An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr was the most powerful and eloquent champion of the poor
and oppressed in US history, and at the height of his fame in the mid-sixties
seemed to offer the real possibility of a new and radical beginning for liberal
politics in the USA. In 1968, he was assassinated; the movement for social and
economic change has never recovered.
The conviction of James Earl Ray for his murder has never looked even remotely
safe, and when William Pepper began to investigate the case it was the start of a
twenty-five year campaign for justice. At a civil trial in 1999, supported by the
King family, seventy witnesses under oath set out the details of the conspiracy
Pepper had unearthed: the jury took just one hour to find that Ray was not
responsible for the assassination, that a wide-ranging conspiracy existed, and that
government agents were involved.
An Act of State lays out the extraordinary facts of the King story-of the huge
groundswell of optimism engendered by his charismatic radicalism, of how plans
for his execution were laid at the very heart of government and the military, of the
disinformation and media cover-ups that followed every attempt to search out the
truth. As shocking as it is tragic, An Act of State remains the most compelling and
authoritative account of how King's challenge to the US establishment led
inexorably to his murder