In 1958 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was celebrating his first major triumph: the US Supreme Court decision desegregating buses in Montgomery, Alabama. With his book about to be released, King travelled to New York for a promotional tour. Then, in a little known incident, a mentally unstable black woman stabbed the civil rights leader, and a black surgeon saved his life in Harlem Hospital. Now, the acclaimed author of The Shadow of the Panther captures this historical moment, arguing that change occurs not in one grand gesture, but in many small ways.