This is a word, a podcast from Sleet.

I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

The death of Martin Luther King Jr. was captured in an iconic photograph taken moments

after he was shot.

Picture captures the slain civil rights leader bleeding out on a balcony, surrounded by

trusted advisors, and a man who we now know was a spy.

I just thought, how could a black man infiltrate a group that's fighting for black liberation

and report back to the Memphis Police Department?

The kneeling man coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson.

Stay with us.

Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else.

I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

The flattening of black history into a simple story of good guys and bad guys started long

before the debates over critical race theory.

And the current era, Martin Luther King Jr. is almost universally hailed as a hero, but

up until the time of his death, he was treated as a dangerous man and a threat to the nation

who needed to be watched.

Part of that story is told in the new book The Kneeling Man, my father's life as a black

spy who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The title of the book refers to Merle McCullough, who is in the famous photograph of Martin Luther

King Jr. after he was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

In the iconic picture as civil rights leaders Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, and Jesse Jackson

...