An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King - Paperback

Martin Luther King Jr was the most powerful and eloquent champion of the poorand oppressed in US history, and at the height of his fame in the mid-sixtiesseemed to offer the real possibility of a new and radical beginning for liberalpolitics in the USA. In 1968, he was assassinated; the movement for social andeconomic change has never recovered.The conviction of James Earl Ray for his murder has never looked even remotelysafe, and when William Pepper began to investigate the case it was the start of atwenty-five year campaign for justice. At a civil trial in 1999, supported by theKing family, seventy witnesses under oath set out the details of the conspiracyPepper had unearthed: the jury took just one hour to find that Ray was notresponsible for the assassination, that a wide-ranging conspiracy existed, and thatgovernment agents were involved.An Act of State lays out the extraordinary facts of the King story-of the hugegroundswell of optimism engendered by his charismatic radicalism, of how plansfor his execution were laid at the very heart of government and the military, of thedisinformation and media cover-ups that followed every attempt to search out thetruth. As shocking as it is tragic, An Act of State remains the most compelling andauthoritative account of how King's challenge to the US establishment ledinexorably to his murder