Taylor Branch

Taylor Branch "has brought America’s civil rights movement back to life through his writing. Branch is the author of Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, and At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68, a three-volume series of Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the civil rights movement.

"Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Taylor Branch witnessed the civil rights movement unfolding first hand. Branch describes the civil rights movement as the emotional interior that changed his life’s work. He became interested in history and politics while attending the University of North Carolina, where he majored in American history.

"His best-selling Parting the Waters won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The author of two other non-fiction books and a novel, Mr. Branch is a former staff member of The Washington Monthly, Harper’s and Esquire. In addition to earning the Pulitzer Prize for History, Branch has won the Books Critics Circle Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and the Imus Book Award." \


 * Advisory Board for Washington DC Office, Search for Common Ground
 * Winner of the 1999 National Endowment for the Humanities: National Humanities Medal
 * Common Ground Awards
 * MacArthur Fellowship: The Humanities