Matthew F. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights, he is the author of five books, most recently Half American- The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and several academic journals, and on NPR. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Delmont earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University.
“Until the Last Gun Is Silent is a remarkable and revelatory book. Matthew F. Delmont uses the stories of Coretta Scott King and war hero Dwight ‘Skip’ Johnson, along with many others, to give us a fresh look at the high and lasting costs of the Vietnam War and how Black Americans, as they did before and do now, navigated the tension between patriotism and protest, Americanism and activism.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road “Matthew F. Delmont possesses the gifts of an adventurous historian and a lively writer. In this groundbreaking book, he weaves together two often overlooked stories that help us better understand the intersection of the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War, vividly reminding us that protest was and must always be an important part of patriotism.” —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life “Matthew Delmont braids together two lives: one of a man now forgotten, the other of a woman who, though familiar to us, had a fierce passion for justice far too little known. Their combined stories illuminate a crucial era whose wounds are still with us. An unusually moving and haunting book.” —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis “By narrating Coretta Scott King’s antiwar activism alongside the tragic story of Medal of Honor recipient Dwight ‘Skip’ Johnson, Matthew Delmont delfty explores the linkages between the ‘major evils’ of racism, poverty, and war, and how a group of Black patriots responded. At turns inspiring and devastating, nuanced and enraging, Until the Last Gun Is Silent is an extraordinary book.” —Phil Klay, National Book Award–winning author of Redeployment “Matthew F. Delmont has given us a great gift in Until the Last Gun Is Silent by restoring Coretta Scott King’s pivotal leadership of the antiwar movement. She didn’t just lead her husband, who stressed, ‘she educated me.’ She led the nation in challenging U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the misprioritization of resources to war that were needed at home. An essential read for our times.” —Jeanne Theoharis, author of King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South