Civil Rights Movement

From King to Obama

Steve Cobble : Presidential Election 2008

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.
From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama

John Nichols : History

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.
Sweet Martin's Badass Song

Scott Saul : Non-Fiction

Several new books on Martin Luther King take a closer look at the rhetoric and economic politics of the civil rights icon.
Lost Causes Not Yet Found

Kevin M. Kruse : Non-Fiction

In Defying Dixie, Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore seeks to reclaim the radical origins of the modern civil rights struggle.
Hearts and Minds

Thomas J. Sugrue : Non-Fiction

Is there more to racism in America than intolerance and immorality? Four books shed light.
'The Mississippi Challenge'

George Slaff : Racism & Discrimination

Black people in the state were "regularly and systematically" denied the vote by "intimidation, harassment, economic reprisal, property damage, terrorization, violence and illegal and unconstitutional registration procedures."
King's Legacy of Change

Grace Lee Boggs : Barack Obama

No single person can be the agent of change: the vision must come from all of us.
Hillary's Real MLK Problem

Barbara Ehrenreich : Hillary Clinton

"Change" is this year's Democratic battle cry, but if you don't know how it happens, you're not likely to make it happen yourself.

2007

Memphis Is Also America

Pat Watters : Nation History

The civil rights movement that erupted in 1968 revealed in a few swift weeks white America's failure to respond to the nonviolence of Dr. King, and black America's recoil into despair and a violence of desperation.
Father of History

Christopher Phelps : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left

Bettina Aptheker's recent memoir has incited fierce debate over her father s legacy.
Roads to Freedom

David L. Chappell : Civil Rights & Liberties

A rich crop of new books offers fresh insight into the ongoing struggle for civil rights in America.
White History 101

Gary Younge : Race, Ethnicity & Religion

Why can't white people and black people have access to a shared history that is accurate, honest, antiracist and inclusive?

And the Beat Goes On...

Eric Alterman : Journalists & Journalism

A new book examining civil rights coverage demonstrates that the best reporting sometimes requires journalists to toss objectivity out the window.
The Great Black Hope

Gerald Early : Vietnam War

Taylor Branch concludes his staggering trilogy of the civil rights era with At Canaan's Edge, a relentlessly detailed narrative of Martin Luther King's desperate struggle to save the movement.
The Race to War

David Levering Lewis : Racism & Discrimination

Lost Battalions tells the story of two US Army regiments of the American Expeditionary Force, the struggle to buy citizenship through the self-sacrifice of war.
Coretta Scott King
Working-Class Hero

William P. Jones : African-Americans

While the edges continue to be smoothed off Martin Luther King Jr.'s bracing challenges to racism, war and free-market exploitation, the holiday is a time to remember a leader who believed civil rights and labor rights are tightly intertwined.

Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance

Eric Foner : Racism & Discrimination

Frozen in memory as the simple woman who helped to bring down segregation, Rosa Parks was far more complex and formidable than the popular imagination makes her out to be . A fuller picture of her life should make us also remember the many unsung heroes and heroines who came before and after her.
The Two-Way Squeeze

: Racism & Discrimination

Rosa Parks was a quiet woman whose refusal to move to the back of a city bus in 1955 helped change the course of history. She is not identified by name in this editorial from the December 24, 1955 edition of The Nation, but the quiet purposefulness that characterized her actions bears eloquent witness to the power of her protest.