before we get to the books, could you state what we mean by the civil rights era? Does it have a clear beginning and end?
There are debates about what constitutes the civil rights era. Some scholars like to talk about a long civil rights movement, stretching the civil rights movement back to the 1930s, thinking of labor disputes, civil rights unionism, and other reform efforts. and then you could go for an even bigger story and talk about the African-American freedom struggle that possibly begins at the moment enslaved Africans are brought to this country and strive for citizenship and freedom.
You are reading: Best books about the civil rights movement
my perspective is that there is something particular, and this is influenced by an article by sundiata keita cha-jua and clarence lang, “the ‘long move’ as a vampire: temporal and spatial fallacies in recent studies of black freedom” published in The Journal of African-American History: About the years between 1954 and 1968, due to the landmark legislation that passed before Congress. in the united states that really fundamentally changes the position of african americans in this country and makes them, at least legally, free citizens in this country. So I’m mainly thinking of 54, because of the landmark Brown v. the board of education. and 1968, shortly after the death of Martin Luther King, due to the passage of the fair housing law. I like to refer to the series of legislation between those years as the classic civil rights movement, because of how the legislation dramatically changed black citizenship.
Let’s see the books you’ve chosen. The first is Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement by Barbara Ransby. tell us about it.
My focus in thinking about these books was to teach in the undergraduate classroom and what I would like my undergraduates to walk out of class with. my interest lies primarily in the intersection of religion and the civil rights movement, which greatly influenced my choice of books.
this book about ella baker is important because it allows students and readers to understand the fight for black freedom and the civil rights movement, and chronicles the life of a phenomenal human being, who was truly an important person . At every major fight for black freedom and civil rights in this country, Ella Baker was there. therefore, it gives students the opportunity to read a book about a woman and how she understood the fight for equal rights and how her gender shaped her experience. It’s important because what Ella Baker does, and what the book helps us understand, is the organizational tradition within the civil rights movement. Attention is often focused on the tradition of mobilization, due to the likes of Martin Luther King and the hugely important marches and mobilization campaigns she led. But Ella Baker was committed to the organizing tradition, organizing local communities and helping them achieve leadership and work on their own problems, which they understood better than anyone else, and develop sustainable solutions.
“my approach in thinking about these books was to teach in the undergraduate classroom”
so I really enjoy that teaching book because it illustrates this organizational tradition. There is a phenomenal chapter in the book that shows what happened when the organizing tradition and commitments of Ella Baker collided with the mobilizing tradition and ideas of Martin Luther King. that gives you the opportunity to show students what happens when these different ideas of leadership and different strategies of social change clash, which in turn allows students to think about their contemporary moment and contemporary efforts to design the social change and think about what strategies in terms of organizing or mobilizing would best fit your current concerns.
they were doing different things, but did ella baker work closely with martin luther king?
See Also: Clash Of Clans: Guide to use Book of Everything – Sportslumo
yes, she was the interim executive director of the southern christian leadership conference. but she was an interim director. Despite her credentials, skills, and gifts, she was never given the title of full-time executive director, primarily because she was a woman, and most of the male clergy within the Southern Christian leadership conference were uncomfortable with a woman had the title of executive director. director and have a woman in leadership. She tried to push Martin Luther King to think more about organizing local communities to make sure people weren’t looking for a savior, but she recognized that they themselves had the ability to organize locally for change. when she was forming the student nonviolent coordinating committee (sncc), she was there and encouraged them not to join the southern christian leadership conference. They were going to become an auxiliary to the Southern Christian Leaders Conference, but she really pushed them not to do that, to be independent and more concerned with local organizing.
if you talk to people like john lewis and others who were part of sncc, in the early days they all confess their debt to ella baker and how she helped them think about social change and local organizing. i think the time most of us think about this is 1964, the summer of freedom, when sncc went south and mississippi and organized people locally to vote and work on their terms in mississippi. that’s one of the most prominent grassroots organizing campaigns we know of in the civil rights movement.
let’s move on to god’s long summer: stories of faith and civil rights by charles marsh. tell us a little about this book.
I chose this book because it is very well written. It’s a smooth read. each chapter deals with a different personality who was involved in the freedom summer that i just talked about, which was a summer of local organizing in mississippi: organizing people to vote, get involved, and support local efforts for freedom and freedom. equality. Each chapter of this book takes a different look at a person’s life during that summer. What’s great about this is that it starts with Fannie Lou Hamer, how she was transformed in that summer of 1964, and also how faith for her was something that encouraged her to get involved in these efforts. but it also includes a chapter on sam bowers, who was one of the clansmen in mississippi, who saw himself as a christian and was very much against summer freedom. His belief in white Christian nationalism led him to oppose equality and use violence to defend white supremacy.
also has a chapter on the reverend dr. w. douglas hudgins, pastor of first baptist church, jackson, mississippi. It was the leading church in the state, counting among its members and Sunday school teachers local and state officials, including the Governor of Mississippi. Reverend Hudgins preached what he saw as a purely theological message, that the church should not get involved in politics. everything related to the structure of racism and inequality and terrorism, he didn’t mention it in his sermons. he avoided that policy, building a scaffolding for white supremacist terrorism to continue his reign. The book also examines Reverend Ed King, a white minister who championed the cause of civil rights, and the experience of the Cleveland vendors, a young African-American student who was a member of the SNCC.
This book is a wonderful opportunity for students to read and discover and understand that wonderful summer through the eyes of several different personalities. they gravitate towards it because of how it is organized. reads very well and allows college students to really live in the moment.
shows the arguments around the correct Christian approach to freedom summer producing a battle of ideas? Was the clan member influenced in any way by the arguments of his opponents who were giving a different message about where the duty of a Christian lay?
Sam Bowers did not convert at all, he was part of some bombings and murders in Mississippi, including the murder of the three student volunteers: Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. with fannie lou hamer, she shows how her faith transforms from one where she just went to church and tried to be an honest human being as she appeared, to motivating her to want to get involved in the civil rights movement. but there is no conversion story in the book.
Having said that, the story that ends the book shows how things can change. Cleveland vendors are shot during a student protest at South Carolina State University, several others are killed. the police are acquitted, while the vendors are convicted of inciting a riot. As a result, vendors’ ideas about the Christian faith and its implications for social change change. so you see these changes in certain characters in the book, but there’s nothing like a white supremacist converted to the cause of racial equality.
See Also: ‘Game of Thrones’: George R.R. Martin Says Littlefinger Changed From Books
Next is Cross Bearing: Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J Garrow. tell us about it.
This book is a Pulitzer Prize winner. it became a standard narrative of the king’s life and the life of the southern Christian leadership conference. it is an amazing book. David Garrow spent years researching and writing. It’s a long book, but he can still cut it into chunks so students can read about Martin Luther King’s career from the Montgomery bus boycott, to Albany, to what’s happening in St. agustin in florida and birmingham. King’s entire career and Southern Christian Leadership Conference is in the book, giving students a solid understanding of the role of faith; Martin Luther King’s faith, how faith influenced him, how it shaped his activism, and how that activism mobilized communities to campaign for justice and freedom. is an excellent text.
The following is a primary source, eyes on the prize: Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and First-Hand Accounts of the Black Freedom Struggle.
When I’m teaching, I enjoy having students read primary sources. I think it is important that students not only read about historical moments, but that they read texts about the historical moment. This book is great because it is a collection of speeches and other primary source materials that students can read, study, and understand.
“my interest lies primarily in the intersection of religion and the civil rights movement”
I really enjoy seeing students’ eyes come to life when they’re reading an actual speech, press conference, or speech of some kind. I think it’s great for students, and then it goes well with the imagery of the civil rights movement. it is one thing to read about the famous campaign in birmingham in 1963, and another thing to read the speeches and see the video images: the police dogs, the fire hoses and what people went through, just to be treated equally . so this book goes well with actual historical raw footage.
These primary sources deal with the civil rights movement, as you define it, from 1954 to ’68, is that correct?
This text goes from 1954-1990. It is edited by several excellent scholars, including Darlene Clark Hine, Gerald Gill, David J. garrow, and martin luther king collaborator vincent harding, as well as my predecessor at stanford’s martin luther king institute, clayborn carson.
his final recommendation is the autobiography of malcolm x.
This is a text you have to read for yourself. It allows you to see how faith shapes Malcolm’s worldview and his understanding of racism and the solution to racism. it also allows you to see a historical figure that changes over time. Malcolm’s beliefs change, especially as it relates to white brothers and sisters and the origins of racism and inequality, while at the same time maintaining a commitment to black nationalism.
See Also: The Top 15 Best-Selling Self-Help Books of All Time – Project BOLD Life
The text is important because it shows an individual who is so important and so influential in black nationalist thought specifically, and in black freedom struggles in general. I love how the text shows how his faith is so central to him. I think we often study the civil rights movement and think of black nationalism as a purely secular movement or ideology. This text does a great job of not only showing Malcolm’s ideas throughout his life, but also how his faith underpins his understanding of Black nationalism, as well as his understanding of how to fight the virus of racism in America. /p>