Alabama v. King, David Fisher
Alabama v. King, David Fisher
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Alabama v. King
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Movement

Author: David Fisher, Dan Abrams, Fred D. Gray

Narrator: Fred D. Gray, Korey Jackson

Unabridged: 12 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/24/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The forgotten story of a criminal trial that brought national attention to a young defendant named Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as told by Fred D. Gray, Dr. King’s lawyer and friend, along with New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher. The audiobook concludes with an exclusive conversation between Fred Gray and Dan Abrams.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. After years of mistreatment on public buses, the African American community organized a bus boycott. Eighty-nine people were indicted for violating the city’s anti-boycott statute. But rather than putting each of them on trial, the prosecutors chose to make an example of just one: twenty-seven-year-old minister Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This became the moment that transformed Dr. King into a national leader.

Fred D. Gray, then twenty-four years old and one of only two Black lawyers in Montgomery, had prepared with Rosa Parks for the bus moment and now became Dr. King’s first defense lawyer. The stakes were huge. This was not just a trial about a state statute; this was an attempt to launch a movement in the face of an often violent effort by a Southern city fighting to preserve segregation. And it would set Gray on a path that would lead him to making an impassioned argument to the Supreme Court against segregation in Montgomery’s public transit.

On the eve of the trial, Dr. King commented, “When the history books are written in the future generations, the historians will pause and say, ‘There lived a great people—a Black people—who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.’”

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
 

About David Fisher

David Fisher is the author of more than twenty New York Times bestsellers. He lives in New York with his wife, Laura.

About Dan Abrams

Dan Abrams is the chief legal affairs anchor for ABC News and CEO and founder of Abrams Media. He is also the host of top-rated Live PD on A&E Network and The Dan Abrams Show: Where Politics Meets the Law on SiriusXM. A graduate of Columbia University Law School, he is the author of the Washington Post bestseller Man Down and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Yale Law & Policy Review, among many others. He lives in New York.

About Fred D. Gray

Fred D. Gray, one of the nation’s leading civil rights attorneys, was the lawyer for Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began the modern Civil Rights Movement. His other cases and clients include the Freedom Riders, the Selma to Montgomery March, John Lewis, numerous school desegregation and voting rights lawsuits, and many others. He lives in Tuskegee, Alabama.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Porter on October 16, 2022

Dan Abrams does not disappoint. He has emerged as one of the premiere court historians. He knows how to tell enticing tales about American History that have their focal point in the legal system. This book does not disappoint. While a lot of the material is familiar to those knowledgable of the subject......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on July 24, 2022

Trial That Made Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Famous 83 people were accused of illegal boycotting Montgomery Alabama buses. Martin Luther King Jr. was the first to go on trial. This is an account of the trial. It put him as the leader of the movement and made him an international name. Good history.......more

Goodreads review by Alisa on August 07, 2022

5 stars for the incredible heroism of attorney Fred Gray, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and so many other civil rights activists portrayed in this book. That said, the coverage of the trial itself, with transcripts from so many witnesses, felt dull and laborious to read through.......more

Goodreads review by Jasmine on February 27, 2023

Told from the perspective of Gray, a member of the prosecution, he thoroughly recounted the trial with great intensity and diction. Fred Gray was the ninth black lawyer in Alabama born of a poor family in Montgomery. He was able to succeed because of his mother's constant encouragement and nurturing......more

Goodreads review by Harris on June 14, 2022

Another Dan Abrams book complete and I must write another review to keep up my streak of commenting on all his books. From an historical perspective, this is the most important trial that Abrams has written about in terms of its long term effects and impact on society. Bringing in Fred Gray to co-wri......more