At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68

I've never bought into conspiracy theories, including about King's or JFK's murders. But Taylor Branch, without saying so himself, lays out facts that lead me to believe Jame Earl Ray didn't act alone. Call me crazy but

1. King's travel schedule in the last weeks of his life was unpredictable to the average person, which would include your run-of-the-mill Klansman/white supremacist. It would have been impossible for a for the average person to track him unless . . .

2. His assassin was fed up-to-date details from surveillance. And, King WAS being tracked/wiretapped by the FBI.

3. Ray might have been racist, but racism never seemed to be his motivation for anything--money was his motivation and he was a professional thief and robber. I doubt he would have killed King for hate or opposition to civil rights. He might have done for pay though.

Provides a great behind the scenes look at the Civil Rights movement which most Americans are unaware of. However, one should read Mr. Branch's Parting of the Waters and Pillar of Fire before reading At Caanan's Edge. They are a great trilogy of America, and the Civil Rights era, during a turbulent time in our nations history.

A fitting conclusion to this massive trilogy. Branch is too generous to Johnson, and to the system of American politics + political economy in general, but this is still absolutely worth reading for the intricate details of movement-building, the tension between the movement and the larger forces at play in American politics, and the telescoping narrative from the riots of summer 1967 to the minute of the last 4 days of King’s life in the final section of the book.

From the Epilogue: "Like America's original Founders, those who marched for civil rights reduced power to human scale."

But my favorite quote may be from Stanley Levison. He gets the final say here after having been silenced by the FBI, amid power and fear run amok. Referring to King's assassination, he complained that most Americans already distorted the loss of "their plaster saint who was going to protect them from angry Negroes."

Monumental and indispensable. In the last volume of the trilogy, the civil rights movement splinters over non-violence coupled with the mounting horror of the Vietnam War. As a reader who came of age in this period, Branch's week by week account of the last three years of Martin Luther King's life was a sober reminder that despite everything, our current national catastrophe is not the worst in our recent history. Branch limns all of the major figures of the era, from Lyndon Johnson's mounting agony to Stokely Carmichael's mounting rage. Dr. King stays at the heart of the narrative as he is buffeted by forces that often seem beyond his control as he struggles to maintain his commitment to both the Movement and non-violence. There are also names that have been largely lost, martyrs to the cause like Viola Liuzzo, Vernon Dahmer and Jonathan Daniels. These and a host of others --- so many more than one remembers --- gave their lives in the continuing struggle to make the United States live up to its founding ideals.

The spare description of the moment King died is unbearable.

Highly, highly recommend.