Redemption by Joseph Rosenbloom

Redemption by Joseph Rosenbloom

An immersive, humanizing, and demystifying (Charles Blow, New York Times) look at the final hours of Dr. King's life as he seeks to revive the non-violent civil rights movement and push to end poverty in America.

At 10:33 a.m. on April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., landed in Memphis on a flight from Atlanta. A march that he had led in Memphis six days earlier to support striking garbage workers had turned into a riot, and King was returning to prove that he could lead a violent-free protest.

King's reputation as a credible, non-violent leader of the civil rights movement was in jeopardy just as he was launching the Poor People's Campaign. He was calling for massive civil disobedience in the nation's capital to pressure lawmakers to enact sweeping anti-poverty legislation. But King didn't live long enough to lead the protest. He was fatally shot at 6:01 p.m. on April 4th in Memphis.

Redemption is an intimate look at the last thirty-one hours and twenty-eight minutes of King's life. King was exhausted from a brutal speaking schedule. He was being denounced in the press and by political leaders as an agent of violence. He was facing dissent even within the civil rights movement and among his own staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In Memphis, a federal court injunction was barring him from marching. As threats against King mounted, he feared an imminent, violent death. The risks were enormous, the pressure intense.

On the stormy night of April 3rd, King gathered the strength to speak at a rally on behalf of sanitation workers. The Mountaintop Speech, an eloquent and passionate appeal for workers' rights and economic justice, exhibited his oratorical mastery at its finest.

Redemption draws on dozens of interviews by the author with people who were immersed in the Memphis events, features recently released documents from Atlanta archives, and includes compelling photos. The fresh material reveals untold facets of the story including a never-before-reported lapse by the Memphis Police Department to provide security for King. It unveils financial and logistical dilemmas and recounts the emotional and marital pressures that were bedeviling King. Also revealed is what his assassin, James Earl Ray, was doing in Memphis during the same time and how a series of extraordinary breaks enabled Ray to construct a sniper's nest and shoot King.

Original and riveting, Redemption relives the drama of King's final hours.

Rosenbloom, Joseph: - Joseph Rosenbloom is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has been a staff reporter and editorial writer for The Boston Globe; an investigative reporter for Frontline; and a senior editor and features writer for Inc. magazine. Rosenbloom has a B.A. in history from Stanford University and a J.D. from Columbia University Law School. He lives in West Newton, Mass.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780807083383
ISBN 10	0807083380
Title	Redemption
Author	Joseph Rosenbloom
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Beacon Press
Year published	2018-03-27
Number of pages	216
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.