h throughout his life. On September 20, 1958, at a book signing in Harlem, New York, a Mrs. Izola Curry stabs Dr. Martin Luther King in the chest. He is seriously hurt, but his condition is not critical. On February 17, 1960 a warrant is issued for Dr. Martin Luther King’s arrest on charges that he had falsified his 1956 and 1958 Alabama State income tax returns. In an attempt to discredit Martin Luther King and destroy his movement, the FBI had been engaged in an ongoing program of harassment on him. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, had characterized Dr. Martin Luther King to journalists as “the most notorious liar in America,” and “one of the lowest characters in the country.” J. Edgar Hoover’s operatives attempted to blackmail Martin Luther King into relinquishing leadership of the movement, by threatening to make public evidence of his alleged extramarital sexual activity. An even better alternative for Martin Luther King, the FBI suggested, was to commit suicide. Of course the great Martin Luther King would do nothing of the sort. On May 28, 1960 an all white jury in Montgomery, Alabama acquits Dr. Martin Luther King of the tax evasion charge. In October of that year, Martin Luther King is arrested at an Atlanta sit-in, and is jailed on a charge of violating the state’s trespassing laws. All charges were later dropped. In April of 1963, a sit-in demonstration is held in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregation of eating facilities. Dr. Martin Luther King is again arrested at yet another demonstration, and put in jail. While Martin Luther King is in jail he writes the famous “Letter From the Birmingham Jail”; this letter touched the hearts of many Americans. In June of 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King’s second book is published. It is called Strength to Love. On August 28, 1963, The March on Washington, the first large-scale integrated protest march, is held...
