The cover of "Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year" is pictured.

Excerpted from DEATH OF A KING: THE REAL STORY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S FINAL YEAR. by Tavis Smiley with David Ritz by arrangement with Little, Brown, an imprint of Hachette Book Group (USA), Copyright (c) Tavis Smiley 2014.

INTRODUCTION

I hold this project precious for reasons that are both intensely personal and politically urgent.

As a young boy growing up in a trailer park in rural Indiana, my initial encounter with the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. altered the very course of my life. During the most difficult period of my childhood, a time when I had fallen into deep despair, his spirit entered my soul and excited my imagination. I recognized the rhythms of his rhetorical passion as more than hypnotic: I knew they were righteous. As a result of their disturbing truths, I became a lifelong student of his work as a minister, advocate, and writer. His call to radical democracy through redemptive love resonated with me on a profound level.

I was barely a teenager when I began entering statewide oratorical interpretation competitions by declaiming King's most famous speeches. The thrill of channeling his voice - not to mention my frequent victories - had me believing that my connection to the man was preternatural. It was certainly life affirming. Through the voice of the prophetic minister I eventually found my own voice.

My study of King's pivotal role in the history of this country has never stopped. Over the years, I have spoken with his most important critics, chroniclers, and defenders. I was privileged to enjoy a rewarding friendship with Coretta Scott King, whom I interviewed many times. Her last national television interview was an appearance on my public television program filmed in Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church in 2005, on what would have been her husband's seventy-sixth birthday. At her behest, I served on the advisory board at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

Yet for all the years that I have read, discussed, and analyzed King's work, this is the first time I have sought to capture my feelings about him in a book. That's because now, after decades of study, I have come to firmly believe that, in a critical way, he is misunderstood. I further believe that misunderstanding is robbing us of the essence of his character and crusade.

Ironically, his martyrdom has undermined his message. As a public figure who fearlessly challenged the status quo, he has been sanitized and oversimplified. The values for which he lived and died - justice for all, service to others, and a love that liberates, no matter the cost - are largely forgotten. He is no longer a threat, but merely an idealistic dreamer to be remembered for a handful of fanciful speeches. That may be the Martin Luther King that the world wishes to remember, but it is not the Martin Luther King that I have come to better understand and love even more.

The King that moves me most is the man who, during the final season of his earthly journey, faced a torrent of vicious assaults from virtually every segment of society, most painfully from his own people.

The symmetry is remarkable:

On April 4, 1967, he comes to the Riverside Church in New York City and delivers a dramatic and controversial speech in impassioned opposition to the Vietnam War.

Exactly twelve months later to the day, on April 4, 1968, he is assassinated in Memphis, where he has traveled on behalf of garbage workers.

The question I attempt to answer in this book is simple:

In his last year, what kind of man has Martin Luther King Jr. become?

In my view, he is a man whose true character has been misinterpreted, ignored, or forgotten. I want to remember - and bring to life - the essential truths about King in his final months before they are unremembered and irrecoverable. This is the King that I cherish: the King who, enduring a living hell, rises to moral greatness; the King who, in the face of unrelenting adversity, expresses the full measure of his character and courage. This is the King who, despite everything, spoke his truth, the man I consider the greatest public figure this country has ever produced.

In constructing this chronicle, I've conducted a series of fresh interviews with three distinct groups: scholars, including his major biographers Taylor Branch, David Garrow, and Clayborne Carson; close friends like Harry Belafonte and Gardner C. Taylor; and associates including Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Dorothy Cotton, and Clarence Jones, among others. The insights gleaned from these firsthand observations have convinced me that the final leg of King's journey was far rougher than I had imagined. The pressures he faced were crushing. Yet he never compromised his core commitment to nonviolence. Not for a minute did he diminish his efforts to address the burning issues of racism, poverty, and the inherent immorality of this nation's unchecked militarism.

Nearly fifty years after King's death, these issues are more pressing than ever. And if, as we relive these last excruciating months in his life, we are made to understand that his mission remains unfulfilled - that the causes for which he gave his life continue to demand the immediate attention of our hearts and minds - then the purpose of this text will be fulfilled.

One final note about the tone of this text:

You will see that I attempt to convey King's inner thoughts during rare moments of self- reflection. Because he was a man in constant motion, these quiet, precious moments were few. My interpretation of these moments - my reading of what was on his mind - derives from my conversations with associates who were actually with him during those intimate times and privileged to hear him voice his heart.

You will also see that I refer to King as "Doc." This was how his most trusted colleagues addressed him. In adopting this nomenclature, I trust that I am not being presumptuous. I use this term of endearment as a way to bring me - and you - closer to the soul of the man.

Tavis Smiley

Los Angeles, California

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