To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, America's most versatile and vital cultural critic reexamines King's importance and influence, and the ways in which his death changed America.

On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 P.M., while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King--the prophet for racial and economic justice in America--ended his final public speech by saying, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land."

Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author, Michael Eric Dyson uses the fortieth anniversary of King's assassination as a starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of America, specifically Black America, over the ensuing years. Dyson ambitiously, and controversially, investigates the ways in which we as a people have made it to the Promised Land that King spoke of and shines a bright light on the many areas that we still have a long way to go.

Rather than only looking back, April 4, 1968 takes a sweeping 360-degree view of King's death--remembering all the toil, triumph, and tribulation that led to that fateful date while anticipating the ways in which the legacy of King's death will affect the future of this country.