Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963

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America in the King Years is a three-volume history of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement by Taylor Branch, which he wrote between 1982 and 2006. The three individual volumes have won a variety of awards, including the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for History.
The titles of the three volumes, Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and At Canaan's Edge, were all drawn from aspects of the Old Testament Book of Exodus – namely, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the manifestation of God that allowed the Israelites to travel by night, and the Promised Land, which Moses was able to see into, but did not live long enough to enter.
A one-volume summary of the series was published in 2013.