Civil Rights Movement

The Great Black Hope The Great Black Hope

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 t...

Mar 9, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Early

The Race to War The Race to War

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.

Feb 2, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Levering Lewis

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King

The widows of great men either gracefully retire from history's stage or take their own lonely road. Coretta Scott King had little hesitancy about carrying on her husband's work.

Feb 2, 2006 / Books & the Arts / The Editors

Working-Class Hero Working-Class Hero

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...

Jan 11, 2006 / Books & the Arts / William P. Jones

Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance

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 fulle...

Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner

The Two-Way Squeeze The Two-Way Squeeze

The quiet purposefulness that characterized Rosa Parks's actions bears eloquent witness to the power of her protest.

Oct 25, 2005 / Books & the Arts / The Editors

By Any Means Necessary By Any Means Necessary

In June 1965 James Farmer, leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and longtime champion of Gandhian nonviolence, arrived in Bogalusa, Louisiana, to support a desegregat...

Jun 17, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Mike Marqusee

Why Brown Still Matters Why Brown Still Matters

Fifty years ago, African-Americans and fellow progressives hailed Brown v. Board of Education as a conclusive turning point in the struggle for racial equality.

Apr 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / David J. Garrow

A Dream Deferred A Dream Deferred

After bloody battles for desegregation, blacks in Memphis are still behind.

Apr 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Michael Honey

The ‘Fifth Circuit Four’ The ‘Fifth Circuit Four’

How four federal judges brought the rule of reason to the South.

Apr 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jack Bass

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