Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin

“It is amazing how the actions of one anonymous person can change the future of not only a great person but an entire nation.”

In the Prologue, Swanson describes how someone as unknown as Izola Ware Curry could have changed history. If she had succeeded in killing Martin Luther King, the United States could look very different today. Swanson explores throughout the book how history can be made in the smallest moments, emphasizing the role of Repercussions and Twists of Fate in history.

“One day his mother, Alberta […] decided that Martin was old enough to hear what black parents today still call ‘The Talk’: the conversation to prepare a black child for the racism he might encounter in the outside world. Martin never forgot it.”

King grew up in an affluent Black household and was shielded from many of the realities of racism and segregation as a young child. However, his innocence was soon broken. Learning about discrimination and his early experiences with racism were formative experiences for King.

“The experience had a profound effect on him. He was treated as an equal of the young white local teens who worked with him in the fields. There were no WHITES ONLY signs on water fountains or soda machines. He could go to restaurants. And he could sit wherever he liked in theaters or buses or trains. He relished the temporary freedom from segregation that he enjoyed in the North. In sharp contrast, returning home to the Southern system depressed him.”

When King spent a summer working on a tobacco farm in Connecticut, he lived in a desegregated society for the first time. This experience was eye-opening for him, as he was finally treated like an equal. This made the segregation and discrimination in the South all the more obvious and harder to bear.