everyone will find it incredibly valuabl valuable. >> absolutely. >> good evening. welcome to our author talk. first please silence your cell phones for co- following the

talk we will have an author signing. finally located across the lobby and finally we will have a question and answer session after the talk so come down to the microphone where you can ask questions and then you can access the microphone. now want to turn to our speaker.

the award-winning investigative journalist and the twitter writers of the boston globe had the documentary series on pbs. please join me to welcome our author. [applause] >> and with the introduction. thank you to the boston public library for sponsoring this event and to c-span books. can everyone hear me? >> no.

into the stellar, columnist joining me later in the program so that is the format for 25 minutes or so and with the introduction of the highlights to you and then we will open the conversation i brought a few photos of material i also brought a few audio clips and some excerpts from interviews that i

conducted while i was working on the book. on the morning of april 3r april 3rd, 1968, martin luther king junior died at - - arrived at the airport in memphis tennessee. accompanying him were his close aides henry young and then ralph abernathy. they had taken eastern airlines flight from atlanta. at the atlanta airport there

was a bomb threat directed specifically at king. the passengers were evacuated. it turns out to be a false alarm. and those were not his only two worries. but this was his third visit to memphis in 1968. on his first visit on march 18 he addressed the garbage worker workers. he was back ten days later to

speak and to lead a march through downtown memphis. so barely had the march began before it turned into a riot. a small number had broken away from the march. they had broken windows, stores and the police responded with tear gas and clubs and guns. and in the aftermath, it was king that was condemned for the riots condemned by politicians a newspaper editorialist and alleging that

he had a false command some people said he was even inciting violence so he decided he had to return to memphis that would be nonviolent. so there he is arriving back for that purpose he had another worry on that wednesday morning on the verge of launching his poor people's campaign to protest and demand

sweeping legislation and the poor people's campaign had gotten off to a slow start. the organizing and fundraising going well behind schedule and somehow had to revitalize fragoso coming to memphis was not an ideal time for him. and add a critical moment.

so as it's subtitled the time at 1033 in the morning until he is assassinated at six oh 1:00 p.m. the next day. 6:01 p.m. first it refers to his resolve in order to restore the nonviolent leader. second refers to a promise that the federal government had made to all americans.

and to get from the declaration of independence. with life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and to the christian concept that jesus sacrifice himself in order to save or redeem all of humanity. and then apply that to his own life. even to the point of death. and in the pursuit of economic and racial justice to have value in the christian sense.

so how is it that going to memphis to intervene that the dispute between management that's an odd thing to do for that purpose. launching the poor people's campaign. he was inspired by the bonus march 1932 this was a protest of world war i veterans converging on washington and an early payment of a bonus it

was during the depression they were in financial straits and they appeal to congress and president herbert hoover. right away. but then things can go very wel well. hoover ordered the army that king nonetheless thought to serve as a model of what they aim to do for the poor people campaign. and and the civil disobedience thousands of people of

congressional offices that would and poverty ending poverty once and for all and building a case for that legislation they proposed and soon exhibit a was the strike in protest.

he figured with the spotlight the very issues he was raising and that he should do that. so what is happening with the strike in memphis. how did it start? the garbage workers in memphis those low wages and those dreadful working conditions with joe warren and taylor rogers who talk about the grievances that they had.

>>. >>. >> so the workers decided to start local 1733 of the american federation they brought their grievances to the city. so they were planning to strike in the summer of 1968.

so talking about the timing and the morning of january 31st the black workers in the department of public works the white workers were kept on the job and repaid for a full day's work. on the next day february 1st 2 of the garbage workers took refuge in the back of the truck like the one you see here out of the rain a chemical goal malfunction activated the camp actor one - - compactor putting the two men into the jaws and it killed both of them. so these back-to-back events

with the racial disparity in the workers on january 31st and the horrific death the next day but the union leaders decided the time was right to strike. so they called the strike on february 12th. and 1100 of the 1200 garbage workers, it did not take long, just a matter of days that started with a labor dispute over a major racial confrontation. and the workers quickly adopted the slogan but in the

jim crow south that african-american men often were not addressed by their last name. they were often called boy instead of man. and then to have a deep-seated complaint of the racial bigotry and the time that the workers in the street collected the garbage. and then virtually were all black.

and then to reach an impasse and then to take a very hard line. and his thinking was simple. it is against the laws of tennessee for public employees for the garbage workers to strike and i am not negotiating with lawbreakers. and with those strikers only when they return to their jobs. and in those months before.

and then responding to life constituency to take a strike. one of the closest friends the methodist minister named gray was with the mayor during the strike. and that was tunnel vision. and he meant to do the right thing but was taking a very legalistic approach. but then those large forces are at work with the social political landscape. and that is self-expression.

so we try to persuade the mayor to take a look. and to be frustrated and what he tried to do with his account. >> [inaudible] [inaudible] but for the people that were applauding it.

but that you cannot strike against the city of memphis. >> once the replacement workers were on the job and to pick up a large amount of the trash and it soon became apparent so some leaders of the african-american community decided they needed to bring king to memphis. and then to address the rally and it would spotlight their plight and bring pet one - - pressure on the mayor. so the invitation went to king

and then on the right and sue say vehemently it would be a mistake. and that it would distract him from the political campaign and the political moment that he is afraid one strike of the 22 and that would lead to three. but king was not persuaded. but then so is happening in

memphis and that i need to go down there. and then to say they are people with full-time work and part-time wages. and to be a stop on the way to washington. here is what andrew young has to say about about king and himself whether he should accept the invitation. >> he said they just want to come down and preach. but it's about people just like this.

but then to get up at 4:00 o'clock in the morning and then plan to meet us back in washington. but when the riot occurred. >> after getting to the hotel starts a meeting in earnest with people in memphis, the ministers the group and others to have support for the march that he is planning on the following monday. that night he delivers in the

mountaintop speech that you have heard about, it is a well-known speech. you don't know if it would be as well remembered if he wasn't assassinated the next day but i think it was one of the most moving speeches. he talks about dying a violent death and coming to terms of that. and then to do so more openly in the emotional way that he has ever done before.

sorry about that. wait a minute. >> i may not get there but i want you to know tonight. >> they know the last line. and then to avow him of the

republic. and to sacrifice ourselves to free american slaves, you have to think but then to consider that his mood was that he was thinking about his own mortality. so mean whale one - - meanwhile james earl ray arrived in memphis. and to keep the introduction as brief as possible, but i will say that and to describe

his actions on april 3rd and 4th 1958 and the uncanny series of lucky breaks that enabled king one - - enabled ray to murder king. so the next day on april 4th at the lorraine motel, he meets with some aids. he is in a melancholy mood. they figured he was sorting through all the troubles and challenges that he faced at the time. 's motel was on the second floor. opening to a balcony.

at 6:00 o'clock he exits the room and is invited to dinner at the house of the local minister. he goes to the balcony and talks to some of his aides were down in the parking lot below. and then to go across the street in the rooming house. the bullet strikes keying on the right side of the face. he drops instantly to the floor of the balcony. the ambulance rushes him tuesday joseph's hospital and he is pronounced dead at seven oh 5:00 p.m. so how shall we i'm sure many

of you have your ideas. and then i was intrigued especially by what you might call his personal odyssey. and wasn't always destined in his mind to be a civil-rights candidate. at least not in the way to dedicate his life. and in montgomery alabama to study at boston university. and he saw himself at that

time to be a preacher or a theologian it's not of a national figure or champion on the national stage of the civil rights movement and with the bus boycott and was catapulted to the national spotlight. one event led to the other. his commitment deepened so by 1968 he saw himself in different terms to define himself. and at the time in 1968 to speak out passively against the vietnam war, and

advocating of what people would consider a radical program to end poverty once and for all. and doing all that as a controversial figure all the while knowing his life to a greater and greater degree.

>> anything you say they have to repeat that. >> so the reference to the sabbatical the interim pastor in new york city would fulfill a dream as in residence but he turned the invitation down and

was determined with those causes that were dear to him. and to give questions to respond and then to open up the conversation to all of you. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. we enjoyed the presentation. the night that doctor king was assassinated maybe they had

that in wikipedia but they remember that evening very vividly. >> i was actually in my hometown of jackson tennessee. my sister was getting married two days later was supposed to get married in memphis and then at the last minute went to jackson. there was a wedding in the evening so i was preoccupied with that so i was shocked and distressed and concerned and how it would be with the civil rights movement.

but then that was two days later. and then it happened to be my father's 36 birthday. my mother was in the kitchen cutting the birthday cake and my father was in the bedroom. and she started screaming. i looked on tv it just said bulletin. but i couldn't figure out what was going on at the same time i heard my grandmother downstairs scream as well. and my mother ran in from the kitchen and looked at the tv and just sank down into the chair. it sticks in my mind the way it does it's the first time i ever saw my parents cry. the house went into a weird hysteria. and the silence felt like it lasted for days and days.

i don't know if my parents had been so it will - - upset if that would be a memory. that so many books have been written about king so what made you to focus on that. so i did read the biographies but i thought it would bring up the close-up narrative and the way no one else had done. and to paint a portrait of king if they could see what

his actions were in the last few hours of his life in memphis. so he was under enormous pressure and with those circumstances surrounding told you something more from any of the other works that were out there. >> that we have these frozen images with the selma and montgomery march but at the end of 1968. >> he has changed quite markedly and was only emphasizing the kind of

campaign that preoccupied him for the first decade of his civil rights activism with desegregation and voting rights act in the south. but he pivoted only not only champing new causes but his tactics were changing more confrontational and willing to engage in mass civil disobedience. that he was going to the nation's capital in a direct way that was different.

>> that doesn't sit well with all of his supporters either. >> within the larger civil-rights community that would distract attention from civil rights and was mixing the two causes and to promote civil rights and also people thought it was a mistake and that it would backfire these are some of the closest aides at the leadership conference to say there was already a protest against the vietnam war against the inner cities of america and only harden the

resistance to the civil rights movement leaving to law and order candidates to that election that was scheduled for the very year. so that was part of internal discord. but then to see an ally. and then expecting king to get loyal to him. and then to shepherd the civil rights legislation but in the act of 1965. people thought keying owed him allegiance but by then it was lyndon johnson's war and the fear was that he would no

longer be an ally of the civil rights movement and is extremely unhappy. so even with the black community that the movement was getting to water down and that the focus should have been the initial mission and then to talk about the poor people campaign but then to affect african-american is in that part of the overall mission quick. >> we did talk about poverty and economic justice that his focus was on racial bigotry in the south. he was laser focused so the

civil right movement who thought the mission should be tightly focused on civil rights until 1967. he had moved to the north which was fine to proceed to fight for african-american rights and the more narrow issues of economic advancement and not to seek a broad federal response. so that part of the book where he says you can't even afford

to buy a hamburger so that you have to fight for civil rights but that is broader if people didn't see that. >> exact quote was what is the profit of man to sit at a desegregated lunch counter if he cannot earn enough to pay for a hamburger and a cup of coffee. that is typical of the clever witticisms he would have to make a point. yes he moved to that issue of economic justice. >> it's easy to forget he was only 39 years old that he was tired. he had been through a lot almost his whole life in the

public eye but. >> he is exhausted. and those exertions to take a toll he was hospitalized several times for exhaustion and was especially worn out april 1968 because he was on the road all over the country speaking at a pace and he was not speak - - sleeping well. he was smoking too much. often he was not feeling well. but yet he was going forward

with remarkable stamina. something i found interesting in the book and that gives extra attention because they are so young but king had his own motives to mobilize people especially in birmingham. talk about that. >> they were afraid they could expose these children to real harm. they expected a brutal response from the police so there was the risk of injury in those high school kids that joined him. but birmingham became a

morality because you see the young people who were being attacked by police dogs and spreading by fire hoses and that was on the evening news on television and would have an impact. and it actually did have a powerful influence on the american public to see those scenes unfold. >> it's also the idea of the social movement . . . .

some background so they can judge for themselves and he came from an extraordinarily poor dysfunctional background. he went to school in dirty

clothes, his mother was an alcoholic, they left the family and so on and so forth and so i don't know, i don't want to draw any conclusions from anyone's background. it raises intelligence to try to evaluate for themselves where this guy came from and why he might have done what he did. she held a people that put the gun but he hadn't actually injured anyone how lucky he had

28 could be to make it all to fall into place so he could actually shoot. we want to make those illusions, leave it up to you. you don't do in the book is getting to the conspiracy theories that have been strung around for half a century the

investigative officers and i just didn't think i could bring anything new to it. i am satisfied that he told king. i don't know if we will ever know for sure if there were conspirators. they said perhaps this brothers may have helped him in some way, but they were never able to prove that to their satisfacti satisfaction. so, i thought it was kind of rather cold and i didn't think i'd would emerge from it or have anything particularly to say about it.

talk about this decision that we are not going to replay the speech of try to go deeper. >> the answer is in order to quote a lot of the speech i would have had to have a copyright license from the king state. they are not free granting the copyright licenses. so, i did ask for license and it wasn't granted us up and i wasn't able to quote very many words from the speech. i could quote only a minimum amount under the fair use doctrine of the copyright law. so that's the explanation for that. i would prefer to have more of the words you heard here today in the finale of the mountaintop speech. i have to paraphrase that. some people said they read the earlier drafts and thought it

hadn't diminished the chapter that much. i hope that's true. he was a master orator. >> you had access to archives. talk a little bit about what you also find in those files. >> there were two things there. first is by digging deep into the archives for instance the transcripts of the house select committee on assassinations some police files in memphis, some records in the library i was able to unearth some details that others haven't printed which brought the story to life and revealed some new assets of what happened and also i was

lucky enough to have access to some archives that have only recently been opened. they were archives in two libraries in atlanta. one was the papers would've been the last executive director of the southern leadership conference before king was assassinated and that material is very helpful telling me more about the poor people's campaign and what had gone wrong. >> talk about what was going wrong -- >> what was happening there is that they were tryinthey were tt of money to house people in a makeshift camp for weeks and maybe months they would have to

feed them a have to pay for all these expenses, logistic expenses of maintaining the camp like that. they were trying to recruit people from the inner cities of america and especially from the impoverished local areas of america and those results were not encouraging. they were behind schedule in both respects. they will tell you about the problems they were having. >> this was a smooth operation. >> things always came together at the end. it was the nature of our campaigns.

the poor people's campaign was to start on april 22. it would have unfolded smoothly. so many parts were reduced to uplifting quotes. what we got from this book is humanizing it, taking it off of martin luther king and shoving him the faults and all his

marriage was having problems. he was a smoker, didn't sleep well, but even good things like he played practical jokes and did imitations of other creatures. it's bringing them back to us instead of off the mountaintop and putting them back to be with us. >> somebody would like to think that he was a saint, perfect in every day and i realized human beings, but he was a human being and had the frailties of the human being. >> they talked about the fact martin luther king had affairs

and people were scandalized, not much less that he had affairs and the fact that abernathy was talking about them and you have them in your book as well. the woman is standing in the civil rights movement comes to memphis on the meat of april 3 of april debate of martin luther king and given the narrative the last 31 hours of king's life the mistress shows up in the middle of the period and there is a chapter in which i profiled her and she's a kind of eyewitness to history. she was there in the last hour until about with the emotional

stake was like or what the preoccupations were, but he was trying to do then. so, i was delighted that she was willing to talk to me, but it did mean that i discussed that he was having extramarital affairs and so that is no secret. because editors exist, there's good things that don't make it into the final vision. what is the best most interesting thing he found out that you were not able to get some of the best story that you couldn't get into the book? >> there's a couple i don't want to repeat i used all the best materials. i can't think of anything offhand except for things i

don't really want to discuss. >> what was the most, what surprised you most in your research? >> one thing that surprised me was the failure of the memphis police to protect him and no one had reported that. so briefly there was no protection on his first two visits to memphis going on mar march 18. they were all the more threats against king and if they did provide a security detail to protect him for the moment until 5:00 on the first day that he was there, that was april 3. then the police security was disbanded at that point. there was no more security and the reason i decided was the richest in different king, the director testified later they didn't protect him on the first

two visits because they didn't see him as all that consequential it was just another person involved in the strike. so i think it was that in deference he's on his own now. and that surprised me greatly that they didn't do more. i think they could have saved his life and i go into that in the book. another surprise for me was we were going to talk about how. those are two surprises i think we are ready to have some questions from the audience. >> we will ask you to come to the microphone if you could,

please. and this being previously been revealed, but the conspiracy crackpots did talk about that, how the protection was stripped. are you aware of that? >> im. >> you said it isn't previously revealed though. >> i don't know of anyone that has reported as i did the secret of events but i don't see any reason to assume that there were these myths. no evidence has ever emerged that they were, and i think it

is so convincing that why would they bother to give him a police security and all and then abandon it. i think if it had been part of a conspiracy, there never would have been any security for him. so, i don't think it's logical to infer from the fact he didn't have security but he did for the seven hours on april 3 if that indicates any kind of conspiracy in which the police played a part. >> is there any alibi that he was changing a tire and introduced.

they said it made him kind of a patsy, and changing the tire is another story that has never been verified, and i think there is some question about whether that actually happened. no one was ever able to document that it happened. >> did they denounce those that are arriving on his behalf breaking windows and setting fires, did he denounce those and call for the prosecution of those that differ those acts? they condemned them for arriving but went on to say that he thought those young people were

victims of poverty and often in very dysfunctional families, and the answer to that simply wasn't punishment, but the answer was do something about the undermining conditions after the cause to act out in a way so he did say both. >> thank you so much. >> i admire martin luther king and i heard we have had people step up to the plate like he did, but i have a question. at the time of martin luther king have any support from the labor work with the unions as they were so separated and

couldn't see the good for all of the workers, you know what i'm trying to say, were they unified, was it just the union, how did they impact what they have but did he have any money coming in from the union and what part did they play? >> he did have some union support. arthur from the united workers was a sponsor of king and his union contributed to southern christian leadership conference. he was increasingly supportive.

he thought that they would be part of the answer for solving the problem of poverty. she also the unions especially in the south, not only in the south, for their exclusive policies where they didn't allow african-americans to be members of the union and excluded them from programs and that things which was a mixed message, but king had some union support and by no means across-the-board were all of the unions supporting them. >> other questions?

>> it takes so long to get down the stairs. in response to that last point about the campaign, i was living in atlanta at the time that it was being organized and personally, deeply involved, i knew what was going on in the division of the campaign is that people would come in and caravans and so on from all over the south from all over the country that you know including a lot from the poor white communities in the south as well as the poor black communities everywhere to try to produce a unified campaign as you compared to that of 1932 certainly we

heard in the early months of 1968 but this wasn't going well. it's incredible. you think about they needed hundreds of thousands of communities across the country to send from each of them hundreds of people to converge on washington in some kind of organized way. it is an unbelievable organizing challenge to. whether it would have come together if doctor king had lived, i can't say that it wouldn't have this work in chicago had been somewhat disappointing and i think that it is probable that.

they did go ahead and there was governing in washington. >> so, it was logistical to make it happen and fall into place. it hadn't been doing that well and there was another element they were bringing people of different backgrounds altogether trying to unify them for the purpose of protests and some kind of coherent message that they were going to deliver to congress. so you have african-americans, you had people of puerto rican background, mexican-americans, american indians, all kinds of

people from appalachia and various other parts of the country. so the idea that you could combine all of these different ethnic and racial backgrounds into one unified message was yet another challenge that they faced in making it successful in washington. >> i'm interested in this sort of writer's question. you break him of of that magnetd get into all of the dimensions. what would be the moment he felt the most personal connection to

king when yo you yourself having lived this filled the emotions yourself that surprised you? >> that is a good question. i think i would say to understand his courage it is towards the end of the mountaintop speech. coming to terms with it and being willing to talk about it so openly i really felt a great emotional identity or compassion within and it was thinking about that and about the enormous pressure he was under in fear foand fearfor his life the nighe was killed and i think that is the moment but it's a very good question.

>> i used to do eulogies and they talked about their deaths and thought about how -- they were tracking that a few steps behind them from time to time and king says in his famous market if the universe speech some are made to suffer physical death so others won't know the psychological death. the crowd says the arc of the moral universe is wrong. the second part i wonder about is if he carried this

precognition of his own death and how that comes to the moment when he really echoes and speaks directly to it in public in that moment. i'm not sure. some people say he imagined what was ahead but he felt it in this instant. >> he did feel it deeply. the threats were becoming more constant and menacing. no doubt it was weighing on him and i think he must have been aware there was more and more hostility because what he was saying and doing. you could say it was a

premonition but as you heard andrew young say, he knew he was going to die. it wasn't a matter of if, but a matter of when. so i think that he was convinced that his days were numbered. >> thank you. it was also interesting. i wondered if you are writing a book about the 31 days after his death would there be four, five or six important things that we should know about? >> that is another good question. i would speculate what i see happening or what would have happened. >> was there a turning point?

>> the strike was settled but never agreed to negotiate. the city council took it upon themselves to negotiate and the mayor could have vetoed it but he didn't do it. the workers did get increasing wages and assurance that the working conditions would were approved, and they did also the union was recognized. that happened very quickly within a week or two. as you may recall the night of march 31 they went on to the gentoo announce he wasn't going to run for the re- election said

he was less than the picture and so i -- >> was their short-term progress in the war on poverty? >> no, there was not. the issue fell by the wayside. i think that is a speculative question, but no. what happened is the war in vietnam was training to be a draining. there had been a war on poverty at the johnson administration supported in congress had approved to cut the funds even before the poverty that was underway because of the demand for money. if therthere was no progress fog time in reducing poverty in various ways but not for a while. >> iand the immediate response o

his assassination, did anything get catalyzed and preserved in that effort? >> v. sclc didn't have a bright future without paying in charge so that is a partial answer. ralph abernathy became the face of the overall director of. but he had a certain strength but he didn't have king's strength so it faded as a force in american life. then there was a period where there was so much political upheaval in the country over the war other causes, the democratic

convention and you may remember how chaotic that was. the short answer is there was in progress on the civil rights for some years after that. it took a while before there was any progress into some people would say it didn't reserve in the same way without king as the leader. >> i have not yet read the book that i wonder in hearing your comments about the challenges in your reading of the successors,

his note in the archive and came bacthinkingback to what had hapt five years earlier with the march on washington how successful that was and how it had been deemed impossible. to his records reveal anything about the relationship between sclc and the unions, a. philip randolph and the team of people that put together the march and anything about the later relationship who definitely could have had a plan to pull off the poor people's march i don't know if there's anything in the records that speak to that.

>> they had universal support. he was a critical organizer of the book the march on washington had nothing like that kind of solid support of the leaders. >> i don't think he was in favor of it, but i know that roy wilkins was opposed and they both thought the march on washington was a mistake for the reasons we discussed that was one important difference. i decided to go to the question. as opposed to the margin 63 it

is because a lot of those leaders that didn't agree that it was a wise policy and strategy to help the poor people's march. thank you very much all for coming. [applause]

they flashed a couple of numbers on me and having come from not much 55 million muscle at the company and i don't maybe 40% of the company which is a lot of money in 1981. we decide to make the transaction because as we grew and grew we needed more money to grow. there was turned by many venture capitalists and wall street didn't come along because we were making problems for them and thousands of customers were shining as clients.

it was very attractive at the time. by age and the development of if the company. susan the next three or four years it became better we were under the wrong umbrella had to work our way out of this. >> and they ran into huge problems. >> they went on and on and sold a couple subsidiaries. i said seles. [laughter] that was another interesting story about they said okay we will answer the wii will sell you to the highest bidder but

i'm not personal. you can sell the company and i'm going to start a company right across the street. i was a little upset because back when we made the deal we were at a stock for stock transaction. i was unhappy for many reasons, that was a rhetorical network. a wife is over here in the corner. she said shyly. [laughter] it is a nontrivial point, they could so charles schwab, but they could so charles schwab personally. >> i have a name and likeness in the provision that wasn't for

sale so it i hadn't used my name and face by that time in advertising so i was getting people who identified the company with me so i know who they are going to sell it to. we came to terms, they were happy they ended up with five or six times what they paid me in compensation in five years time so that was a good return for them.

>> here we go. excellent. thank you so much for coming