Opposites in almost every way, mortally suspicious of each other at first, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., were thrust together in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Both men sensed a historic opportunity and began a delicate dance of accommodation that moved them, and the entire nation, toward the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources — Johnson's taped telephone conversations, voluminous FBI wiretap logs, previously secret communications between the FBI and the president — Nick Kotz gives us a dramatic narrative, rich in dialogue, that presents this momentous period with thrilling immediacy. Judgment Days offers needed perspective on a presidency too often linked solely to the tragedy of Vietnam.

We watch Johnson applying the arm-twisting tactics that made him a legend in the Senate, and we follow King as he keeps the pressure on in the South through protest and passive resistance. King's pragmatism and strategic leadership and Johnson's deeply held commitment to a just society shaped the character of their alliance. Kotz traces the inexorable convergence of their paths to an intense joint effort that made civil rights a legislative reality at last, despite FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's vicious whispering campaign to destroy King.

Judgment Days also reveals how this spirit of teamwork disintegrated. The two leaders parted bitterly over King's opposition to the Vietnam War. In this first full account of the working relationship between Johnson and King, Kotz offers a detailed, surprising account that significantly enriches our understanding of both men and their time.

"King's leadership of the Civil Rights movement catalyzed a revolution in public consciousness that Johnson's matchless political skills cemented in the landmark voting and civil rights laws of the 1960s. In this engrossing narrative history, Pulitzer Prize — winning journalist Kotz (A Passion for Equality) follows their tense but fruitful working relationship from Johnson's assumption of the presidency in 1963 to King's assassination five years later. Theirs was a wary partnership, uneasy when they joined forces against Jim Crow in the wake of Kennedy's assassination, strained by King's opposition to the Vietnam War and continually undermined by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who bombarded Johnson with reports of King's links to Communists and of his sexual indiscretions. In Kotz's sympathetic but complex and critical assessment, the Machiavellian politician and the visionary activist become almost brothers under the skin — both genuine idealists and cool-headed, at times even ruthless political strategists, both plagued by inner demons that threatened to undo their agenda. Employing newly available telephone conversations and FBI wiretap logs, among other sources, Kotz's detailed and gripping account takes readers into the bloody trenches of the Civil Rights movement and the bitter congressional floor battles to get legislation past the segregationist bloc. It is a fascinating portrait of two leaders working at a time when the low skullduggery of politics really was infused with the highest moral values. Photos. Agent, Timothy Seldes." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"A piquant reminder that great social progress occurs when the powerful collaborate rather than joust." Kirkus Reviews

"[A]n informed political investigation of these two civil rights warriors and the cause for which they fought and, in King's case, died. Highly recommended." Library Journal

"Judgment Days provides a fresh and vivid account of the two men's interactions." The Washington Post

"[M]eticulous research, restrained prose and deep appreciation of motivation and character that make Judgment Day a stirring, indeed heartbreaking, book." Samuel G. Freedman, The New York Times Book Review

Contents Introduction: Second Emancipation 1: The Cataclysm 2: Let Us Continue 3: “A Fellow Southerner in the White House” 4: Hoover, King, and Two Presidents 5: A Fire That No Water Could Put Out 6: An Idea Whose Time Has Come 7: Lyndon Johnson and the Ku Klux Klan 8: A Political Revolution 9: Hoover Attacks 10: The LBJ–MLK Alliance 11: Shining Moment: We Shall Overcome 12: The Better Angels of Their Nature 13: This Time the Fire 14: Another Martyr Epilogue: The Legacy Acknowledgments Author’s Note on Sources Abbreviations Notes Interview List Bibliography Index