Death of a King (BOOK REVIEW)
Death of a King
The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Year
by Tavis Smiley
with David Ritz
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, $27.00
288 pages
ISBN: 978-0-316-33276-7
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“The
question I attempt to answer in this book is simple: In his last year, what
kind of man has Martin Luther King, Jr. become? In my view, he is a man whose
true character has been misinterpreted, ignored, or forgotten. I want to remember—and
bring to life—the essential truths about King in his final months before they
are unremembered and irrecoverable.
This
is the King that I cherish: the King who, enduring a living hell, rises to
moral greatness; the King who, in the face of unrelenting adversity, expresses
the full measure of his character and courage. This is the King who, despite
everything, spoke his truth, the man I consider the greatest public figure this
country has ever produced.”
Excerpted
from the Introduction (page 5)
Most Americans’
memory of Dr. Martin Luther King is little more than his “I Have a Dream”
speech delivered at the March on Washington
on August 28, 1963. In fact, sometimes it seems that his legacy has been
reduced to just the portion of that iconic address envisioning a world when
people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character.”
While Dr. King did continue
to lobby earnestly on behalf of that lofty ideal thereafter, he also subsequently
spoke out forcefully against militarism, poverty and a host of other palpable evils
plaguing the nation. And during the year before his assassination, he particularly
voiced some pretty progressive positions which put him at odds not only with
the government, right-wing ideologues and the mainstream media, but even with many
liberals who felt the civil rights leader was stepping out of his element by taking
stands against the Vietnam War and economic injustice.
Death of a King
revisits the martyred icon’s last days in order to illustrate how, until his
untimely demise, he resolutely followed a path dictated by his moral compass,
often in the face of blistering criticism and wearying death threats. Author
Tavis Smiley recognized a need for this enlightening bio because “history has sentimentalized
King, rendering him heroic but harmless.”
Tavis shares writing
credits with David Ritz, with whom he previously collaborated on “What I Know
for Sure.” Ritz is the prolific author of over 50 titles, most as the uncanny ghostwriter
of celebrity autobiographies for Aretha, Elvis, Sinbad, Etta James, Ray Charles,
Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Janet Jackson, Laila Ali, Paul Shaffer, BB King,
Don Rickles and Tavis’ close friend Dr. Cornel West, to name a few.
A haunting portrait
of the trials and tribulations of an unwavering visionary who held fast to his
core beliefs to his dying day.
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