Death of a King Read online

  Dr. King Speaks at Opera House in Stockholm Sweden, March 31, 1966. Nordvision/Sverige. YouTube (accessed January 20, 2014).

  The Merv Griffin Show. July 6, 1967. YouTube (accessed December 20, 2013).

  MLK: A Call to Conscience, a T.S. Media Production for Tavis Smiley Reports. PBS, 2010.

  Sing Your Song. Dir. Susanne Rostock, S2BN Belafonte Production, LLC. DVD, 2011.

  STAND. Dir. Tavis Smiley, Sivat Productions. DVD, 2009.

  The Tonight Show. February 8, 1968. YouTube (accessed January 19, 2013).

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  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Introduction

  PART I

  FOUR SEASONS: SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, AND WINTER Chapter One: “Vocation of Agony”

  Chapter Two: “Betraying the Cause”

  Chapter Three: “The Language of the Unheard”

  Chapter Four: “Anxiety and Sorrow in My Heart”

  Chapter Five: The Bloodiest Month of All

  Chapter Six: Where Do We Go from Here?

  Chapter Seven: Cities Aflame

  Chapter Eight: Respect

  Chapter Nine: Chaos

  Chapter Ten: Ominous Clouds

  Chapter Eleven: “I, Martin Luther King, Take Thee, Non-Violence, to Be My Wedded Wife”

  Chapter Twelve: Ironic Anniversary

  PART II

  THE FINAL SEASON: THE LAST THREE MONTHS Chapter Thirteen: Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Fourteen: Confession

  Chapter Fifteen: Drum Major

  Chapter Sixteen: Humility, Levity, and Longevity

  Chapter Seventeen: Frantic Melancholy

  Chapter Eighteen: Restless Heart

  Chapter Nineteen: Garment of Destiny

  Chapter Twenty: Firemen

  Chapter Twenty-One: Midnight Hour in Memphis

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Freedom Explosion

  Chapter Twenty-Three: The Mountaintop in Memphis

  Chapter Twenty-Four: April 4, 1968

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Also by Tavis Smiley

  Sources and Bibliographies

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2014 by Tavis Smiley

  Author photograph by The Smiley Group, Inc. / Kevin Foley

  Cover design by Mario J. Pulice

  Cover photograph by Yoichi Okamoto

  Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  “Tribute to a King” lyrics courtesy of William Bell / Booker T. Jones

  ISBN 978-0-316-33275-0

  E3