Review by Choice Review
A masterful weaving of critical journalistic history and personalized reminiscences makes this account of the Civil Rights Movement both refreshing and renewing. Interspersed narrative passages and participants' recollections remind the reader of the tensions, ambivalences, and the feelings of triumph felt by the people who were there from the mid-1950s to the late 60s. The book allows interviewees to review their actions from the perspective of the '90s. Powledge's sources are often oral history accounts and the format is occasionally choppy. In an era when the history of the Movement is being revised, however, this collage of recorded experiences is a balanced contribution, valuable both to the knowledgeable and the novice. Recommended for all libraries, secondary-school level and up. -J. H. Smith, Wake Forest University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Powledge's intimate knowledge of the civil rights movement, which he covered for the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal , shines through on every page of this massive chronicle. An essential sourcebook, it blends a perceptive narrative with the stirring oral testimonies of diverse participants. Prior to the movement, black Southerners lived in a police state, a place where violence could be visited upon them at any moment. Powledge traces the black rebellion that percolated for years before 1954, then he documents the massive resistance of whites, both Southern and Northern, to blacks' growing demands for equality. He blasts the Kennedy administration for its waffling and its willingness to tolerate racism in several areas, and he highlights crucial differences between movement strategies in the South and in the North, where ``the opposition was hidden and diffuse.'' Those still struggling to break down discriminatory barriers will glean from this inspirational resource a sense of connectedness to history. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
America's civil rights movement had heroes beyond Martin Luther King, owed little to federal help, and was hardly a forward march to glory from Montgomery to Selma. These are themes of Powledge, whose narrative sketch of the 1950s and 1960s, years he saw as a newspaperman, loosely cements together more than 50 interviews. A surprising range of persons speak: Julian Bond, James Farmer, and lesser-known civil rights veterans; an FBI agent; Alabama Governor John Patterson; Albany, Georgia, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett, other segregationists. ``Trying something and seeing what worked and what didn't work''--such was the nature of countless heroic acts across the South, which added up to the movement portrayed with great immediacy by Powledge. His book is as rich as Henry Hampton's Voices of Freedom ( LJ 2/15/90). Highly recommended for public and college libraries; of interest to scholars, too. Photos and index not seen.-- Robert F. Nardini, N. Chichester, N.H. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Powledge (Fat of the Land, 1984; Water, 1982, etc.) covered the civil-rights movement as a reporter for both the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal, and he recaps it here from its first tentative beginnings after WW II to the triumphant march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, which signalled an end to segregation and the terrorizing of African-Americans in the South. The main virtue of this account stems from its rich oral histories and biographies. Powledge recently interviewed a number of the more prominent participants in the protests, some of whom remain national figures today (Julian Bond, Harvey Gantt, etc.), and he assembles their recollections and reflections into a lively mosaic of personalities. Powledge takes great pains to explain how and why these individuals came into the movement, generally giving each enough space to tell the story in his or her own words. Major events in the struggle from 1955-65 are examined, from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Freedom Riders and onward to the March on Washington and the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The participation of Martin Luther King, Jr., receives close scrutiny, since one of the author's contentions is that King was far from being the leader of the movement, but was enshrined in that position by whites and the media in the wake of his famous ""I Have a Dream"" speech. Also a central thread in this history is the role the federal government, and especially then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the FBI, in their maneuvering to control or undermine the aims of the movement, with national issues such as desegregation and black voter registration being turned into political footballs by liberals and white supremacists alike. Dissension within movement ranks inevitably resulted, and the commitment to nonviolent action is shown as weakening as progress was less than expected. Notable for its personal records of hardship and perseverance, this fine homage offers considerable inspiration for those who would carry on the fight today. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
