A history professor traces the diverse responses to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., both in America and throughout the world, and discusses how America’s fraught racial past led up to its present. 25,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

"On 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"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

"A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King's death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassination On 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"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, and describes a country coming to terms with an act of shocking violence. - (Baker & Taylor)

This book describes different responses to the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, from mourning by many, to celebration and hatred by some whites, as well as the legacy for America’s racial history and how the American public turned him into a saint. It also details the effects of his death on civil rights and gun control legislation, the responses of African American leaders, urban riots that occurred, responses to his death from around the world, the impact of his death on the rising militancy among African Americans and the rise of the Black Panthers, and the impact on student protests. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com) - (Book News)

A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King's death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassination

On 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. - (Grand Central Pub)

Jason Sokol is the Arthur K. Whitcomb Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. The author of two critically acclaimed books on the history of the civil rights movement, Sokol lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. - (Grand Central Pub)

Library Journal Reviews

Several books have been released in time for the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, including Joseph Rosenbloom's Redemption: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last 31 Hours. Historian Sokol (Arthur K. Whitcomb Associate Professor of History, Univ. of New Hampshire; All Eyes Are Upon Us) is the author of two previous books on the civil rights movement, and is well versed in King's life story. His latest work does not go into much detail regarding the assassination itself, but instead places King in a balanced perspective both at home and abroad. This even-handed account helps explain the irony that King, in his day, was largely unpopular outside of African American communities yet now has become a symbol of American democracy. VERDICT A highly readable volume that will appeal to a spectrum of scholars, students, and the general public interested in African American politics.—William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport

Publishers Weekly Reviews

For the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights historian Sokol focuses on the murder's aftershocks. He begins with stories of the African-Americans who venerated King, but who largely felt that his murder proved that "nonviolence is a dead philosophy," as Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality explained in 1968. Sokol then turns his attention to white people, now champions of King but who once largely disapproved of his actions, and reminds readers of the virulence of that hatred, and the battles over even the smallest tributes to King's memory. Sokol is an assured writer, deploying revealing, striking anecdotes, such as that of James Baldwin, who was quoted in a New York Post article saying he could never again wear the black suit he wore to King's funeral. After reading the article, one of Baldwin's high school friends called Baldwin up, asking about the now-extraneous suit. Baldwin gave it to him. "‘For that bloody suit was their suit.... They had created Martin, he had not created them, and the blood in which the fabric of that suit was stiffening was theirs.'" This book offers valuable yet painful insight into the paradox of King's stature throughout history. Agent: Brettne Bloom, Kneerim & Williams.(Mar.)