description: In "Pillar of Fire," the second volume of his America in the King Years trilogy, Taylor Branch portrays the civil rights era at its zenith. The first volume, "Parting the Waters," won the Pulitzer Prize for History. It is a monumental chronicle of a movement that stirred from Southern black churches to challenge the national conscience during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. In this masterly continuation of the narrative, Branch recounts the climactic struggles as they commanded the national and international stage.  "Pillar of Fire" covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963 to 1965 -- Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vietnam, Selma. And it provides a frank, revealing portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the nonviolent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls. Branch's gallery of historic characters also includes: 
language: English
title: Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, Part 2: 1963-64
titlecomplete: Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, Part 2: 1963-64
characters: Andrew Young, Barry Goldwater, Robert F. "Bobby"  Kennedy, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., John F. Kennedy, John Robert Lewis, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Fred Shuttlesworth, Muhammad Ali, Richard B. Russell, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, Hosea Williams, James Farmer, Elijah Muhammad, Burke Marshall, Deke DeLoach, Lee C. White, Ralph Abernathy, Roy Wilkins, J. Edgar Hoover, Clarence B. Jones, James Bevel, Malcolm X, Allard K. Lowenstein, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara, Wilson Baker, James Forman, John Doar, Medgar Evers, McGeorge Bundy, George Wallace, Martin Luther King Jr., Aaron Henry, Bayard Rustin, Vernon Dahmer, Stanley Levison, Bob Moses
genres: Historical, Audiobook, American, History, Biography, African American, American History, Race, Politics, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 2873
series: America in the King Years
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award
category: Books
publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio