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Guide Picks - Top 5 Books about the Civil Rights Movement
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The
civil rights movement was one of the most revolutionary times in
American history. The works listed below each provide a glimpse
into different aspects of this important time. |
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1) Voices
of Freedom
by
Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer. Henry Hampton, creator and executive producer of
the PBS series, Eyes on the Prize, and Steve Fayer the series writer, provide an entire book filled with
interviews from activists, politicians, reporters, Justice Department
officials, and other participants in the movement. These accounts provide
a fascinating story and a vivid picture of the historical events of the 1950s
through the 1980s.
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2) Carry
Me Home: Birmingham Alabama - The Climactic Battle of The Civil
Rights Movement
by Diane McWhorter. This book is a personal memoir as well as
a detailed historical look at the Civil Rights Movement. It
chronicles the rise and fall of segregation in one of the most segregated
cities in America, Birmingham, Alabama. McWhorter traces the
roots of the civil rights movement back to the labor movement and
the New Deal. She also offers new revelations about the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombings.
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3) The
Civil Rights Movement : A Photographic History, 1954-68
by Steven Kasher.
This book tells a photographic story of the civil rights
movement. Each chapter begins with an introductory narrative of
the events captured in the subsequent photographs. Kasher presents
pictures taken by over fifty photographers. Feature
photographs include, pictures of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham
movement, the March on Washington, the Sit-ins and Freedom Rides,
and Malcolm X and Black Power.
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4) Parting
the Waters: America in the King Years
by Taylor Branch.
Branch focuses on the civil rights movement from 1954-1963. It
is a portrait of Martin Luther King's rise to the leadership role in
the movement and chronicles the private conflicts that took place
behind closed doors at the boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom
rides. This book was honored with a Pulitzer Prize.
This is the first volume in Branch's trilogy on the civil rights
era.
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5) Local
People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi
by John Dittmer. This book traces the events of the civil rights
movement in Mississippi from the end of World War II to 1968.
Dittmer uses oral history accounts of the local people who took part in
the movement. Accounts include, the attempt of World War II
veterans to register to vote, the freedom rides, voter registration
drives, the riot that took place when James Meredith enrolled at Ole
Mississippi, and the murder of Medgar Evers.
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