Research Catalog

Title

Pillar of fire : America in the King years, 1963-65 / Taylor Branch.

Author

Branch, Taylor

Publication

New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, c1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 746 p., [24] p. of plates; 25 cm.

Summary

In Pillar of Fire, the second volume of his America in the King Years trilogy, Taylor Branch portrays the civil rights era at its zenith. The first volume, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. Pillar of Fire covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963 to 1965 - Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vietnam, Selma. And it provides a frank, revealing portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. - haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the nonviolent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls. Branch brings to bear fifteen years of research - archival investigation; nearly two thousand interviews; new primary sources, from FBI wiretaps to White House telephone recordings - in a seminal work of history.

Alternative Title

• America in the King years, 1963-65
• America in the King years, 1963-1965

Subject

• King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
• 1900-1999
• African Americans > Civil rights
• Civil rights movements > United States > History > 20th century
• United States > History > 1961-1969

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [620]-716) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

pt. 1. Birmingham Tides. 1. Islam in Los Angeles. 2. Prophets in Chicago. 3. LBJ in St. Augustine. 4. Gamblers in Law. 5. To Vote in Mississippi: Advance by Retreat. 6. Tremors: L.A. to Selma. 7. Marx in the White House. 8. Summer Freeze. 9. Cavalry: Lowenstein and the Church. 10. Mirrors in Black and White. 11. Against All Enemies. 12. Frontiers on Edge: The Last Month pt. 2. New Worlds Passing. 13. Grief. 14. High Councils. 15. Hattiesburg Freedom Day. 16. Ambush. 17. Spreading Poisons. 18. The Creation of Muhammad Ali. 19. Shaky Pulpits. 20. Mary Peabody Meets the Klan. 21. Wrestling with Legends. 22. Filibusters. 23. Pilgrims and Empty Pitchers. 24. Brushfires pt. 3. Freedom Summer. 25. Jail Marches. 26. Bogue Chitto Swamp. 27. Beachheads. 28. Testing Freedom. 29. The Cow Palace Revolt. 30. King in Mississippi. 31. Riot Politics. 32. Crime, War, and Freedom School. 33. White House Etiquette. 34. A Dog in the Manger: The Atlantic City Compromise. 35. "We see the giants ..." 36. Movements Unbound pt. 4. "Lord, Make Me Pure but Not Yet" 37. Landslide. 38. Nobel Prize. 39. To the Valley: The Downward King. 40. Saigon, Audubon, and Selma.

ISBN

0684808196

LCCN

^^^97046076^

OCLC

• 37909869
• SCSB-10238545

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library