000224–5.TIF.
18. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 10–11.
19. Frank, American Death, 89.
20. Gerald Posner, Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Random House, 1998), 5.
21. Maxine Smith, author interview, Memphis, October 12, 2007.
22. Caywood interview.
23. Gregory Jaynes, e-mail to the author, December 8, 2006.
24. Lawson interview.
25. Jerry Dave Williams, testimony in Coretta Scott King et al. v. Loyd Jowers, November 17, 1999, 315, Circuit Court of Shelby County, Thirtieth Judicial District, Memphis.
26. Redditt interview.
27. Ibid.
CHAPTER 12: RELUCTANT SPEAKER
King, Where Do We Go from Here.
1. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 430.
2. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 354.
3. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 513.
4. Frank, An American Death, 90.
5. Young interview.
6. Young, Easy Burden, 461; Richard Lischer, The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word That Moved America (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995), 134.
7. Beifuss, At the River I Stand, 277.
8. Frady, Jesse, 224.
9. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 216.
10. Young interview.
11. Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 184.
12. Lischer, Preacher King, 163.
13. Andrew Young, panel discussion, “Scoop: The Evolution of a Southern Reporter,” January 16, 2013, Carter Library and Museum, Atlanta.
14. Frady, Jesse, 224.
15. Ibid., 226.
16. Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, 430.
17. Candadai Seshachari, “The Re-Making of a Leader: Martin Luther King’s Last Phase,” Weber: The Contemporary West 10, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 1993).
18. Frank, American Death, 39.
19. Ibid., 40–41.
20. Logan interview, 4.
21. Ibid., 1.
22. Ibid., 3–4.
23. SCLC Charter, appendix to FBI memo from J. F. Blandi to W. C. Sullivan, January 4, 1962, Sec. 6, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file, 4.
24. King, “I See the Promised Land,” 5.
25. Clayborne Carson, Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Memoir (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
26. King, Where Do We Go from Here, 141.
27. Ibid., 173.
28. Martin Luther King Jr., “Showdown for Non-Violence,” Look, April 16, 1968, 24–26.
29. Logan interview, 6.
30. FBI memo from G. C. Moore to William Sullivan, March 11, 1968, citing a report, Martin Luther King, Jr.—A Current Analysis, Martin Luther King Jr. FOIA file.
31. Frank, American Death, 39–40.
32. Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 591–92.
33. Belafonte, My Song, 328.
34. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Power of Nonviolence,” speech at the University of California at Berkeley, July 4, 1957, Journal of Christian Encounter/Intercollegian 75, no. 8 (1957), 8–9, in Woodruff Library.
CHAPTER 13: THE STALKER
King, Why We Can’t Wait.
1. Sides, Hellhound on His Trail, 305.
2. Frank, An American Death, 175.
3. William Bradford Huie, He Slew the Dreamer: My Search for the Truth About James Earl Ray and the Murder of Martin Luther King (Montgomery, AL: Black Belt Press, 1997), 26.
4. Ibid.
5. James Earl Ray, HSCA staff interview, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, Petros, Tennessee, March 22, 1977, HSCA, vol. 9, 17.
6. Posner, Killing the Dream, 85–86.
7. Frank, An American Death, 176.
8. Memo from Springfield, Illinois, FBI office to J. Edgar Hoover, August 1, 1969, HSCA Exhibit F-622, vol. 7, 422.
9. Posner, Killing the Dream, 108.
10. Ibid., 78.
11. Ibid., 102.
12. Ibid., 90–94.
13. George McMillan, The Making of an Assassin: The Life of James Earl Ray (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976), 111–12.
14. Posner, Killing the Dream, 98–100.
15. Ibid., 104–5.
16. Percy Foreman, testimony, April 4, 1974, HSCA, vol. 5, 335.
17. Posner, Killing the Dream, 109–10.
18. Ibid., 123–24.
19. Robert Blakey statement, November 10, 1978, HSCA, vol. 4, 195.
20. McMillan, Making of an Assassin, 228–29.
21. James Earl Ray testimony, March 28, 1977, HSCA, vol. 9, 262–63.
22. Summary of prosecutor’s opening argument, State of Tennessee v. James Earl Ray, Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, 3/10/69, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, 4.
23. Staff report, HSCA, based on interview with Manuela Aguirre Medrano, November 1, 1978, HSCA, vol. 4, 158–59.
24. Ibid., 111–13.
25. Staff report, HSCA, November 10, 1978, vol. 4, 112–24, 158–59.
26. Percy Foreman testimony, HSCA, vol. 5, 95.
27. Staff report, HSCA, vol. 4, 122.
28. Evidence summary by US Representative Walter Fauntroy, November 9, 1978, HSCA, vol. 4, 5–6.
29. Huie, He Slew the Dreamer, 136.
30. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 408.
31. Huie, He Slew the Dreamer, 138.
32. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 408.
CHAPTER 14: SUMMONING DR. KING
Martin Luther King Jr., “All Labor Has Dignity,” ed. Michael K. Honey (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011).
1. Cody interview.
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.
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 Hope, 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.