The Heavens Might Crack

The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Contributors

By Jason Sokol

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$19.99

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$24.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around March 20, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King’s death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassination

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At the time of his murder, King was a polarizing figure — scorned by many white Americans, worshipped by some African Americans and liberal whites, and deemed irrelevant by many black youth. In The Heavens Might Crack, historian Jason Sokol traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, to King’s death. Whether celebrating or mourning, most agreed that the final flicker of hope for a multiracial America had been extinguished.

A deeply moving account of a country coming to terms with an act of shocking violence, The Heavens Might Crack is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America’s fraught racial past and present.
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On Sale
Mar 20, 2018
Page Count
352 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9781541697393

Jason Sokol

About the Author

Jason Sokol is the Arthur K. Whitcomb Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. The author of two critically acclaimed books on the history of the civil rights movement, Sokol lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

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