The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Leta McCollough Seletzky (Counterpoint, 2023), 304 pages, no index.
In US history, three assassinations have shaken the country to its foundation: President Lincoln’s, President Kennedy’s, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s. All three assassinations changed the trajectory of history and civil rights in America. Dr. King’s assassination also changed the trajectory of Marrell (“Mac”) McCollough’s life. At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, McCollough’s life was transformed from that of an inexperienced undercover police officer into history’s “kneeling man,” as he desperately tried to save Dr. King, who laid mortally wounded on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. How McCollough ended up on the balcony kneeling over Dr. King’s body, and his subsequent journey to become a CIA employee, is the theme of Seletzky’s book.