Rosenbloom’s meticulous reconstruction of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final thirty-one hours starts with King’s arrival in Memphis on the morning of April 3, 1968. After the demonstration he led there the previous March, supporting striking garbage workers, had devolved into riots, King was determined to regain his reputation for nonviolence, calm the dissent within the civil rights movement, and prepare for the next stage of the Poor People’s Campaign, scheduled for Washington. He didn’t live to fulfill his plans. This was partly due, Rosenbloom reveals, to a lapse in security by the Memphis Police Department. Drawing on interviews with witnesses and new material from recently opened archives, Rosenbloom, an award-winning journalist, paints a remarkable portrait of the last acts of a dedicated leader and fills in details about the chain of events that allowed James Earl Ray to end King’s life at age thirty-nine. Rosenbloom will be in conversation with Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine.
