On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., the prophet for racial and economic justice in America, was fatally shot. Only hours earlier, he had ended his final public speech by promising that "we as a people will get to the Promised Land." Now, at the fortieth anniversary of King's assassination, acclaimed public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson gives a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of America, specifically Black America, since that date. Ambitiously and controversially, he investigates the ways in which we as a people have made it to that Promised Land King spoke of, and the many areas in which we still have a long way to go. April 4, 1968 takes a sweeping view of King's death, remembering all the toil, triumph, and tribulation that led to that fateful date while anticipating the ways in which King's legacy will affect the future of this country.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, named by Ebony as one of the hundred most influential black Americans, is the author of sixteen books. He is currently a professor at Georgetown University where he teaches Theology, English, and African American Studies.