Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65

Bill Moyers recalled Johnson saying that he had delivered the South to Republicans “for your lifetime and mine,” which would turn the whole structure of politics on a fulcrum of color. In their direst visions, after the Goldwater convention followed hard upon the civil rights bill, neither established experts nor shell-shocked Negro Republicans ant

“It was a gathering of the utterly comfortable, come together to protest that they should be having it better . . . angry even in victory.”

“While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racist,” King declared. “His candidacy and philosophy will serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes will stand.”

King despaired. After nearly three years, his relationship with President Kennedy had run out of room. Although the movement needed federal intervention more than ever, realism told King he could not pressure President Kennedy an inch further. Brooding, he took the young Justice Department lawyer Thelton Henderson privately aside. “I’m concerned ab

At the “midnight” of personal or national crisis, King preached, the prophetic voice must raise hope of a just morning, as slaves once sang, “I’m so glad that trouble don’t last always.”