Alabama v. King

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Criminal Trial That Launched the Civil Rights Movement

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

Narrated by: Fred D. Gray, Korey Jackson

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.

A must read

This book was excellent! I loved learning about this unknown story behind the start of the civil rights movement.

Amazing!!

Fred Gray is a national treasure!!! More people should know about him!!! Thank you for helping him share this story!

This is the deep drive to understanding "boycott "

Before active in your own understanding of history. This is great read. I recommend that you read/listen to this case.

Great History Lesson and Story

Well described story of the Montgomery bus boycott told through the court case that decided a pivotal segregation milestone. Case was plainly described in good but not overdone detail. Performance was very well done. Loved it.

So much improvement, so little change

This book is a portrayal of the actual trial and the in and outs of the course of actions that was taken and why. I liked each chapter and took away many insights and other people and laws that I will research later. Back to this book. It wasn't until chapter 16 that, my emotions got the better of me. I cried and felt so much joy learning about The Supreme court's decision to overturn segregation in transportation. This book also hits on other concepts that we still grapple with today, segregation in education, gerrymandering in drawing voting districts, the use of the N-word, white rage, fear, and others. I will come back to this book as it reminds me that we have made so much improvement and yet so little has changed.