The Blood of Emmett Till
Timothy Tyson talked about his book The Blood of Emmett Till, in which he recalls the life and death of Emmett Till, a…
Martin Luther King Jr. AssassinatedAt 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, After two workers were crushed to death in a truck's compactor, the… read more
Martin Luther King Jr. AssassinatedAt 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, After two workers were crushed to death in a truck's compactor, the sanitation workers went on strike Feb. 11. They demanded a raise that would take them off welfare lines. The situation had obvious racial undertones: Most of the workers were black, and city officials standing against the union were white.With the slogan "I am a man," the workers also wanted the respect and dignity that comes with doing a low-paying, back-breaking job with great pride and effort.King came to Memphis to support them. He delivered his last public speech April 3, declaring, "I've been to the mountaintop."The next day, standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, King was killed by a rifle bullet fired by James Earl Ray from a boardinghouse across the street.The assassination led to riots in Memphis and several U.S. cities. But the strike, stained forever with King's blood, turned to victory when the city acquiesced to a 10-c close
Timothy Tyson talked about his book The Blood of Emmett Till, in which he recalls the life and death of Emmett Till, a…
Professor Max Krochmal talked about his book Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil…
Jon Else, producer and cinematographer of the Civil Rights documentary Eyes on the Prize, talked about his book True South: Henry…
Gordon Andrews talked about his book Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law, 1895-1950, in which he…