Stephen B. Oates

The 1983 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was presented to Stephen B. Oates for Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The book is a brilliant examination of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., that portrays a very real man and his dream that shaped America's history.

Stephen B. Oates is the author of sixteen books. He was a consultant and “talking head” in Ken Burns's Civil War series on PBS and is a recipient of the Nevins-Freeman Award of the Chicago Civil War Round Table for lifetime achievement in the field of Civil War studies. A teacher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now writing the concluding book of the Voices of Storm trilogy, about the years of Reconstruction, 1865-1877.