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The King Years
The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement | Taylor Branch
3 posts | 1 read | 4 to read
Taylor Branch, author of the acclaimed America in the King Years, introduces selections from the trilogy in clear context and gripping detail. The King Years delivers riveting tales of everyday heroes who achieved miracles in constructive purpose and yet poignantly fell short. Here is the full sweep of an era that still reverberates in national politics. Its legacy remains unsettled; there are further lessons to be discovered before free citizens can once again move officials to address the most intractable, fearful dilemmas. This vital primer amply fulfills its authors dedication: For students of freedom and teachers of history. This compact volume brings to life eighteen pivotal dramas, beginning with the impromptu speech that turned an untested, twenty-six-year-old Martin Luther King forever into a public figure on the first night of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Five years later, minority students filled the jails in a 1960 sit-in movement, and, in 1961, the Freedom Riders seized national attention. Branch interprets Kings famous speech at the 1963 March on Washington, then relives the Birmingham church bombing that challenged his dream of equal souls and equal votes. We see student leader Bob Moses mobilize college volunteers for Mississippis 1964 Freedom Summer, and a decade-long movement at last secures the first of several landmark laws for equal rights. At the same time, the presidential nominating conventions were drawn into sharp and unprecedented party realignment. In King, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Nobel Peace Prize, Branch details the covert use of state power for a personal vendetta. Crossroads in Selma describes Kings ordeal to steer the battered citizens movement through hopes and threats from every level of government. Crossroads in Vietnam glimpses the ominous wartime split between King and President Lyndon Johnson. As backlash shadowed a Chicago campaign to expose northern prejudice, and the Black Power slogan of Stokely Carmichael captivated a world grown weary of nonviolent protest, King grew ever more isolated. As Branch writes, King pushed downward into lonelier causes until he wound up among the sanitation workers of Memphis. A requiem chapter leads to his fateful assassination.
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Eggs
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If you visit D.C., climb the steps to The Lincoln Memorial to find the step upon which Rev. King stood for his I Have a Dream speech 55 years ago. Then turn to face the reflecting pool and gaze at the Washington Monument. Goosebumps
#ihaveadream #anewchapter @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @vkois88

Peaceful_Reader I‘ve been there in the spot and it is chilling and beautiful! 6y
AmberWB I have lived in the DC area for more than 20!years, and no matter how many times I visit the Lincoln memorial, I‘m in awe. 6y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I want to visit one day ❤️❤️ 6y
Eggs @Peaceful_Reader @AmberWB yes!! All Americans should visit D.C. once in their lives (but not the same day).... 6y
Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I hope you can. So much history there and so many awe-inspiring memorials 6y
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MelAnn
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This is starting off really good! This book pairs down Branch‘s original three book narrative America in the King Years into one book. I don‘t know why they felt it necessary to do this - I would prefer the three books - but our library didn‘t have them.

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MelAnn
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Book 1 from my library trip today ... In Texas, Beto (a candidate running against Ted Cruz) mentions this book in one of the most compelling defenses of the NFL kneeling question I‘ve ever heard. (So compelling it made me want to read this book & decide I no longer take a position on the kneeling protest.)

Here is Beto‘s answer: https://youtu.be/lAw9eXXVwfM

MelAnn I want to add that I don‘t normally get political on here. I very rarely mention politics - I saw this clip on Facebook and it just made me want to read the book. 6y
wanderinglynn That was an excellent answer. 6y
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