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

ABRAHAM LINCOLN struck off the chains of black Americans, but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy’s sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands upon the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life.

the Dreamers are quoting Martin Luther King and exulting nonviolence for the weak and the biggest guns for the strong.

black insurrection in Detroit in the summer of 1967. I had moved the year before to teach in Adrian, Michigan, just seventy miles from Detroit. I remember the feeling of dread and absurdity as I asked myself, What has all this to do with Jesus Christ—his birth in Bethlehem, his baptism with and life among the poor, and his death and resurrection? I

No civil rights legislation of any type was passed by the federal government after 1875. The national laws were replaced by state laws that allowed segregation—that in fact required segregation. As Richard Kluger wrote in his monumental book Simple Justice, the Supreme Court had “flashed the green light,” and the eleven southern—and several border—