Jason Sokol presents "The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr."

Local resident and prominent historian, Jason Sokol will speak about his latest book, The Heavens Might Crack: the Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. As surprising as it may seem to many of us tody, at the time of his death 50 years ago, Martin Luther King was widely despised by a great many white Americans, seen as almost irrevelant by an increasingly militarized young African-American youth, and as the hope for a free and equal society by others. His murder sent out shockwaves climaxing in days of rioting and intense despair for the very idea of racial equality in America. In vivid prose Sokol presents us with a picture of our country's struggle with racism, bringing King's legacy forward to today.

" The Heavens Might Crack is an important, timely, and invigorating addition to the vast literature on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By examining the evolution of King's legacy after his death with great care and deft analysis, historian Jason Sokol offers new insights into the meaning of a life that continues to shape contemporary American democracy."-- Peniel E. Joseph, author of Stokely: A Life

"Coming at a moment when an open racist occupies the highest office in the land and white terrorists proudly march in our streets, Sokol's book helps us understand how we got here, and how the forces of hatred and bigotry that ended King's life were never fully extinguished but remain very much with us today. A must read."-- Andrew W. Kahrl, author of Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America's Most Exclusive Shoreline

Sokol is the author also of All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn and There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975. Currently living in Newburyport, he attended Oberlin College and the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in American history. He has taught at Harvard, Berkeley, Cornell, and Penn. and is now an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire.

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Date and Time

Friday Mar 30, 2018
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT

Friday, March 30, 2018 - 7:00 pm

Location

Jabberwocky Bookshop,
The Tannery, 50 Water St.
Newburyport, MA 01950

Website

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