John A. Williams: Case Ten

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Note: Case 21 contains audio and video clips.

Case Ten

SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT (1968)

This wasn't such a hot novel, but it got good play because it was published during the time of the "long, hot summers." It is a fast read, right up with the times and I hope somewhat prophetic. I did a bad screenplay for this, but the film was never made.

SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT. Setting typescript, with author's corrections and additions.

scanned bookjacket for sons of darkness sons of light

SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT. Boston: Little, Brown (1969). First edition, proof copy.

SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT. Boston: Little, Brown (1969). First edition, in dust jacket.

SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT. New York: Pocket Books (1970). First paperback edition.

THE KING GOD DIDN'T SAVE (1970)

People got mad at me for this one. I was attacked verbally in public and very nearly libeled in the press. I threatened to sue Jesse Jackson and Jet magazine over a statement, but Jet retracted. People who said they spoke for the King family threatened to sue me, but they never did. I had friends in the office of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who said if I had any problems along these lines to call them.

scanned bookjacket for the king god didn't save

THE KING GOD DIDN'T SAVE. New York: Coward-McCann (1970). First edition.

THE KING GOD DIDN'T SAVE. Paperback edition.

GOOD, Paul. Typed letter, signed. 3 April 1969.

Most people who attacked me had not read the book, only the stories in the press. The host of Positively Black, Eugene Callender, tried at the last moment to cancel me off the show, but I raised hell and he had to leave me on. Of course, many years later, I was vindicated, when subsequent to the publication of The King God Didn't Save, FBI revelations (not by them, of course) proved me as accurate as I'd thought myself to be when I wrote the book. But, as a friend of mine noted, "Nobody called to apologize."

In March 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched the Poor People's Campaign to address economic inequalities with nonviolent, direct action.

POLITICAL BUTTON, Poor People's campaign.