We Shall Overcome: a Living History of the Civil Rights Struggle Told in Words, Pictures and the Voices of the Participants.We Shall Overcome: A Living History of the Civil Rights Struggle Told in Words, Pictures and the Voices of the Participants by Herb Boyd Sourcebooks MediaFusion, October 2004 $45, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-402-020213-X The highly publicized phase of the mass movement for civil rights began in 1955, the year lynchers murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi; the year Rosa Parks refused to sit where black people were supposed to sit on an Alabama city bus. The Civil Rights Movement expired, some say, after the Poor Peoples March in Washington in 1968. In 1955, mass actions--boycotts, blood sheddings, jailings, marches and sit-ins-involving ordinary people erupted in the southern United States The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States. . At first, activists focused on desegregating public accommodation: seatings at dining places and public transportation facilities. As the "white power structure" (an oft-used phrase in those days) resisted change, black Americans in the movement sought electoral power and emphasized securing the right to vote as a main goal. All of this is the substance of Herb Boyd's We Shall Overcome, a survey of the movement's high points. His reportage begins before 1955, enabling him to depict the early 1950s' racial mood. One chapter spotlights the often-overlooked but crucial 1961 campaign in Albany, Georgia. Boyd conscientiously describes activities of pivotal persons slighted sometimes in movement surveys, for example, Ella Baker. However, there are omissions: nothing on financial support and nothing on the Medical Committee for Human Rights' nurses and doctors who looked after civil rights workers, investigated medical facilities and helped establish model clinics for Mississippians. Nevertheless, Boyd has compiled a fine reference work. An author and freelance journalist, Boyd cites 66 books, 16 articles and 16 Web sites he used to assemble We Shall Overcome. The photographs include several not usually seen. Notably, the book contains two compact disks, narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, with impressive sound bites from others on the Movement. They include, among others: A. Philip Randolph Asa Philip Randolph (April 15 1889 – May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader and founder of the first black labor union in the United States. Early Years Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida. ; Hosea Williams; former slaves; Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson; Arkansas high-school students; North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. college students; a freedom rider beaten in Birmingham; white publisher James H. Gray James Henry Gray (August 31, 1906 – November 12, 1998) was a Canadian journalist, historian and author. Born in Whitemouth, Manitoba, he moved to Winnipeg with his parents in 1911. of Albany, Georgia; Ku Klux Klansmen; U.S. Senator James Eastland; Governors Barnett and Johnson and Wallace; Medgar and Myrlie Evers; J. Edgar Hoover Noun 1. J. Edgar Hoover - United States lawyer who was director of the FBI for 48 years (1895-1972) John Edgar Hoover, Hoover ; Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a black internationalist/racial equality organization that began in October 1966. ; and Robert F. Kennedy. C. Gerald Fraser is a journalist in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . |
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