April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and the Transformation of America

by Michael Eric Dyson (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $24.53

  On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m., while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King ended his final speech with the words, I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson examines how King fought, and faced, his own death, and how America can draw on his legacy in the twenty-first century. April 4, 1968 celebrates the leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his vision.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.27

  On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, Michael Eric Dyson re-examines the influence of the Civil Rights leader, and how his death changed America.Martin Luther King, Jr, the prophet for racial and economic justice in America, was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Earlier that day, he had ended his final public speech by saying I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. Now, forty years after his death, Michael Eric Dyson uses the assassination as a starting point for a comprehensive re-evaluation of the fate of America, specifically Black America, over the ensuing years. He ambitiously - and controversially - investigates the ways in the nation has made it to the Promised Land (the Civil Rights Bill of '64; the incredible number of black elected; the expanding black middle class and increased numbers of black entrepreneurs and CEOs) whilst shining a bright light on the many areas that still fall far short (racial profiling; police brutality; housing discrimination in the form of mortgage practices; health disparities; and, disproportionate levels of unemployment and underemployment).Rather than looking only back April 4, 1968 takes a sweeping 360-degree view of King's death-remembering all the toil, triumph, and tribulation that led to that fateful date while anticipating the ways in which the legacy of King's death will affect America's future.