Book

An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, New and Updated Edition
By William F. Pepper

Product Description

The definitive account of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, published on the 40th anniversary of his death.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most powerful and eloquent champion of the poor and oppressed in US history, and at the height of his fame in the mid-sixties seemed to offer the real possibility of a new and radical beginning for liberal politics in the USA. In 1968, he was assassinated; the movement for social and economic change has never recovered.

The conviction of James Earl Ray for his murder has never looked even remotely safe, and when William Pepper began to investigate the case it was the start of a twenty-five year campaign for justice. At a civil trial in 1999, supported by the King family, seventy witnesses under oath set out the details of the conspiracy Pepper had unearthed: the jury took just one hour to find that Ray was not responsible for the assassination, that a wide-ranging conspiracy existed, and that government agents were involved.

An Act of State lays out the extraordinary facts of the King story—of the huge groundswell of optimism engendered by his charismatic radicalism, of how plans for his execution were laid at the very heart of government and the military, of the disinformation and media cover-ups that followed every attempt to search out the truth. As shocking as it is tragic, An Act of State remains the most compelling and authoritative account of how King’s challenge to the US establishment led inexorably to his murder.

Back Cover:

“For a quarter of a century, Bill Pepper conducted an independent investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He opened his files to our family, encouraged us to speak with the witnesses, and represented our family in the civil trial against the conspirators. The jury affirmed his findings, providing our family with a long-sought sense of closure and peace, which had been denied by official disinformation and cover-ups. Now the findings of his exhaustive investigation and additional revelations from the trial are presented in the pages of this important book. We recommend it highly to everyone who seeks the truth about Dr. King’s assassination.”
Coretta Scott King

“No one has done more than Dr. William F. Pepper to keep alive the quest for the truth concerning the violent death of Martin Luther King who in courageous and important words once said ‘The greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own government.’ In An Act of State, Bill Pepper argues that very government violence was turned on America’s greatest prophet of non-violent change.”
Ramsey Clark, US Attorney General, 1967-69

Publisher: Verso Books