On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM, while he was standing on a
balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and fatally
wounded. Only hours earlier King--the prophet for racial and economic justice
in America--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 uses the fortieth anniversary of King's assassination as the
occasion for a provocative and fresh examination of how King fought and faced
his own death, and we should use his death and legacy. Dyson also uses this landmark
anniversary as the starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate
of Black America over the four decades that followed King's death.
Dyson ambitiously investigates the ways in which
African-Americans have in fact made it to the Promised Land of which King spoke
while shining a bright light on the ways in which the nation has faltered in
the quest for racial justice.
He also probes the virtues and flaws of charismatic black
leadership that has followed in King's wake, from Jesse Jackson to Barack
Obama. Always engaging and inspiring, April 4, 1968, celebrates the prophetic
leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his
deeply moral vision. (bobbeethehater.blogspot.com)
