Black Civil Rights in America.

By Kevern Verney. Introductions to History. (London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. vi, 135. $16.95, ISBN 0-415-23888-9.)

Kevern Verney's slender volume is part of Routledge's series "Introductions to History," the purpose of which is to inform undergraduates about significant historical issues in concise and plain language. Black Civil Rights in America seeks to fulfill this mission by tracing the development of the African American struggle for freedom from 1619 to 1999, all in 117 pages of text. Concentrating on the twentieth century, it spotlights well-known black leaders, occupants of the White House, and black popular culture figures. As expected from a book of this sort, Verney does not include footnotes but provides a list of references, which contains some but not all of the critical secondary literature that should help students.

The book reflects recent scholarship in the field by venturing beyond the traditional chronology of the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1965. Indeed, only one chapter of seven encompasses this time period. The question that this book implicitly raises but does not explicitly address is the meaning of the civil rights movement as a historical concept. As portrayed here, there is not much distinction between the civil rights movement and the larger narrative of African American history. Admittedly, the struggle for black liberation coincides with the presence of people of African descent in the United States; however, by relegating the pursuit of civil rights from 1954 to 1965 to one chapter, it is questionable whether undergraduates will understand the significance of this most important chapter in the campaign for racial equality. Put another way, the post-World War II civil rights movement was a vital part of the black freedom struggle, but it is not enough to recognize elements of historical continuity without underscoring the qualities that made it different.

Because the author has to cover so much history in relatively little space, he gallops through the text at high speed. His language is lean and spare, which lightens some of his burden and should help students keep pace. Unfortunately, except for lengthening the chronology, the book reinforces much of the conventional textbook treatment that focuses on great men. Martin Luther King Jr. is joined by Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm X, and Jesse Jackson, but except for a brief mention of Ella Baker, the importance of women to the movement is virtually ignored. The Freedom Rides are glossed over, and the Birmingham protests as well as Freedom Summer receive far too little treatment. In fact, descriptions of the Tawana Brawley incident and the O. J. Simpson trial get slightly more mention than these seminal episodes in civil rights history. Overall, this book gives students some information but little depth.

STEVEN F. LAWSON
Rutgers University