Classic book review: At Canaan's Edge

Stokely Carmichael renounces nonviolence in favor of a media-fueled war cry. Here, too, are H. Rap Brown and others who renounce King's nonviolent philosophy.

"At Canaan's Edge" begins with the historic march from Selma to Montgomery. This high note was followed by Johnson's stirring speech at Howard University.

"You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains, and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race," President Johnson declared, "and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

The Montgomery March, LBJ's speech, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 lead into the unraveling of the movement and King's influence, both eroded by the Vietnam War. What began as a small fissure between King and Johnson grew into a chasm as King came to believe it was his moral duty to condemn all violence, in Vietnam as well as Selma. The rift caused both men to question the other's motives.

"At Canaan's Edge" succeeds again and again because Branch manages to provide crucial context without sacrificing narrative flow. Even as Branch describes the unexpected political rise of Ronald Reagan, the defiant brilliance of Muhammad Ali, and the drug-fueled antics of Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary, he never loses sight of King.

The final volume again demonstrates the effective give-and-take of King's advisers, aides, and acolytes: John Lewis, Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson among them. Here, too, stands Coretta King. As her death last week reminded the nation, other than Martin Luther King himself, she sacrificed more than anyone, becoming a widow just weeks before her 41st birthday.

Although King died a young man - he was 39 when James Earl Ray murdered him in Memphis - the pressures, feuds, and constant threats aged him considerably. His work was hindered by political miscalculation, splintered opinion among black leaders, Vietnam, and a white liberal caucus uncomfortable when it came to examining racial inequality in the North as well as the South.

The King that Branch gives us is a hero indeed, but one of the best kind: a man who is deeply flawed yet dedicates his life to bettering himself and others.

Erik Spanberg is a freelance writer in Charlotte, N.C.

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