This very important book points out that the Civil Rights movement, now looked at through a sanitized filter, was just as messy as modern movements such as BLM. The modern narrative that Civil Rights were gained in a timely, organized format, we neglect to realize that messy, seemingly chaotic, long-term struggle is required to fight against racism. ( )

A deep and unflinching examination of some of the most widely held misconceptions about the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these false ideas were put about intentionally to control the narrative and use it for political gain. The author spends a lot of time discussing the legacy of Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, two women whose lives have been largely erased to make them palatable and "ideal female figureheads". The author dwells upon the intersection of the Civil Rights Movement and the movement for Women's Rights. The prevailing misogyny of the time required these women to "simple", "humble", "help-meets" rather than the determined, strategic activists that they were.

Many key events of this time are cloaked in similar myth-making which robs our history of its greater power. The author picks apart why these myths were created and for what purpose and then strives to replace these commonly held beliefs with truth. A fascinated and beautifully executed correction of popular history. ( )

This would’ve made a great 10,000 word essay, and is possibly adapted from a series of speeches/papers, which might explain the repetition of anecdotes and arguments. The core argument is clearly correct: when people condemn Black Lives Matter and compare modern freedom movements unfavorably with the civil rights movement because of the latter’s supposedly more uniting tactics, they are ignoring the real history, which is that King and Parks were highly unpopular with whites, and controversial even among some African-Americans, while they were in the midst of demanding justice. Also, there were long struggles in the North and the South, instead of transformative moments in which real Americans realized that racism was bad. Northern whites in particular seized on the rhetoric of cultural disadvantage to explain why Brown v. Board didn’t mean that their kids had to go to school with black and brown kids, and busing had been used in Boston for many years before desegregation—indeed, busing had been a tool of segregation so that whites and blacks living within a block of one another got different schools. (By the way, the black schools were so overcrowded that the school board proposed doing half-day shifts—they didn’t propose letting the kids go to less crowded white schools, though.) ( )

A powerful account of the Civil Rights Movement in all its "terrible beauty" and an analysis of how that history is already being watered down and misused.

Jeanne Theoharis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College. She has published on Civil Rights, race, and social welfare. Her book, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, was especially well received. In it she introduced some the themes which shape her latest book.

Theoharis is concerned about how recent politicians and pundits are nostalgically comparing the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s with similar movements today as if the former protests were better because they were quieter and less disruptive. She displays abundant evident that this view is simply not true. Taking her title from the words of James Baldwin, she reminds us of the anger and disruptive force of earlier years, often telling stories that we have conveniently forgotten or never understood. In the process, she reveals the common threads of then and now and encourages readers to speak out despite allies who would silence them.

Early chapters in the book address the way in which long ongoing activism lay behind the activism of the 1950s and 1960s. If white people had known the history of their own towns and regions, they would not have been “surprised” when protesters appeared. Theoharis fleshes out the actions of Rosa Parks and others in Montgomery long before the Boycott. She also describes how even Martin Luther King angered whites and some blacks who feared what might be lost in the response to open opposition.zi

As Theoharis explains race relations in Northern and Western cities always were distorted as opponents used different words to keep the Civil Rights Movement confined to the South. She focuses on Los Angeles, Boston, and Detroit, where the protest of blacks had long gone ignored until they burst out in violence. She also devotes chapters highlighting the young people in the movement and women's roles. Instead of repeating the emerging stories of rural women organizers, she reveals the roles of women in the 1963 March on Washington and the exclusion of them by the black male leaders.

I recommend this book to all readers. In telling her stories, Theoharis opened my eyes to events I had never known about, even though I have researched and taught African American History. It is simply an enjoyable taste of history at its most truthful and beautiful. Once she pointed it out, I immediately saw the numerous ways in which we are minimizing the power of the Movement.

Beacon Press merits congratulations for publishing three excellent books of African American history this spring that will be welcome by teachers, scholars, and the general public. All three can help us regain a more accurate vision of the actual character of the Civil Rights Movement at a time when that vision is being sentimentalized and “white washed.” I will be reviewing all three this week so you can check out the others.

A More Beautiful and Terrible History, Jeanne Theoharis.

An African American and Latinx History of the United States, by Paul Oritz.

History Teaches Us to Resist, by Mary Francis Berry.

Civil ( )

This is a very interesting book. First, just for full disclosure, I received this book free through the LibraryThing early reviewer program. Thanks to LibraryThing and Beacon Books for the book.

Also for full disclosure, I am a middle-class Caucasian male, probably the last person who would buy this book, but the first who really should read it (along with budding activists). Let's face it, the stories, statistics, and analysis here show me to be in a problematic class of individuals. Throughout the Civil Rights period, the average middle class Caucasian male, if not actively working against the movement, was usually against it, sometimes overtly and sometimes not. Sometimes, just apathetic ignorance was just as bad. Reading this book should make me uncomfortable, because the truths in it show that we have so much to learn and so far to go, and I should be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Not many people want to read a book (although maybe they should) that makes them uncomfortable. However, as a budding historian, I think it tells an important story, and was happy to get out of my comfort zone.

The author points out early in this book how we glorify Civil Rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, without really knowing how many others were involved in this process and how long they struggled to gain what they did. With all of our holidays and recognition of these leaders and celebration of the Civil Rights movement, we want to put the whole issue to bed and declare victory--racism is over! Of course, this is far from the case.

One interesting point was in how the north was as racist as the south, and fought desegregation just as hard, although in a more covert way. Northern media loved to slam the southern racists, but quietly resisted covering the efforts against desegregation in their backyard. This hit home for me, born and raised in Ohio. In supposedly progressive cities such as Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles, when frustration with the way things were led to demonstrations and even riots, city leadership seemed taken aback. How could this happen in their city? The media and leaders made the individuals involved the bad guy and totally ignored the decades of indifference to non-violent methods used to try to bring discriminatory practices to light.

It was interesting to read about how truly difficult it was for these activists to make any headway. Whether it was in the North or in the South, they were branded as extremists, troublemakers, un-American, or just plain communists. Contrary to our view now that these things they protested for were right and just, people at the time thought they asked for too much and viewed them very negatively. It was not until much later that they were looked back upon as heroes. This is much as people today perceive organizations such as Black Lives Matter. Also, although it is easy to pin governmental resistance to Civil Rights (both state and federal) on such villains as Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover, leaders with good reputations such as Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy were involved in negative governmental interference. It was very difficult for Civil Rights activists to get a fair shake. Also, we like the myth that democracy willingly embraced the good fight and brought about change when really, nothing could be further than the truth. It has been a long, hard, continuous struggle.

Growing up in a small northern town where there were NO people of color, I thought everything was okay. It was, for me. When I joined the military and moved to Louisiana, I saw things differently. I think that much of our country is still often segregated and unaware of how others live. This book gives the reader a good view of what really was happening during the Civil Rights era, and what is still going on today. I highly recommend this book. ( )