Nine days : the race to save Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and win the 1960 election / Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First editionDescription: 352 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- still image
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781250155702
- 1250155703
- 9 days
- Race to save Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and win the 1960 election
- Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1960
- Political campaigns -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 -- Imprisonment
- Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
- Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1953-1961
- Civil rights demonstrations -- Georgia -- Atlanta -- History -- 20th century
- Civil rights -- United States -- History
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 323.0973 K33 | Available | 33111010471262 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"[An] inspiring book about the events leading up to the 1960 election, from Dr. King's imprisonment to student activism in Atlanta to JFK's campaign. It's a story we can all learn from--a story of overlooked heroes and the power each of us has to create change." --Barack Obama
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice | One of O magazine's best books of February 2021
The authors of Douglass and Lincoln present fully for the first time the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s imprisonment in the days leading up to the 1960 presidential election and the efforts of three of John F. Kennedy's civil rights staffers who went rogue to free him--a move that changed the face of the Democratic Party and propelled Kennedy to the White House.
Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, thirty-one-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a sit-in at Rich's Department Store in Atlanta. That day would lead to the first night King had ever spent in jail--and the time that King's family most feared for his life.
An earlier, minor traffic ticket served as a pretext for keeping King locked up, and later for a harrowing nighttime transfer to Reidsville, the notorious Georgia state prison where Black inmates worked on chain gangs overseen by violent white guards. While King's imprisonment was decried as a moral scandal in some quarters and celebrated in others, for the two presidential candidates--John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon--it was the ultimate October surprise: an emerging and controversial civil rights leader was languishing behind bars, and the two campaigns raced to decide whether, and how, to respond.
Stephen and Paul Kendrick's Nine Days tells the incredible story of what happened next. In 1960, the Civil Rights Movement was growing increasingly inventive and energized while white politicians favored the corrosive tactics of silence and stalling--but an audacious team in the Kennedy campaign's Civil Rights Section (CRS) decided to act. In an election when Black voters seemed poised to split their votes between the candidates, the CRS convinced Kennedy to agitate for King's release, sometimes even going behind his back in their quest to secure his freedom. Over the course of nine extraordinary October days, the leaders of the CRS--pioneering Black journalist Louis Martin, future Pennsylvania senator Harris Wofford, and Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps--worked to tilt a tight election in Kennedy's favor and bring about a revolution in party affiliation whose consequences are still integral to the practice of politics today.
Based on fresh interviews, newspaper accounts, and extensive archival research, Nine Days is the first full recounting of an event that changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history. Much more than a political thriller, it is also the story of the first time King refused bail and came to terms with the dangerous course of his mission to change a nation. At once a story of electoral machinations, moral courage, and, ultimately, the triumph of a future president's better angels, Nine Days is a gripping tale with important lessons for our own time.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"In Trouble" -- "You Can't Lead from the Back" -- Day 1: Wednesday, October 19 -- Day 2: Thursday, October 20 -- Day 3: Friday, October 21 -- Day 4: Saturday, October 22 -- Day 5: Sunday, October 23 -- Day 6: Monday, October 24 -- Day 7: Tuesday, October 25 -- Day 8: Wednesday, October 26 -- Day 9: Thursday, October 27 -- Time to Detonate -- "It Was a Symphony" -- "They Just All Turned" -- Epilogue: The Dungeon Shook.
"A history of the 1960 US presidential election with a focus on the role played by the imprisonment of Martin Luther King Jr. in the wake of an Atlanta sit-in"-- Provided by publisher
Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a sit-in in Atlanta. An earlier, minor traffic ticket served as a pretext for keeping King locked up, and he was transfered to Reidsville, the notorious Georgia state prison where Black inmates worked on chain gangs overseen by violent white guards. An emerging and controversial civil rights leader was languishing behind bars, and the campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon raced to decide whether, and how, to respond. The Kendricks show how these events changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history. -- adapted from jacket