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The Heavens
Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Jason Sokol
c.2018, Basic Books
$32.00 / $42.00 Canada
344 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
One minute.
That’s all it can take to change history. Sixty seconds, as
long as an average TV commercial or two, a few blinks of
your eyes and nothing is ever the same. And things can keep
changing, as you’ll see in the new book The Heavens
Might Crack by Jason Sokol.
The evening of April 4, 1968 was ordinary, just like many
others on the road.
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Andrew Young hadn’t kept Martin Luther King Jr.
satisfactorily apprised of a legal situation in Memphis, and
was on the receiving end of a pillow fight. Later, “Young
and [Pastor] James Orange shadowboxed in the parking lot” of
Lorraine Hotel and, while preparing for the next event, King
wondered if he might want a jacket for the cooling air. And
then, a “firecracker” sound, and King was quiet…
By most accounts, King was prepared for his death. He’d
discussed it with friends and family, and they knew that
loving him would mean losing him; it had been this way for
years but, says Sokol, “the early months of 1968 felt
different.” White people largely feared and hated King. The
FBI told him to “take his own life.” And yet, King hadn’t
once backed down in his ideals.
Shock rolled through the nation following that spring
evening. Some wept, and some questioned the need to go on.
Others looted, burned, stood against the police in nearly
every major city in the country. Many white Americans
rejoiced, while black militancy increased. Gun control,
which the Senate had discussed just hours before King’s
death, became a political hot-button.
And in the days that followed his assassination, it was
feared that King’s legacy would be forgotten. Instead, it
became sullied: says Sokol, “…the historical King – a
courageous dissident who unsettled the powerful – would be
replaced by a mythical one.”
Because it has been fifty years since Martin Luther King Jr.
was assassinated, it can be assumed that many Americans
today are too young to remember it. “The Heavens Might
Crack” serves as a good fill-in for them (and for the
not-then-born), as well as a look back for those who can
recall with great detail.
But beware – it’s a painful read, not because of how it’s
written but because of what’s told. Author Jason Sokol picks
the scab off old wounds that may’ve once seemed healed as he
puts current events into reverse-perspective: readers might
be surprised to see that some issues have softened with age,
while others are as sharp today as they were then - and that
includes shocking examples of racism, inequality, and
violence. He doesn’t stop there, though: Sokol shows how
King’s birthday became a reluctant holiday, and how his
legacy leaves us with a “duty” to “make clear the substance
of his actual teachings…”
This is a history book, to be sure, but it also feels quite
meditative, making it the perfect read for those who
remember and those who can’t. The Heavens Might Crack
is highly recommended. You’ll be grabbed by it in the first
minute.
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