Voices of King podcast debuts with journalist Earl Caldwell
They say that “journalism is the first rough draft of history.”
Perhaps no one knows that better than Earl Caldwell.
On April 4, 1968, then a reporter for The New York Times, Caldwell was the only reporter to witness the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Unapologetically ATL mark the 54 anniversary of King’s murder, we open our podcast series, “The Voices of King,” with Caldwell’s first-hand account from that evening.
In 2008, on the 40th anniversary of King’s death, Caldwell was one of 13 people that The AJC sat down with to record their stories.
Starting Thursday, we will re-release these interviews as a 13-part podcast hosted by Multimedia Journalist Ryon Horne.
Along with Caldwell, Andrew Young, Tyrone Brooks, Christine King Farris, Martin Luther King III, Xernona Clayton and Bernice King, and those who have left us — Juanita Abernathy, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Ralph David Abernathy III, Rep. John Lewis, the Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, Kathryn Johnson — each gives us a glimpse, through their relationships with King, inside the making of history.
Each episode will be made available through the Unapologetically ATL newsletter, but you can also subscribe to “The Voices of King” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
