​I started the 2021 Los Angeles Marathon next to a barefoot runner named Albert Perusset, who I would later learn was the world record holder for running barefoot marathons. After the race, I looked him up and discovered a profound editorial he penned for a digital magazine called Mr Feelgood. Unfortunately, the marathon we ran together would be his last, an astonishing 211th barefoot marathon. Perusset passed away only a month after the race. However, the wisdom he shared lives on through the people he inspired. This post is dedicated to the memory of Albert Perusset, who left an indelible impact on me through our brief interaction and his sage advice. 

Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963, offers a masterful account of the early Civil Rights Movement, focusing on the life and leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., from the Montgomery bus boycott to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through this lens, Branch presents not only a biography of King but also a history of a movement that reshaped American democracy. His evocative prose and rigorous research capture the complexity, passion, and heartbreak of this transformative era.