Southern food, 135–36, 147
speechmaking by MLK, 108, 109, 111
Standard Oil Company, 62
Stephens, Charles, 153
Strength to Love (King), 9
Stride Toward Freedom (King), 101, 163
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 68–69, 70, 128, 137
suffering, 164
Sweat, Joe, 41, 42–43, 44–45
“tactical” violence, 135, 136–37
technology revolution, 10
television coverage at Mason Temple rally, 82–83, 102–3
Thompson, Frances, 152
The Trumpet of Conscience (King), 66
Tucker, Joe, 47
undercover surveillance: at airport, 25, 26, 28; at Centenary Church, 54–55; at Lorraine Motel, 47, 55; vs. police security, 76–77
union(s): racism of, 101; relationship of MLK to, 101–2; support of SCLC by, 101
unionization, 18–19
union recognition, 19, 43, 169
United Automobile Workers, 101
United Packinghouse Workers of America, 101
unity, plea for, 109–10
University of Louisville, racial discrimination at, 119
unjust law defense, 63
Vice Lords (Chicago), 65
Vietnam War: James Bevel on, 50; criticism of MLK’s stance on, 143; Marian Logan on, 85; pivot from racial injustice to, 10; and Poor People’s Campaign, 8; speaking out against, 3, 7, 9, 158; Andrew Young on, 33–34
voting-rights legislation, 5
Wachtel, Harry, 142
Walker, Robert, 19–20
Walker v. Birmingham (1967), 145
Wallace, George, 95
Ward, Lukey, 117, 118, 122, 142
“war on poverty,” 86
Warren, Estelle, 17
Warren, Joe, 16–18, 19, 100, 170
Warren, McKinley, 17
Washington National Cathedral, 7–8
Watts riots, 9, 10, 86
Waycross, Georgia, 13
Well, Ivan, 97
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (King), 5–6, 9–10, 86, 101, 121
Wilkins, Roy: and garbage workers strike, 31–32; on Poor People’s Campaign, 5, 27, 54, 87; on Vietnam, 143
Willard, John (alias), 151
Williams, Hosea: at death of MLK, 155; and the Invaders, 67, 135, 137, 138; at Lorraine Motel, 49; on Poor People’s Campaign, 143–44, 145; return to Memphis of, 13
Williams, Jerry Dave, 49, 50, 56, 79
Wilson, Jimmy, 127
Withers, Ernest, 29
Wood, Donald, 97
Wulf, Mel, 61
Wyatt, Wilson, 119
yellow fever, 41
York Arms Company (Memphis), 151–52
Young, Andrew: and capitalism, 87; at Centenary Church meeting, 55; at death of MLK, 155–56, 157–58; on exhaustion and illness of MLK, 82; on fatalism of MLK, 74, 75; on flight from Atlanta, 1, 6; on friendship of Ralph Abernathy and MLK, 104; on injunction, 57, 60, 122–23, 135, 141, 146–47; on invitation to speak in Memphis, 32, 34–35; on lack of groundwork in Memphis, 50; at Lorraine Motel, 49; at Mason Temple rally, 83, 102; on massive civil disobedience, 166; on offer to lead first march in Memphis, 36; in Poor People’s Campaign, 13, 145; relationship and role of, 27–28, 32–33; on religious aspirations of MLK, 162; on SCLC view of Memphis, 40; subsequent life of, 170–71; on television coverage, 83
Young, Whitney, 34, 143
– About the Author –
JOSEPH ROSENBLOOM is an award-winning journalist who has been a staff reporter for the Boston Globe, an investigative reporter for Frontline, and a senior editor for Inc. magazine. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and American Prospect, among other publications, and lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Under segregation, blacks could attend the Overton Park Zoo on Thursdays. The rest of the week and holidays, the zoo was for whites only.
William Edwin Jones pushes eight-month-old daughter Renee in protest on Main Street in Memphis, August 1961.
A security guard watches garbage workers empty trash into a compressor-equipped truck, as the Memphis strike enters its third day, on February 15, 1968.
The striking garbage workers staged daily marches carrying signs stating their emotional slogan: “I Am a Man.”
MLK arrives at the Memphis airport on the morning of April 3 with aides (l to r) Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, and Bernard Lee.
Jubilant strike leaders celebrate at the end of MLK’s speech in Mason Temple on March 18, 1968.
Mason Temple offered a cavernous forum, where MLK delivered two dramatic speeches to pro-strike rallies, including this one on March 18, 1968.
Rev. Jim Lawson leads strike supporters in a boycott against downtown stores. The sign refers to Mayor Henry Loeb.
At six foot five, Mayor Henry Loeb cut a physically imposing figure. He proved to be an implacable foe of the garbage workers’ strike.
MLK is jostled by an unruly crowd as he prepares to lead a march on behalf of the garbage workers, on March 28, 1968.
When he was traveling, King carried a briefcase stuffed with papers that reflected his widely varied interests, ranging from food production in the Mideast to the causes of urban rioting in the United States.
As US marshal Cato Ellis serves an injunction on MLK, King and his aides (l to r), Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, and Bernard Lee, share a laugh to lighten the mood.
MLK’s aide Jesse Jackson shares a private thought with him on the platform of Mason Temple during the pro-strike rally on April 3 1968.
MLK delivers his “Mountaintop” speech at Mason Temple on the evening of April 3, 1968.
Arriving in the Memphis federal courthouse on April 4, 1968, to contest an injunction against MLK was Lucius Burch, his legal team, and their witnesses. Pictured, from left, Rev. James Lawson, SCLC executive director Andrew Young, and lawyers Burch, Charles Newman, and W. J. Michael Cody.
BEACON PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2018 by Joseph Rosenbloom
All rights reserved
Text design and composition by Kim Arney
Cover design: Bob Kosturko
Cover art: © Ernest C. Withers, courtesy of the WITHERS FAMILY TRUST
Insert photo credits: Images 1, 2, 5, 6, and 11 © Ernest C. Withers Trust, courtesy Withers Family Trust. Images 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15 © Preservation and Special Collections Department, University of Memphis Libraries.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rosenbloom, Joseph, author.
Title: Redemption : Martin Luther King Jr.’s last 31 hours / Joseph Rosenbloom.
Description: Boston : Beacon Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017024226 (print) | LCCN 2017029763 (ebook) | ISBN 9780807083406 (ebook) | ISBN 9780807083383 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: King, Martin Luther,
