This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A year before his death, during his "Where Do We Go from Here?" speech, he said that "in spite of a decade of significant progress, the problem is far from solved."
In honor of King's legacy, throughout this month we will be highlighting some of our
recent titles that shed light on the progress we’ve made and the work still to
be done. Read an excerpt from Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist by John N. Herbers, with Anne Farris Rosen, below.
James Farmer, George Raymond, and John Lewis are escorted by
Neshoba County deputy Cecil Price and Mississippi Highway Patrolmen from the
Neshoba County Courthouse, Philadelphia. June 23, 1964. Photograph by Jim
Lucas, from A Past That Won’t Rest: Images of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.
Selma, 1965
"King approached the front desk to check in as the hotel’s
first black guest when Robinson suddenly wormed his way through the crowd and
approached him. 'I want to talk to you,' Robinson said. I was standing on the
second-floor balcony that ringed the lobby and had a bird’s eye view of what
happened next. Robinson drew back his arm, swung, and hit King twice on the right
temple. King offered no resistance. But SNCC’s John Lewis did. He pinned
Robinson’s arms to his side. But Robinson kicked King twice, catching him
lightly on the inner thigh near his groin. Lewis and Robinson fell across the
red carpet in a struggle.
A white woman in tight slacks and a leather jacket
stood in a corner shouting to Robinson, 'Get him. Get him.' Baker, who was
standing nearby, collared Robinson and dragged him to a patrol car. The black
leaders accompanying King helped him to his feet, and all were given hotel
rooms as required by law. I hurriedly ran to a pay phone to call in a news
story to the Times that King had been assaulted by a white supremacist leader.
King later told reporters he suffered nothing more than a headache from the attack."
From Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist by John N. Herbers with Anne
Farris Rosen
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