In The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, Branch looks back on his own work with fresh insights and rediscovers what lessons endure today, selecting pivotal moments to convey the sweep of an era. When Branch writes about the march on Selma, for example, he does not include the famous Bloody Sunday, instead featuring the middle part of the march when the movement was at a turning point, asking: would the federal government help solve a problem or would the movement need to rely on themselves? With Branch’s portrait of King at that time, he shows us what it means to be a leader.
 

Taylor Branch is the bestselling author of Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63; Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65; At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968; and The Clinton Tapes.