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A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King's death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassinationOn April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At the time of his murder, King was a polarizing figure--scorned by many white Americans, worshipped by some African Americans and liberal whites, and deemed irrelevant by many black youth. In The Heavens Might Crack, historian Jason Sokol traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, to King's death. Whether celebrating or mourning, most agreed that the final flicker of hope for a multiracial America had been extinguished.A deeply moving account of a country coming to terms with an act of shocking violence, The Heavens Might Crack is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America's fraught racial past and present.



About the Author

Jason Sokol

Jason Sokol is an American historian.

Jason was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball. 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. He is now an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire.



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