Michael K. Honey - Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign

Going Down Jericho Road is a brilliant achievement.

William S. McFeely, author of Frederick Douglass

Is there a compelling reason for another book on Martin Luther King Jr.?The short answer is yes. In painting the periods landscape through the case of one local struggle that took on international significance, Honey makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of our pastand helps us understand the racial and class landscape of America today.

Rick Ayers, San Francisco Chronicle

[An] absorbing, definitive history.

Leonard Gill, Memphis Flyer

Honeys fine book will be the definitive appreciation of the Memphis garbage strike, one of the pivotal human-rights moments in late twentieth-century America. No source seems missing, no pertinent interview untaken, no perspective ignored. Going Down Jericho Road is history as it actually was.

David Levering Lewis, two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning author of W. E. B. Du Bois

A first-rate chronicle. Going Down Jericho Road succeeds because Honey tells the story through individuals, putting a human face to the strike, the civil-rights movement and the efforts by Memphis to stop it. Honeys analysis of Kings role is sharp and telling. Vivid.

Charles R. Cross, Seattle Times

Who could imagine there was still so much to excavate and to grasp about Dr. Kings last stand? From the poignant glimpses of the lives of Memphiss black sanitation workers, to the back-room maneuvering among leadership allies and rivals, Michael Honey brings it all to life: the last campaign, the last days, the last hours, the final moments. This is a dramatic and engaging work of history, illuminating an entire era through the glittering examination of the final mountaintop and the crevasse beyond.

Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock and There Is No Me Without You

[ Going Down Jericho Road ] is brilliant in the way it delineates the economic benefits to Southern society of American apartheid. It is also stirring in portraying the strike leaders, ordinary workers who risked everything to establish their basic rights in the face of arrogant and condescending power.

Michael Carlson, The Spectator (UK)

Going Down Jericho Road is a masterful piece of documentary history. It is also a new look at one man in particularKing, the one-dimensionalized martyr of the civil rights struggle, whom Honey evokes anew through the use of fresh and unfamiliar quotes.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Dissent

Going Down Jericho Road provides fresh insight into Martin Luther Kings last battle in his struggle against racial injustice. Through the vivid and moving story he tells, Honey takes the reader on a trip back in time. Going Down Jericho Road shows how the past is not past, but is intimately linked to the continuing American debate about social justice.

W. Ralph Eubanks, author of Ever Is a Long Time

Michael Honey knows Memphisand its labor and civil rights historyfrom the inside out. A compelling history.

Bruce Nelson, Labor History

When I put this book down, I could only say, Bravo, Michael Honey. With riveting detail, analytic fluency, and a deep respect for the difficulty of achieving social change, Honey dissects internal leadership struggles, FBI harassment, and Kings own, sometimes paralyzing self doubts. I loved, and was inspired by, this deeply human portrait of King.

Alice Kessler Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity

Honey excels at describing the sanitation workers plight, portraying the strikes leadersand recounting how the strikersfought to escape the hell of poverty and racism. This stunning combination of impeccable scholarship, enhanced by fascinating oral histories and a page-turning style, results in an important contribution to labor history and to the literature of Martin Luther King.

Library Journal

Honeyfills an important gap in the story of Dr. King and the civil rights movement with this solid book that captures the excitement of the times.

The Sunday Republican (Connecticut)

This book is about more than just one man. It is an assiduously documented account of the scores of men and women whose individual acts of bravery ultimately added up to a significant victory over Jim Crow. Honey writes with conviction and the knowledge of an insider.

Kitsap Sun (Washington)

[Honey] vividly captures many dramatic moments, including marches and sermons as well as Kings assassination and its violent aftermath. Honeys passionate commitment to labor is undisguised, making this effort a worthy and original contribution to the literature.

Publishers Weekly, starred review

This is one of the best books about organizing I have ever read, and a great story of the civil rights movement written from the perspective of a union. Writing such a book is the achievement of a lifetime.

Stewart Acuff, National Director of Organizing, AFL-CIO