Interview with Leta McCullough Seletzky, creator of The Kneeling Man

Though Leta McCollough Seletzky wasn’t born till eight years after the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she has at all times been haunted by the picture of that tragic night time—some of the recognizable photos of the twentieth century. And no surprise, since in it, her then 23-year-old father, Marrell “Mac” McCullough, may be seen kneeling beside Dr. King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, holding a towel over the civil rights chief’s wounded face, attempting to staunch the bleeding. A number of different folks stand close by, pointing towards a spot within the distance.

“In my thoughts,” Seletzky says, “these had been accusatory fingers. I felt a way of blame, that on some degree, these fingers had been pointing at me or [at my father].” The lawyer-turned-memoirist and California resident spoke by telephone about her fascinating debut, The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This “black-and-white picture of horror” was one thing Seletzky’s household hardly ever mentioned, regardless of her father’s presence in it. His work had at all times been shrouded in secrecy and silence, and in some ways, the truth that he ultimately opened up about it’s nothing wanting a miracle.

Learn our starred evaluate of ‘The Kneeling Man’ by Leta McCollough Seletzky.

Seletzky’s mother and father separated when she was 3 and later divorced. In highschool, she discovered from a newspaper article that her father, who by then lived elsewhere and labored for the CIA, had been an undercover officer for the Memphis Police Division on the time of King’s assassination, tasked with infiltrating and conserving tabs on a bunch of younger Black activists referred to as the Invaders. “The revelation felt like a physique blow,” she writes. Had her dad’s work spying on the Invaders been just like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s techniques for harassing and controlling the Black Panthers, she puzzled? Regardless of her curiosity and concern, Seletzky didn’t inquire about Mac’s function till 2010, after the beginning of her second son. “One of many foremost causes I believed it was so vital to inform this story,” she says, “was so [my sons] wouldn’t be left questioning or feeling that sense of silence and dread.”

When Seletzky ultimately requested her father about that night time, he responded with a 17-page doc. Nonetheless, Seletzky was so saddened by his description of rising up in poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi that she stopped studying after three pages, placing his account away for 5 years. Lastly, in 2015, she learn to the top of the letter. After that, she plunged into years of writing, analysis, Freedom of Info Act requests, interviews and, most significantly, collaboration along with her father. The ensuing ebook gives an account not solely of the wonderful trajectory of her father’s life but in addition of her personal reconciliation together with his mysterious previous as a Black man spying on a Black Energy activist group for the police.

“One of many foremost causes I believed it was so vital to inform this story was so [my sons] wouldn’t be left questioning or feeling that sense of silence and dread.”

Whereas writing The Keeling Man, Seletzky and her father visited King’s assassination web site collectively, and she or he additionally facilitated a 2017 assembly between her father and Andrew Younger, an early chief within the civil rights motion who was additionally current the night time King was murdered. “It felt like strolling into historical past,” Seletzky says. “I imply, not solely had been we assembly with Andrew Younger, however we had been at his home. It was one thing I’ll always remember.” One of the endearing moments of their encounter was Younger’s recollection of Dr. King playfully swatting him with one of many Lorraine Motel’s pillows simply hours earlier than his assassination. “He was a hero, however he was a human being,” Seletzky says. “I really feel like generally this will get misplaced after we lionize folks.”

Seletzky additionally interviewed quite a few members of the Invaders, the activist group her father was spying on, and was stunned by their heat welcome. “They weren’t upset,” she says. “They weren’t offended.” In truth, she’s come to think about one of many group’s leaders “as household.”

On the night time of King’s assassination, Mac and a number of other Invaders had simply returned from a buying journey with certainly one of Dr. King’s aides, who invited them to dinner. As they walked from Mac’s automobile towards the motel, pictures rang out, and Mac, who had been within the Military, sprinted up the steps to the balcony. “He was attempting to save lots of Dr. King’s life, and he bumped into the zone of hazard to attempt to do this,” Seletzky says. Though federal investigators by no means raised issues about Mac’s presence that night time, he was ultimately questioned and referred to as to testify at a Choose Committee on Assassinations in 1978. He was even warned that the legal professional of James Earl Ray, the convicted killer, would possibly rise up and accuse Mac of assassinating King. “Generally I take into consideration what it might really feel like for those who had tried to save lots of somebody’s life and as a substitute you had been painted as having been a wrongdoer,” Seletzky says.

“When Seletzky let her mother learn the ultimate draft, she informed her daughter, ‘Leta, I didn’t know 75% of what’s on this ebook.’”

However the hardest a part of Seletzky’s writing course of was writing about herself. “It was troublesome to weave my story by the magnitude of his,” she says. “I felt that it actually ought to simply be all Mac, however on the similar time, I really feel this story is greater than that.” Three memoirs had been significantly useful as she found out the way to stroll that line: James McBride’s The Shade of Water, Sarah Broom’s The Yellow Home and Edward Ball’s Slaves within the Household.

Finally, Seletzky is thrilled that scripting this ebook introduced her nearer to her father. “I’m in awe of him,” she says, “and the way in which he allowed his experiences to mildew him into who he’s.” She was additionally happy by her mom’s response to The Kneeling Man. Her mom was a reporter in Memphis for a few years, and when Seletzky let her mother learn the ultimate draft, she informed her daughter, “Leta, I didn’t know 75% of what’s on this ebook.” “I used to be shocked,” Seletzky says, “as a result of she was born and raised in Memphis, and she or he was married to my dad for a number of years.”

When Seletzky requested her father what he wished folks to grasp about his life and decisions, he responded, “What I need them to grasp is strictly what you wrote in that ebook.” That, Seletzky says, was maybe her proudest second. “At that time, I stated to myself, ‘OK, effectively, the ebook is a hit it doesn’t matter what.’”

Creator headshot of Leta McCollough Seletzky by Gretchen Adams