The Payload
Murphy, Peter E.
vive half slave and half free".... If indeed the long arc of the universe bent toward justice, and the universe proved friendly, history's slow triumph over slaughterhouse evil would be a...
...My legs bounce so hard they shake my wife out of her sleep night after night...
...In King's tradition there were no proofs, only witnesses...
...That said, Branch provides an amazing overview of this period, bringing to life its central characters and conflicts...
...Next time the heart...
...Unfortunately, his reportage fails to support the thesis...
...Much of this change in emphasis only becomes clear when King's activities of 1963-65 are placed alongside his earlier efforts...
...Something more than narrative skill and a journalistic attention to detail is necessary to explain the meaning of the civil rights movement...
...Branch's evidence suggests that the metaphorical prominence he gives King needs some rethinking...
...In a way, the confusion and conflict within SNCC, resulting in the eventual expulsion of white members from its ranks, seems more emblematic of the state of the American soul than did King's abiding concerns...
...Bombs from the horizon of my dream rip into my head, detonate their drone until there's nothing but fire and noise...
...Since Branch uses 600 pages to cover but two years of history, broader comparisons of this sort are impossible for him to make...
...For in them, America's rich moral struggle to become a better nation continues to live...
...But by 1963, King was less intent on changing the minds of local Birmingham citizens and more determined to seize media attention and provoke a federal response...
...In painting his picture of the entire era, Branch also discusses the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the murder of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964 (and other, lesser-known acts of barbarism), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party's failure to transform the Democratic party in the South, the urban race riots in Northern cities, and the rise of the political Right in the wake of Barry Goldwater's defeat...
...Peter E. Murphy gle and nonviolent force, a "beloved community...
...Even if Branch's explanation of what made these years so crucial remains unpersuasive, we have him to thank for telling these stories with great skill...
...For example, since Branch includes a myriad of characters here, King's life disappears for good chunks of the narrative...
...I hear the hiss of acetylene torches weld the cockpit locked around me...
...D Kevin Matlson is author of Creating a Democratic Public (Penn State Press), which explores the Progressive Era struggle for participatol 7 democracy...
...Importantly, King's first sense of puzzlement over whether the plight of AfricanAmericans was solely racial or economic is also examined...
...In 1955, King believed in struggling within the local community of Montgomery to change the attitudes of local whites--to build, through strugThe Payload I am going off all the time, even when I sleep or try to stay asleep...
...Branch writes that the goal of Pillar of Fire is to establish that "King's life is the best and most important metaphor for American history in the watershed postwar years...
...Whatever one thinks of King's changed tactics, they demand scrutiny and analysis, for it is here that one senses a tension between morality and politics--between principles, vision, and the demand for effectiveness-that had an enormous impact on future political activism...
...For instance, Branch never explains the significant shift in King's tactics that took place during the years 1963-65...
...If indeed the long arc of the universe bent toward justice, and the universe proved friendly, history's slow triumph over slaughterhouse evil would be a compelling sign not only of benevolent design behind the cosmos but of a democratic bond in human nature...
...Lying in bed as my own engines rev, I nauseate from the sweat of machinery...
...Although Branch's storytelling is nearly always provocative, his analysis is less cogent...
...He is research director at the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democ~tcy (Rutgers University...
...More intriguing is how throughout this period (and his entire life), King stands firm for nonviolence and integrationism...
...I plunge through air toward the cruiser that grows too large, too quickly...
...Yet at times--as witnessed in the urban riots beginning in 1965--the nation seems to be coming apart at the seams...
...This time the head, Big Guy...
...Commonweal 2 4" April24, 1998...
...My hands lurch above my pillow smack into glass...
...The last thought I have before going off is where to strike it...
...You must decide which way it's going to be, the shrink tells me after another false cardiac arrest...
Vol. 125 • April 1998 • No. 8
