At Canaan's Edge

by Taylor Branch

free-for-all pillow fight: Young, Burden, pp. 463–64; Blackside, Inc., Eyes on the Prize II—America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965 to 1985, Vol. IV, “The Promised Land (1967–68)”; Citizen King, a Roja Production for The American Experience, PBS, 2004; Garrow, Bearing, pp. 622–23; Posner, Killing the Dream, pp. 23–24; Kotz, Judgment, p. 414.

  “death and destruction”: News script, WMC-TV Channel Five, April 4, 1968, MVC.

  Officer Richmond noted: Frank, American Death, pp. 58, 65.

  long-scheduled spring revival: Hearings, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 1, pp. 19–20; Raines, Soul, p. 523; Stokes, Report, p. 365; Abernathy, Walls, pp. 438–39.

  Hosea Williams loudly evicted: Hearings, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 6, pp. 466–67, 520–21; Pepper, Act of State, pp. 193–94.

  Jesse Jackson rehearsed: Beifuss, River, pp. 289–90.

  King chimed in to needle Kyles: Samuel B. (Billy) Kyles oral history, June 12, 1968, pp. 8–15, MVC; Stokes, Report, p. 366; Frank, American Death, pp. 67–70; Baldwin, Balm, p. 306; Posner, Killing the Dream, pp. 29–30.

  Marrell McCullough parked: U.S. Department of Justice, Report of the Department of Justice Task Force to Review the FBI Martin Luther King, Jr. Security and Assassination Investigations, p. 25; Hearings, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 6, pp. 418–19; McKnight, Crusade, p. 71.

  tussling with Bevel: Stokes, Report, p. 366; Young, Burden, p. 464.

  “Jesse, I want you to come”: Frady, Jesse, pp. 226–27.

  Time on the balcony: Stokes, Report, p. 367; Beifuss, River, pp. 292–93; Frank, American Death, pp. 73–75; Raines, Soul, pp. 522–23; Abernathy, Walls, pp. 440–41; Posner, Killing the Dream, pp. 30–32.

  EPILOGUE

  PAGE

  McCullough first reached the victim: Stokes, Report, pp. 368–69; Posner, Killing, p. 31.

  knot from King’s necktie: Beifuss, River, pp. 292–93.

  “Somebody done hit”: Walter “Bill” Bailey oral history, July 10, 1968, MVC.

  “They got my brother”: Beifuss, River, pp. 305–6.

  Memphis Search for Meaning Committee: Ibid., pp. 352–53.

  segment filmed outside the emergency room at St. Joseph’s: “Film Cabinet—News Film, On-the-Air & Outtakes,” April 4, 1968, Video 44–45, Container 52, MVC.

  Riots erupted in 110 American cities: NYT, April 10, 1968, p. 37.

  Congress passed the nondiscrimination bill: NYT, April 11, 1968, p. 1.

  what amounted to a state funeral in Atlanta: Pomerantz, Peachtree, pp. 358–63.

  settled the Memphis strike: Beifuss, River, pp. 348–49; Goulden, Jerry Wurf, pp. 178–81.

  King died intestate: Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., File No. 81048, Probate Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

  $12,351.36 from the eccentric poet and essayist Dorothy Parker: Amended Affidavit of Assets filed July 2, 1979, by Coretta Scott King, in ibid.; NYT, June 27, 1967, p. 22; Levison to Dora McDonald, June 27, 1967, A/KP15f10; “Dorothy Parker: Wit’s End/Poet’s Ashes, Ideals Honored in Baltimore,” WP, Oct. 21, 1988, p. D-1.

  new sheriff, John Hulett: Eagles, Outside Agitator, p. 256; int. Judge John Hulett, Jr., Sept. 28, 2005.

  slowly entered the dedication ceremony: Dallek, Flawed, pp. 620–23.

  “whom I don’t know so well”: Pamphlet, “Equal Opportunity in the United States: A Symposium on Civil Rights,” 1972, p. 162, LBJ.

  sought out an awed Bond: Int. Julian Bond, Jan. 10, 2004; LBJ to Bond, Dec. 13, 1972, courtesy of Julian Bond.

  “Christmas bombing”: Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 667–69; Appy, Patriots, pp. 395–96; Langguth, Our Vietnam, pp. 614–24.

  Pauli Murray knelt trembling: Murray, Song, pp. 430–31.

  “God here and now as father”: NYT, July 30, 1974, pp. 1, 17.

  upheaval over the sanctity of male-only clergy: Cf. “History-Making 65th Convention Ends,” Sept. 23, 1976, Episcopal News Service record 76299, AEC; “Union Council Rejects Convention Decision,” Nov. 10, 1976, Episcopal News Service record 76341, AEC.

  female priests ordained by official sanction: “Episcopal Priests Ordained,” WP, Jan. 9, 1977, p. 3; Murray, Song, pp. 434–35.

  Within days, they had traced the mark: Stokes, Report, pp. 584–87; Posner, Killing, pp. 37–41; FBI LHM dated April 6, 1968, “Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

  Stokely Carmichael or Rap Brown ordered King killed: Unsigned memo dated April 12, 1968, with attached FBI LHM, “Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” April 10, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

  FBI officials planted a malicious story: Jack Anderson, “FBI Used King File in Killer Hunt,” WP, Aug. 15, 1970; int. Jack Anderson, Oct. 7, 1983; FBI memorandum, “Martin Luther King, Jr.,” April 9, 1968, FK-3415.

  “their plaster saint”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Tom Offenburger, 12:43 A.M., April 19, 1968, FLNY-9-1645.

  “there is no way a ten-cent white boy”: Bernard Lee oral history by Walter Burrell, June 23, 1968, RJB.

  eerie wedding ceremony: Posner, Killing, p. 261.

  Dennis Sweeney: Chafe, Never, pp. 453–60; King, Freedom Song, pp. 510–18.

  sentenced to life for the baffling murder: “Ex-Black Panther Is Sought in Death of Sheriff’s Deputy,” NYT, March 18, 2000, p. 7; “Al-Amin Calls Slaying Case a ‘Government Conspiracy,’” WP, March 22, 2000, p. 3; “Georgia Upholds Former Militant’s Conviction,” NYT, May 25, 2004, p. 16.

  Dexter King publicly proclaimed James Earl Ray innocent: NYT, March 28, 1997, p. 22.

  Reagan announced his belief: NYT, Oct. 20, 1983, p. 1; partial transcript of Reagan press conference, WP, Oct. 20, 1983, p. 8; Cannon, President Reagan, pp. 523–24; “Uneasy Holiday,” New Republic, Feb. 3, 1986, pp. 22–27.

  students spilling into the streets of South Korea: Glennon, ed., Our Times, p. 630.

  Soviet empire suddenly dissolved: Ibid., pp. 640, 650, 654, 656.

  inspired the world from Tiananmen Square: Ibid., p. 641.

  “Universal suffrage on a common voters’ roll”: Ibid., pp. 661, 680.

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