Suggested Reading
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Books
Parting the Waters, America in the King Years 1954-1963, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 1988. Volume One of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Movement's early years from Montgomery bus boycott, the Sit- ins and Freedom Rides, the Albany, Birmingham, and St. Augustine Movements, the March on Washington, and much more.
Pillar of Fire, America in the King Years 1963-1965, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 1988. Volume Two of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Movement in the North, Freedom Summer, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenge, and more.
At Canaan's Edge — America in the King Years 1965-68, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 2006. Volume Three of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Selma Voting Rights Campaign, the March to Montgomery, Black Power, the Meredith March, Chicago Campaign, anti-Vietnam War protests, and more.
Hands on The Freedom Plow – Personal Accounts by women in SNCC. An unprecedented women’ history of the civil rights movement, from sit-ins to Black Power, told by the largely anonymous women who made it happen.
Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change, Aldon D. Morris. Free Press, 1986. Comprehensive study of the movement's origin and strategies, with emphasis on role played by women.
Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma J. Mills Thornton, University Alabama Press, 2006. Detailed, comprehensive history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and movements in Selma and Birmingham with heavy emphasis on municipal politics.
But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, Glenn T. Eskew. University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Detailed historical examination of Birmingham struggle in 1950s and 1960s.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharris. Random House, 2013. Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who, with a single act, birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharris provides a revealing window into Parks’ politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought—for more than a half a century—to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice.
Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972, University of Georgia Press. By Adam Fairclough. British scholar Fairclough examines the history of the Civil Rights movement in Louisiana from 1915, when the New Orleans branch of the NAACP was founded, through the start of the first administration of Governor Edwin Edwards in 1972. He has written the most comprehensive account yet of the movement in Louisiana and perhaps in any Southern state. Especially valuable is the discussion of the movement during the decades before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision overturning racial segregation in public schools, a period that many scholars have neglected. Fairclough also explores the cultural diversity that differentiates Louisiana from other deep Southern states and provides a cogent analysis of the impact of that diversity on the Civil Rights struggle in the state.
Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement, Vincent Harding. Orbis Books, 1990. Series of essays by Movement veteran Vincent Harding on how the Civil Rights Movement affected all aspects of American life.
Parting the Waters, America in the King Years 1954-1963, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 1988. Volume One of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Movement's early years from Montgomery bus boycott, the Sit- ins and Freedom Rides, the Albany, Birmingham, and St. Augustine Movements, the March on Washington, and much more.
Pillar of Fire, America in the King Years 1963-1965, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 1988. Volume Two of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Movement in the North, Freedom Summer, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenge, and more.
At Canaan's Edge — America in the King Years 1965-68, Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster, 2006. Volume Three of Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Movement, including the Selma Voting Rights Campaign, the March to Montgomery, Black Power, the Meredith March, Chicago Campaign, anti-Vietnam War protests, and more.
Hands on The Freedom Plow – Personal Accounts by women in SNCC. An unprecedented women’ history of the civil rights movement, from sit-ins to Black Power, told by the largely anonymous women who made it happen.
Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change, Aldon D. Morris. Free Press, 1986. Comprehensive study of the movement's origin and strategies, with emphasis on role played by women.
Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma J. Mills Thornton, University Alabama Press, 2006. Detailed, comprehensive history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and movements in Selma and Birmingham with heavy emphasis on municipal politics.
But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, Glenn T. Eskew. University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Detailed historical examination of Birmingham struggle in 1950s and 1960s.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharris. Random House, 2013. Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who, with a single act, birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharris provides a revealing window into Parks’ politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought—for more than a half a century—to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice.
Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972, University of Georgia Press. By Adam Fairclough. British scholar Fairclough examines the history of the Civil Rights movement in Louisiana from 1915, when the New Orleans branch of the NAACP was founded, through the start of the first administration of Governor Edwin Edwards in 1972. He has written the most comprehensive account yet of the movement in Louisiana and perhaps in any Southern state. Especially valuable is the discussion of the movement during the decades before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision overturning racial segregation in public schools, a period that many scholars have neglected. Fairclough also explores the cultural diversity that differentiates Louisiana from other deep Southern states and provides a cogent analysis of the impact of that diversity on the Civil Rights struggle in the state.
Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement, Vincent Harding. Orbis Books, 1990. Series of essays by Movement veteran Vincent Harding on how the Civil Rights Movement affected all aspects of American life.
Biographies written by the civil rights activists we will meet during the seminar
A White Preacher's Message on Race And Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning With the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Robert S. Graetz New South Books, 2006. In addition to Graetz’s Montgomery Bus Boycott memoirs, this book includes provocative chapters on white privilege, black forgiveness, and the present-day challenges for human and civil rights.
A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Leader Morris Dees, Morris Dees with Steve Fiffer, Scribners, 1991. From Library Journal - “After Federal Judge Frank Johnson, noted civil rights lawyer Dees is the "second most hated man in Alabama." As he admits in this autobiography, "you've got to be doing something good to get so many folks mad at you." The grandson of a Klansman, he used the proceeds from the sale of a successful business to co-found the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. Dedicated to fighting racial injustice, Dees won such notable cases as the desegregation of the Montgomery YMCA and the defense of Joan Little, a black woman accused of murdering her white jailer after he raped her. With the creation of Klanwatch in 1980, he fought the Ku Klux Klan in the courts, triumphing in the 1987 landmark civil suit that bankrupted the KKK and that gave its headquarters to the mother of a lynching victim. LJ 5/1/91.”
A White Preacher's Message on Race And Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning With the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Robert S. Graetz New South Books, 2006. In addition to Graetz’s Montgomery Bus Boycott memoirs, this book includes provocative chapters on white privilege, black forgiveness, and the present-day challenges for human and civil rights.
A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Leader Morris Dees, Morris Dees with Steve Fiffer, Scribners, 1991. From Library Journal - “After Federal Judge Frank Johnson, noted civil rights lawyer Dees is the "second most hated man in Alabama." As he admits in this autobiography, "you've got to be doing something good to get so many folks mad at you." The grandson of a Klansman, he used the proceeds from the sale of a successful business to co-found the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. Dedicated to fighting racial injustice, Dees won such notable cases as the desegregation of the Montgomery YMCA and the defense of Joan Little, a black woman accused of murdering her white jailer after he raped her. With the creation of Klanwatch in 1980, he fought the Ku Klux Klan in the courts, triumphing in the 1987 landmark civil suit that bankrupted the KKK and that gave its headquarters to the mother of a lynching victim. LJ 5/1/91.”
Articles by topic via the Alumni Library through Ebsco
Civil Rights (General)
The Civil Rights Movement in World Perspective by Kevin Gaines; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Toward Equality For All by Thomas K. Grose; Source, U.S News & World Report
When 'Courage Superseded Fear by Suzanne Craig Robertson; Source, Tennessee Bar Journal
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The Birmingham Church Bomber by George McMillan; Source, Saturday Evening Post
The Ghosts of Alabama by Christopher John Farley, Hilary Hylton, Timothy Roche, Greg Fulton; Source, Time
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell Crusading for Justice Long Overdue by R. Hayes Johnson Jr.; Source, Human Rights
Martin Luther King Jr.
Between Contending Forces: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African American Freedom Struggle by Carson Clayborne ; Source, OAH
Magazine of History
The Poor People's Campaign: An Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement by Brenda Bretz; Source, Sociological Viewpoints
A Personal Journey to Understanding Martin Luther King, Jr. by Carson Clayborne ; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Martin Luther King Jr. Leads the March to Washington by Wesley A. Roberts; Source, Christian History
Mary Howell
In It Up to Their Necks by James Fox; Source, New Statesman
Medgar Evers
Myrlie Evers Remembers: 25 Years After Assassination Of Civil Rights Legend by Marilyn Marshall; Source, Ebony
The Nation Remembers Medgar Evers by Lottie L. Joiner; Source, Crisis
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Viv Sanders; Source, History Review
Rosa Parks by Rita Dove; Source, Time
“The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”: Rosa Parks and the Black Freedom Struggle in Detroit by Jeanne Theoharis; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Selma to Montgomery March
The Meaning of the Selma March: Great Day at Trickem Fork by W.C. Heinz, Bard Lindeman; Source, Saturday Evening Post
From The Front Lines Of Freedom by Lori Rozsa, Nancy Wilstach, Michelle York; Source, People
Sit-Ins
The 1960 Sit-ins in Context The Times They Were Changing by Martin Oppenheimer; Source, Against the Current
The Sit-In Demonstrations in Historic Perspective by Theodore Carter Delaney; Source, North Carolina Historical Review
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center's Poverty of Ethics by Isabel Lyman; Source, New American
Racism Rebooted by Gary Younge; Source, Nation
The Civil Rights Movement in World Perspective by Kevin Gaines; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Toward Equality For All by Thomas K. Grose; Source, U.S News & World Report
When 'Courage Superseded Fear by Suzanne Craig Robertson; Source, Tennessee Bar Journal
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The Birmingham Church Bomber by George McMillan; Source, Saturday Evening Post
The Ghosts of Alabama by Christopher John Farley, Hilary Hylton, Timothy Roche, Greg Fulton; Source, Time
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell Crusading for Justice Long Overdue by R. Hayes Johnson Jr.; Source, Human Rights
Martin Luther King Jr.
Between Contending Forces: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African American Freedom Struggle by Carson Clayborne ; Source, OAH
Magazine of History
The Poor People's Campaign: An Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement by Brenda Bretz; Source, Sociological Viewpoints
A Personal Journey to Understanding Martin Luther King, Jr. by Carson Clayborne ; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Martin Luther King Jr. Leads the March to Washington by Wesley A. Roberts; Source, Christian History
Mary Howell
In It Up to Their Necks by James Fox; Source, New Statesman
Medgar Evers
Myrlie Evers Remembers: 25 Years After Assassination Of Civil Rights Legend by Marilyn Marshall; Source, Ebony
The Nation Remembers Medgar Evers by Lottie L. Joiner; Source, Crisis
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Viv Sanders; Source, History Review
Rosa Parks by Rita Dove; Source, Time
“The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”: Rosa Parks and the Black Freedom Struggle in Detroit by Jeanne Theoharis; Source, OAH Magazine of History
Selma to Montgomery March
The Meaning of the Selma March: Great Day at Trickem Fork by W.C. Heinz, Bard Lindeman; Source, Saturday Evening Post
From The Front Lines Of Freedom by Lori Rozsa, Nancy Wilstach, Michelle York; Source, People
Sit-Ins
The 1960 Sit-ins in Context The Times They Were Changing by Martin Oppenheimer; Source, Against the Current
The Sit-In Demonstrations in Historic Perspective by Theodore Carter Delaney; Source, North Carolina Historical Review
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center's Poverty of Ethics by Isabel Lyman; Source, New American
Racism Rebooted by Gary Younge; Source, Nation