When Harlem Nearly Killed King

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In 1958 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was celebrating his first major triumph: the US Supreme Court decision desegregating buses in Montgomery, Alabama. With his book about to be released, King travelled to New York for a promotional tour. Then, in a little known incident, a mentally unstable black woman stabbed the civil rights leader, and a black surgeon saved his life in Harlem Hospital. Now, the acclaimed author of The Shadow of the Panther captures this historical moment, arguing that change occurs not in one grand gesture, but in many small ways.

Author Bio

Hugh Pearson, a former editorial page-writer at The Wall Street Journal, is the author, most recently, of Under the Knife: How a Wealthy Negro Surgeon Wielded Power in the Jim Crow South. He also wrote The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America, a New York Times Notable Book of 1994. He is also a former columnist for the Village Voice, and serves on the board of directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union.