Partners to history Book

This is simply an unparalleled work of history that makes one appreciate and understand the civil rights movement in a way no other work can. It consistently astounds and amazes, which is itself impressive for a tale so often told.

To tell the truth, I've never been very interested in the "classical" civil rights movement, the one we read about in all the US history textbooks, from the Birmingham bus boycott of 1955 up through the march to Selma in 1965. I thought it was perhaps the most important event in 20th century US history, sure, but the stark dichotomy of it all, with a saintly Martin Luther King and the non-violent movement arrayed against a host of bigoted Southern sheriffs, seemed almost too pat and too obvious a morality play. It seemed like a victory so obvious, with the moral standing of the two sides so clear, that there was nothing to wonder or debate about. This book can't help but blow those ideas out of the water.

For one, it shows how impossible the civil rights movement seemed, even right up until 1963. The fact that Southern blacks were being murdered and beaten for trying to vote didn't make it into the nation's newspapers, barely garnered a discussion in congressional or presidential contests, and seemed almost natural to most Americans, who were more than happy to ignore the issue in any case. The system of oppression was so tight, in fact, that many thought the low voter turnout among blacks in the South, and segregation more generally, was just a kind of mutual accommodation made by the two races in the South. Only with the 1963 marches to the courthouse and downtown department stores in Birmingham did the movement really attract national attention, and lead to a wave of other protests and finally the beginnings of a presidential response by Kennedy. Before, even sympathetic Northern papers and commentators wondered about the morality of "sit-ins" at segregated stores, marches that were designed to get people arrested, and boycotts generally. Even if many were sympathetic, many also thought that the methods the civil rights movement used were questionable at best.

And the methods are what this book is all about. It constantly reminds me of the old saying that good generals study strategy while great generals study logistics. This book shows the mind-numbing complexity of organizing these movements, from gathering money for bail (always, always, raising money for bail), to keeping marching formation, to keeping the appropriate number of waves of protesters to overload southern jails, to trying to coordinate with federal marshals or prosecutors to protect the defenseless people who insisted on protesting even when everyone counseled caution. (It's hard to remember that even King himself, after the "sit-in" movement started in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, was worried about the morality of getting himself arrested, as opposed to just boycotting). At all times everyone in the movement was subject to merciless beatings or murder. This book, told with the help of countless interviews with the main participants, makes one feel that immediacy and courage of the movement in a way I've never imagined before. I can't recommend it enough.