The Shot That Echoes Still: James Baldwin on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, fifty-one years ago this April, marked a blow to the struggle for racial equality from which the nation has still not healed. If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.       The Shot That Echoes Still   Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, fifty-one years ago this April, marked a blow to the struggle for racial equality from which the nation has still not healed. In an essay published in Esquire in April 1972, James Baldwin reflected on attending the funeral, and how King's death signaled the end of civility for the civil-rights movement. At turns heartbreaking and hopeful, Baldwin's words are as powerful—and urgent—as ever. Read More           If Dr. King Came Back Today, He'd Be Heartbroken—and Energized   When the rest of America is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Alabama and Mississippi are observing a different holiday: Martin Luther King Jr./Robert E. Lee Day. And for a while, those states weren't alone—Arkansas ended its joint holiday little more than a year ago. Bundling a holiday celebrating our nation's most beloved civil rights leader with one for a man who fought to maintain slavery is one of the purest indications that our nation hasn't truly reckoned with its history, so Esquire's Gabrielle Bruney talked to someone who is: lawyer, activist, and MacArthur "genius" Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. The EJI guarantees legal representation to anyone facing the death penalty in Alabama, and has saved 125 people from execution. Read More           The Esquire Home Collection has arrived   In Partnership with Esquire Home Collection   Embodying sophistication and style, the Esquire Home Collection by Fine Furniture Design was born from the trusted authority of our editors. From high-tech home office furniture to bedroom, dining and more, this collection has everything you need to create a classy yet comfortable home. Read More           The Bank of Justice Is Not Bankrupt   Esquire's Charles P. Pierce's favorite passage in Dr. King's most famous speech is not the stirring peroration, or that line about the content of character that conservatives love to cite when clumsily trying to glom onto Dr. King's posthumous status as a toothless national icon. It came earlier in the address, in the prepared text from which Dr. King eventually took flight. Read More           Cocktail Is Tom Cruise's Poorest-Reviewed Movie. The Guy Who Wrote Might Get Redemption.   Esquire's Michael Sebastian is, perhaps, one of the world's greatest fans of Cocktail, the 1988 movie starring Tom Cruise as a small-town bartender. And so last summer, he emailed Heywood Gould, who wrote both the movie and the novel upon which it's based, asking to chat. He responded promptly, and one afternoon the two spent an hour talking about the movie's plot, his reaction to its sour reception in 1988, Tom Cruise, and where the characters might be today. During their conversation, Gould dropped a bombshell: The 76-year-old is working on a sequel. Read More           Every M. Night Shyamalan Movie, Ranked   M. Night Shyamalan's body of directorial work is a bit of an M. Night Shyamalan film in itself. There are twists (like a comedy starring Rosie O'Donnell?) and aliens (see: Signs) and absolutely terrible films (we could call out Glass, but it's not the worst). All of that is to say that you never quite know what you're going to get from the cupboard that is Shyamalan's twisted mind. If you don't love a demonic grandmother trying to kill you in a stalled elevator, then why the hell are you watching this man's films in the first place? Read More         Read More on Esquire.com       Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2019 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019