Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

(Hardback)

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Description

This book traces the story of the civil rights movement through the written and spoken words of those who participated in it. It includes both classic texts, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", and lesser-known works, such as Robert Moses' "Letter from a Mississippi Jail Cell" and James Lawson's address to SNCC's 1960 founding meeting. Drawing on research by recent scholars, the volume emphasizes the role that ordinary people played in the struggle for freedom and equality and also displays the breadth of the civil rights movement. It contains documents written by members of all the well-known civil rights organizations: SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, CORE, and the Black Panther Party. It includes pieces written by independent and relatively unknown figures, such as Jo Ann Gibson Robinson and Sheyann Webb. In addition, it includes documents demonstrating the ferocity of white resistance to black equality, such as George Wallace's 1963 "Inaugural Address". The book aims to fill a void, providing a balanced single-volume reader on the civil rights movement. It may be valuable to all those interested in Afro-American history, race relations, the 1960s, and recent American history.

Reviews

"This is a documentary collection that has been needed for a long time. The burgeoning interest in the civil rights movement argues for such a work, and the need to have the experience of the movement in the participants' own words demands it. Words counted during the civil rights movement, and Levy's collection . . . is the best and most accessible."-Randall M. Miller Professor of History Director of American Studies Saint Joseph's University
Historian Levy has collected and organized 95 documents covering the African-American civil rights movement from the early 1940s through the 1980s, concluding with a very helpful statistical appendix. He has mined a variety of sources, including speeches, sermons, essays, court cases, affidavits, memoirs, and commission reports. The book contains the words of the mighty--Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, et al.--but also the testimony of the less famous, the field workers and foot soldiers of the movement. (With few exceptions, African Americans rather than their white allies are featured.) Although the collection emphasizes progress, it also recognizes continuing economic inequities.... this is a readable, valuable collection. Highly recommended as supplemental reading in appropriate courses and for most libraries.-Library Journal
"Historian Levy has collected and organized 95 documents covering the African-American civil rights movement from the early 1940s through the 1980s, concluding with a very helpful statistical appendix. He has mined a variety of sources, including speeches, sermons, essays, court cases, affidavits, memoirs, and commission reports. The book contains the words of the mighty--Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, et al.--but also the testimony of the less famous, the field workers and foot soldiers of the movement. (With few exceptions, African Americans rather than their white allies are featured.) Although the collection emphasizes progress, it also recognizes continuing economic inequities.... this is a readable, valuable collection. Highly recommended as supplemental reading in appropriate courses and for most libraries."-Library Journal

Author Bio

PETER B. LEVY is Assistant Professor of History at York College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of The New Left and Labor in America, 1960-1972 (forthcoming).