''America in the King Years'' is a three-volume history of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

and the Civil Rights Movement by

Taylor Branch Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume o ...

, which he wrote between 1982 and 2006. The three individual volumes have won a variety of awards, including the 1989

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the histor ...

. The titles of the three volumes, ''Parting the Waters'', ''Pillar of Fire'', and ''At Canaan's Edge'', were all drawn from aspects of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from ; ''Šəmōṯ'', 'Names'; ) is the second book of the Bible. It is the first part of the narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites, in which they leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of ...

– namely, the

Crossing of the Red Sea The Parting of the Red Sea or Crossing of the Red Sea (, lit. "parting of the sea of reeds") is an episode in The Exodus, a foundational story in the Hebrew Bible. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egypt ...

, the manifestation of God that allowed the Israelites to travel by night, and the

Promised Land In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" ( ) refers to a swath of territory in the Levant that was bestowed upon Abraham and his descendants by God in Abrahamic religions, God. In the context of the Bible, these descendants are originally ...

, which

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

was able to see into, but did not live long enough to enter. A one-volume summary of the series was published in 2013.

Background

In the early 1980s, Branch planned to spend three years writing about America during the civil rights era, focusing on

As Branch proceeded with his work, the project ended up becoming a 24-year endeavor. Branch described his approach to writing the King trilogy as follows:

Storytelling--to do it in storytelling. I--one of the reasons I wanted to do it was that I knew this had an enormous impact, somewhat like the Civil War and Reconstruction period a century before. But most of the books I read seemed to me analytical and argumentative, reinventing new labels of analysis. And I felt that they didn't have the power to really describe what happened at the personal level, which is where I think we really learn about race across the divisions that we have. And so I really resolved from some lessons out of my experience that I wanted to try to keep it at a storytelling level and follow the stories wherever they went. I just didn't know that there would be so many of them or that they would be from such broad context; that I'd be chronicling King's relationship with Rabbi Abraham Heschel or something like--you know, these are things that I didn't--had no way of anticipating. So I just kind of--I followed storytelling, but it tumbled me off into more worlds than I'd planned on.

''Parting the Waters''

''Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63'', the first book in the trilogy, was published in 1988. Events detailed in this volume include the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social boycott, protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United ...

, the 1961

Freedom Rides Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia' ...

, the 1963

Birmingham campaign The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts ...

and

Children's Crusade The Children's Crusade was a failed Popular crusades, popular crusade by European Christians to establish a second Latin Church, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Holy Land in the early 13th century. Some sources have narrowed the date to 1212. ...

, and the 1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

. It shared the 1989

with James McPherson's history of the American Civil War, '' Battle Cry of Freedom''. It also won the 1988

National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, established in 1976,National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

in the Non-Fiction category. The cover of the book uses a reversed portion of the iconic photograph of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery taken by ''Look'' magazine photographer James Karales.

''Pillar of Fire''

The second volume, ''Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65'', was published in 1998. It covers such events as the

Assassination of President Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas gove ...

, the

Mississippi Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as Mississippi Freedom Summer (sometimes referred to as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project), was a campaign launched by American civil rights activists in June 1964 to register as many Africa ...

, and King's acceptance of the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

''At Canaan's Edge''

The final book in the trilogy, ''At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968'', was published in 2006. Among the subjects it covers are the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three Demonstration (protest), protest marches, held in 1965, along the highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery. The marches were organized by Nonviolence, nonvi ...

, the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement, Dr. King's participation in the

Anti-Vietnam War movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1965 with demonstrations against the escalating role of the United States in the war. Over the next several years, these demonstrations grew into a social movement which was ...

, the

Watts Riots The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. The riots were motivated by anger at the racist and abus ...

, and the events leading up to King's assassination. It was the winner of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

''s Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction in 2006.

''The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement''

A one-volume summary of Branch's trilogy, ''The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement'', was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013.

HBO miniseries

Although in 2010

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...

's production company, Harpo, announced that it would be partnering with

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

to produce a miniseries based on Branch's trilogy, to be written by

Robert Schenkkan Robert Frederic Schenkkan Jr. (born March 19, 1953) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 for his play '' The Kentucky Cycle'' and his play '' All the Way'' earned the 2014 Tony Award ...

, the series has not yet been filmed.

References

External links

''In Depth'' interview with Branch, February 5, 2006

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

Interview with Branch on ''Parting the Waters'', January 16, 1989

''Booknotes'' interview with Branch on ''Pillar of Fire'', April 12, 1998

NPR's ''Fresh Air'' interview with Branch, January 16, 2006Taylor Branch speaking on ''At Canaan's Edge'' at the University of California's Walter H. Capps Center, June 19, 2006Presentation by Branch on ''At Canaan's Edge'', September 30, 2006

Interview with Branch on ''America in the King Years'', April 28, 2007

Presentation by Branch on ''The King Years'', January 22, 2013

Presentation by Branch on ''The King Years'', September 21, 2013

{{Civil rights movement 1988 non-fiction books 1998 non-fiction books 2006 non-fiction books 20th-century history books Works about Martin Luther King Jr. American biographies Non-fiction books about the civil rights movement Series of history books History books about the United States Multi-volume biographies Simon & Schuster books Books about activists