Preface: only the language was polite: King of the north -- Act I: 1947-1960. Our first protest: Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott come of age in the north -- There lived a great people: King’s leadership emerges, as does his critique of the north -- Act II: 1958-1965. The thin veneer of the north’s racial self-righteousness: King and the Black freed struggle in New York -- A new form of slavery covered up with certain niceties: rethinking 1963 and King’s growing frustration with northern intransigence -- Voting for ghettos: King and the struggle in Los Angeles before Watts -- As segregated as Birmingham: King in Chicago before the Chicago campaign -- Act III: 1965-1966. Police brutality in the north is rationalized, tolerated, and usually denied: King takes on white shock after Watts -- Warrior without a gun: the Kings move to Chicago -- One day that man wants to get out of prison: the organizing deepens but so dos white resistance -- Never seen mobs as hostile … but the nation turns its back -- Act IV: 1965-1968. The time is now: building national black political power, anticolonial solidarities, and culture-of-poverty critique -- To make the nation say yes when they are inclined to say no: the poor people’s campaign -- Epilogue: be careful what you wish for -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations used.