Books
Nine Days:
The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life and Win the 1960 Election
Purchase now through sites like IndieBound, Powell’s, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
"[An] enlightening and captivating work . . . [Nine Days] tells a fascinating if largely overlooked chapter in recent American history . . . This book tackles not only a story that resonates loudly in our current times as a thoughtful examination of the tricky relationship between race and politics, it features people courageous to the point of heroism . . . [Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick] have done impeccable research and have a narrative flair worthy of a great political thriller. They have given us a story that excites as it informs . . . Magnificent." —Chicago Tribune
"An enthralling story, not least because it brings together such an extraordinary and era-defining dramatis personae . . . With a galloping pace and fly-on-the-wall detail…ripe with cinematic potential." —The Washington Post
"[A] tale that you won't want to stop reading . . . This is the kind of book you can't help but love." —The Philadelphia Tribune
"This engrossing book about the events following Martin Luther King's imprisonment on the eve of the 1960 presidential election reveals the remarkable confluence of moral courage and shrewd political calculation that changed the course of American history. I decided to take a peek at the manuscript and then spent the rest of the day reading the entire book. A fascinating telling of a story that more people should know about." —Dr. Clayborne Carson, editor of the King Papers Project and The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., and founder of the King Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
"Stephen and Paul Kendrick have written a phenomenal work that will live beyond our time and space. Nine Days is urgent, relevant, and historically accurate. I only wish some of my dear civil rights movement friends who have passed on could read this book's recounting of the history we made." —Reverend Otis Moss Jr., Atlanta Student Movement veteran and civil rights leader
“Students in the Atlanta sit-in movement could not have foreseen how our actions would set the events in this book in motion. Nine Days is a detailed retelling of an episode in Civil Rights and American history that still reverberates today.” —Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita, Children's Defense Fund
"You can’t fully understand the Civil Rights Movement without knowing this story. Sometimes a lot happens in a short time. Such was the case in 1960 with John Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. What happened in those nine days showed courage and conviction from both men as well as from countless others who put their lives on the line for their ideals and now this well researched and written book tells us all." —Senator Bill Bradley
Video
January 18, 2025
October 22, 2024
WGN Political Report
June 18, 2023
CBS News Chicago
Martin Luther King Day 2022
MSNBC’S WAY TOO EARLY WITH KASIE HUNT
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY, 2021
CBS NEWS
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY, 2021
Scott Simon’s Open Book
Washington DC Public Library—Southeastern Branch 2/3/15 on Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Video by Chris Bryant.
Speech to the Boys and Girls Club of America National Conference, Chicago, 5/15/15.