The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140154035 ISBN 13: 9780140154030

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1991

Synopsis

The most comprehensive anthology of primary sources available, spanning the entire history of the American civil rights movement.

A record of one of the greatest and most turbulent movements of this century, The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader is essential for anyone interested in learning how far the American civil rights movements has come and how far it has to go.

Included are the Supreme Court's Brown vs Board of Education decision in its entirety; speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., and his famous "Letter from Birmingham City Jail"; an interview with Rosa Parks; selections from Malcolm X Speaks; Black Panther Bobby Seale's Seize the Time; Ralph Abernathy's controversial And the Walls Came Tumbling Down; a piece by Herman Badillo on the infamous Attica prison uprising; addresses by Harold Washington, Jesse Jackson, Nelson Mandel, and much more.

“An important volume for students and professionals who wish to grasp the basic nature of the civil rights movement and how it changed America in fundamental ways.” —Aldon Morris, Northwestern University

About this title

About the Author

Clayborne Carson is a Stanford University historian. In 1985 Coretta Scott King entrusted him with editing and publishing the papers of her late husband. Carson is the founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

David J. Garrow is an American historian and professor. He was the senior adviser for the award-winning TV series Eyes on the Prize. Gill is also the author of Liberty and Sexuality, a history of the legal struggles surrounding reproductive rights in the United States before the Roe v. Wade decision.

Gerald Gill was one of the most beloved and highly regarded professors in the history of Tufts University. In addition to his work as an educator and historian, he served as a consultant on the award-winning TV series Eyes on the Prize. He was voted Professor of the Year for Massachusetts twice. Gill passed away in 2007.

Vincent Harding was a social activist and historian best known for his work with his personal friend Martin Luther King Jr. He was the co-chairperson of the social unity group Veterans of Hope Project. In the 1960s, he and his wife Rosemarie—both devout Mennonites themselves—cofounded Mennonite House, an interracial voluntary service center in Atlanta. He passed away in 2014.

Darlene Clark Hine is the John A. Hannah Professor of American History at Michigan State University and a leading expert on the intersection of race, class, and gender in American society. Co-editor of Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, she is the author of Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Construction of American History, a book of essays. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

Reviews

This volume is one of several produced in conjunction with the 14-part PBS Eyes on the Prize television series. It is a collection of over 100 court decisions, speeches, interviews, and other documents on the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1990. Included in the collection are the Brown v. Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court that declared legally segregated schools to be unconstitutional, Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," Harold Washington's inaugural speech after being elected mayor of Chicago, and the speech delivered by Nelson Mandela in Atlanta in June 1990. The chapter introductions written by the editors are sometimes too brief to enable readers to fully appreciate the context and importance of the documents. Nonetheless, the volume is rich in primary source material on the civil rights movement. It can be a valuable reference work for public and university libraries.
- Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140154035
• ISBN 13: 9780140154030
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 784
• Editor: Carson Clayborne, Garrow David J., Gill Gerald, Harding Vincent, Hine Darlene Clark