''America in the King Years'' is a three-volume history of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

Taylor Branch Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume o ...

, which he wrote between 1982 and 2006. The three individual volumes have won a variety of awards, including the 1989

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...

. The titles of the three volumes, ''Parting the Waters'', ''Pillar of Fire'', and ''At Canaan's Edge'', were all drawn from aspects of the Old Testament

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from grc, Ἔξοδος, translit=Éxodos; he, שְׁמוֹת ''Šəmōṯ'', "Names") is the second book of the Bible. It narrates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through ...

– namely, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the manifestation of God that allowed the Israelites to travel by night, and the

Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...

, which Moses was able to see into, but did not live long enough to enter. A one-volume summary of the series was published in 2013.

Background

In the early 1980s, Branch planned to spend three years writing about America during the civil rights era, focusing on

As Branch proceeded with his work, the project ended up becoming a 24-year endeavor. Branch described his approach to writing the King trilogy as follows:

Storytelling--to do it in storytelling. I--one of the reasons I wanted to do it was that I knew this had an enormous impact, somewhat like the Civil War and Reconstruction period a century before. But most of the books I read seemed to me analytical and argumentative, reinventing new labels of analysis. And I felt that they didn't have the power to really describe what happened at the personal level, which is where I think we really learn about race across the divisions that we have.

And so I really resolved from some lessons out of my experience that I wanted to try to keep it at a storytelling level and follow the stories wherever they went. I just didn't know that there would be so many of them or that they would be from such broad context; that I'd be chronicling King's relationship with Rabbi
Abraham Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...
or something like--you know, these are things that I didn't--had no way of anticipating. So I just kind of--I followed storytelling, but it tumbled me off into more worlds than I'd planned on.

''Parting the Waters''

''Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63'', the first book in the trilogy, was published in 1988. Events detailed in this volume include the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

, the 1961

Freedom Rides Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia ...

, the 1963

Birmingham campaign The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...

and Children's Crusade, and the 1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

. It shared the 1989

with James McPherson's history of the American Civil War, '' Battle Cry of Freedom''. It also won the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, and was a 1989 finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in the Non-Fiction category. The cover of the book uses a reversed portion of the iconic photograph of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery taken by ''Look'' magazine photographer James Karales.

''Pillar of Fire''

The second volume, ''Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65'', was published in 1998. It covers such events as the Assassination of President Kennedy, the

Mississippi Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...

, and King's acceptance of the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

''At Canaan's Edge''

The final book in the trilogy, ''At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968'', was published in 2006. Among the subjects it covers are the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...

, the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement, Dr. King's participation in the Anti-Vietnam War movement, the Watts Riots, and the events leading up to King's assassination. It was the winner of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''s Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction in 2006.

''The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement''

A one-volume summary of Branch's trilogy, ''The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement'', was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013.

HBO miniseries

In 2010 Oprah Winfrey's production company, Harpo, announced that it would be partnering with HBO to produce a miniseries based on Branch's trilogy, to be written by

Robert Schenkkan Robert Frederic Schenkkan Jr. (born March 19, 1953) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 for his play '' The Kentucky Cycle'' and his play '' All the Way'' earned the 2014 Tony Awar ...

References

External links

''Booknotes'' interview with Branch on ''Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65'', April 12, 1998.NPR's ''Fresh Air'' interview with Branch, January 16, 2006Taylor Branch speaking on ''At Canaan's Edge'' at the University of California's Walter H. Capps Center, June 19, 2006
{{Civil rights movement 1988 non-fiction books 1998 non-fiction books 2006 non-fiction books 20th-century history books Works about Martin Luther King Jr. American biographies Civil rights movement Series of history books History books about the United States Multi-volume biographies Simon & Schuster books Books about activists