Original City, Original Sin : King, the Klan, and the Fight for Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida

The riveting account of a dramatic and violent showdown in St. Augustine, Florida, involving Martin Luther King Jr., the Ku Klux Klan, and a remarkable cast of little-known heroes and villains. Readers interested in compelling nonfiction, untold histories, and civil rights will want to read this book.

A Klan rally where four Black men were almost burned alive. A hotel manager pouring acid into a pool to chase out Black swimmers. Brutal assaults of peaceful demonstrators at the site of a former slave market downtown. A shooting into the cottage rented for Martin Luther King, Jr. Each form part of a rarely told and riveting story of civil rights in the nation's oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. At the height of his fame, King found his treasured doctrine of nonviolence challenged as never before-all as the fate of the Civil Rights Act, the most consequential legislation of the twentieth century, hung in the balance. In this intimate exploration based on hundreds of interviews, Martin Dobrow introduces an extraordinary collection of idealists-Black and white, young and old, gay and straight-who were drawn into the movement, putting their lives on the line for racial justice.