Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, the second part of his epic trilogy on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement. In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with Parting the Waters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning with the Nation of Islam and conflict over racial separatism, Pillar of Fire takes the reader to Mississippi and Alabama: Birmingham, the murder of Medgar Evers, the "March on Washington," the Civil Rights Act, and voter registration drives. In 1964, King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Branch's magnificent trilogy makes clear why the Civil Rights Movement, and indeed King's leadership, are among the nation's enduring achievements. In bringing these decades alive, preserving the integrity of those who marched and died, Branch gives us a crucial part of our history and heritage. |
Contents
Advance by Retreat | |
L A to Selma | |
Pilgrims and Empty Pitchers | |
Brushfires | |
PART THREE FREEDOM SUMMER | |
Jail Marches | |
Bogue Chitto Swamp | |
Beachheads | |
Testing Freedom | |
The Cow Palace Revolt | |
Marx in the White House | |
Summer Freeze | |
Lowenstein and the Church | |
Mirrors in Black and White | |
Against All Enemies | |
The Last Month | |
PART TWO NEW WORLDS PASSING | |
Grief | |
High Councils | |
Hattiesburg Freedom | |
Ambush | |
Spreading Poisons | |
The Creation of Muhammad | |
Shaky Pulpits | |
Mary Peabody Meets the Klan | |
Wrestling with Legends | |
Filibusters | |
King in Mississippi | |
Riot Politics | |
Crime War and Freedom School | |
White House Etiquette | |
The Atlantic City Compromise | |
We see the giants | |
Movements Unbound | |
PART FOUR | |
Nobel Prize | |
The Downward King | |
Saigon Audubon and Selma | |
Epilogue | |
Acknowledgments | |
Photographs | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abernathy Alabama American Andrew Young announced arrest asked Atlanta Attorney Augustine Baptist Bayard Rustin Bevel Birmingham Bob Moses bombing Burke Marshall called campaign Chicago church civil rights bill COFO Communist convention County crowd Dahmer defend delegates DeLoach Democratic demonstrations Director Elijah Muhammad FBI agents federal Freedom Goldwater Governor Greenwood Hattiesburg Hayling headquarters Heschel Hoover Jackson jail James James Bevel Justice Department Kennedy’s King’s Klan lawyers leaders Levison Lowenstein Malcolm Malcolm X Martin Luther King mass meeting MFDP ministers Mississippi movement Muslim NAACP Nation of Islam Negro Neshoba County night nonviolent picket police political President Johnson President Kennedy presidential race racial rally replied reporters Republican Robert Kennedy Rustin saying SCLC segregation segregationist Selma Senate Sheriff SNCC South speech Stanley Levison Sullivan summer project television told volunteers vote voters Wallace warned Washington White House Wilkins wiretaps wrote York