Protest at Selma
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Published on 17. February 2015
353 pages
978-1-5040-1154-9 (ISBN)
Description
A thorough and insightful account of the historic 1965 civil rights protest at Selma, Alabama, from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography
Bearing the Cross
Vivid descriptions of violence and courageous acts fill David Garrow's account of the momentous 1965 protest at Selma, Alabama, in which the author illuminates the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in organizing the demonstrations that led to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Beyond a mere narration of events, Garrow provides an in-depth look at the political strategy of King and of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He explains how King's awareness of media coverage of the protests-especially reports of white violence against peaceful African American protestors-would elicit sympathy for the cause and lead to dramatic legislative change. Garrow's analysis of these tactics and of the news reports surrounding these events provides a deeper understanding of how civil rights activists utilized a nonviolent approach to achieve success in the face of great opposition and ultimately effected monumental political change.
Vivid descriptions of violence and courageous acts fill David Garrow's account of the momentous 1965 protest at Selma, Alabama, in which the author illuminates the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in organizing the demonstrations that led to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Beyond a mere narration of events, Garrow provides an in-depth look at the political strategy of King and of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He explains how King's awareness of media coverage of the protests-especially reports of white violence against peaceful African American protestors-would elicit sympathy for the cause and lead to dramatic legislative change. Garrow's analysis of these tactics and of the news reports surrounding these events provides a deeper understanding of how civil rights activists utilized a nonviolent approach to achieve success in the face of great opposition and ultimately effected monumental political change.
More details
Person
David J. Garrow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who is presently professor of law and history and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Garrow, who earned his PhD from Duke University, is an acclaimed scholar of the United States' black freedom struggle and reproductive rights movement, as well as of the US Supreme Court. His definitive biography of Martin Luther King Jr.,
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was honored with the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for biography and the seventh-annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
Garrow's other books are Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From "Solo" to Memphis, and Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. He also served as a senior adviser to Eyes on the Prize, the award-winning PBS documentary series on the civil rights movement.
Garrow's other books are Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From "Solo" to Memphis, and Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. He also served as a senior adviser to Eyes on the Prize, the award-winning PBS documentary series on the civil rights movement.
Content
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Voting Rights and Protest
- 1. Black Voters and the Federal Voting Rights Enforcement Effort in the South, 1940-1964
- 2. Selma and the Voting Rights Act: Commencement and Climax
- 3. Selma and the Voting Rights Act: Crisis and Denouement
- 4. Reactions and Responses: Selma, Birmingham, and Civil Rights Legislation
- 5. Congressmen, Constituents, and the News Media
- 6. Enforcement and Effects: The Voting Rights Act and Black Political Participation in the South, 1965-1976,
- 7. The Strategy of Protest and the SCLC at Selma
- Notes
- Index
- About the Author
