Description: When Martin Luther King Jr. landed in Memphis on April 3, 1968, no one knew he would be killed the next day. When he gave his famous Mountaintop speech, no one knew it would be his last. And when the world learned of his death, no one knew exactly how deeply his legacy would live on. Interwoven with excerpts from "I've Been to the Mountaintop" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" (the song played at King's funeral), The Day King Died recounts the last 24 hours of his life while reminding us how his teachings continue to endure.
Brief description: Ann Bausum was ten years old when she heard the news of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. announced on national television. Years later, she wrote multiple books for young readers and teens about this and other pivotal events from social justice history, including the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the March Against Fear in 1966. Her work in Memphis for a book about the city's 1968 sanitation workers strike inspired this commemoration of Dr. King's final days. Having come of age in the American South, she lives now in southern Wisconsin.