Overview

In the famous photograph of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, one man kneels beside him, trying to staunch the blood: an undercover Memphis police officer embedded with the Invaders, a militant Black group in talks with King. This spy, the kneeling man, was Leta McCollough Seletzky's father. Marrell 'Mac' McCollough was a Black man working secretly with the white power structure. To understand this,Leta began looking into her father's life - his motivations, his career with the police and the CIA, and the truth behind accusations of his involvement in King's murder. What would Leta uncover, and did she want to know? How might Mac's story change her own feelings about her place in Trump's America? The Kneeling Manis a compelling personal and political tale of alienation and ambivalence; struggle, self-definition and compromised choices. Set vividly in the sharecropper South, on the streets of Memphis and in the halls of power, the twists and turns of this one man's life tell the story of twentieth-century Black America. 'A searing portrait of a man divided between his country and his identity. At once historical and timely, Seletzky gifts us a captivating, charged and wholly nuanced narrative that grips you from the first page and does not let go.' - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of The Revisioners; A Kind of Freedom; and On the Rooftop 'Mr. McCollough is one of those unsung American heroes either ignored or forgotten by history. The telling of his unique story is inspiring and revelatory. I wholeheartedly recommend Ms. Seletzky's wonderful, thought-provoking memoir.' - Ron Stallworth, author of Black Klansman 'Millions recognize the photo, but hardly anyone knows the fascinating story of the man at its centre: undercover cop Marrell McCollough, in all his complexity and humanity. This deeply engrossing narrative is both an important work of history and an unforgettable family story.' - David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Bearing the Cross and The F.B.I. and Martin Luther King, Jr. 'An important and moving book that everyone should read. Seletzky is a talent.' - Molly Jong-Fast, former editor-at-large, The Daily Beast, and author of The Social Climber's Handbook

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9781787389243

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'A searing portrait of a man divided between his country and his identity. At once historical and timely, Seletzky gifts us a captivating, charged and wholly nuanced narrative that grips you from the first page and does not let go.' * Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of 'A Kind of Freedom' and 'On the Rooftop' *

Author Information

Leta McCollough Seletzky is a National Endowment for the Arts 2022 Creative Writing Fellow. A litigator turned essayist and memoirist, her work appears in The Atlantic; The New York Times; TheGrio; O, The Oprah Magazine; The Washington Post; and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Northwestern University and a JD from the George Washington University Law School. She grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and now lives in Walnut Creek, California.

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