We Are Not Afraid - Softcover

Seth Cagin; Philip Dray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553282697 ISBN 13: 9780553282696

Publisher: Bantam, 1989

Synopsis

We Are Not Afraid is the story of the 1964 killing of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, at the hands of Ku Klux Klansmen and the local cops. Described as "one of the best books on the civil rights movement," the murders it describes inspired the acclaimed film, Mississippi Burning. The events surrounding this seminal event have re-entered public debate due to the recent conviction of manslaughter by Klansman and Imperial Wizard, Edgar Ray Killen, for his part in orchestrating the murders. As America struggles to honestly confront its history of racism, there has never been a more timely moment to reissue this fully updated edition of We Are Not Afraid. From the roles played by such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy to the remarkable courage of the Freedom Riders, this book relates the definitive story of a nation's ongoing battle for true democracy.

About this title

About the Author

PHILIP DRAY is the author of At the Hands of Persons Unknown which won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He latest book is Stealing God's Thunder. Dray lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Seth Cagin is the co-author of Born to Be Wild and Between Earth and Sky, a history of ozone depletion. He and his wife Marta Tarbell are the founders and publishers of the local newspaper, The Telluride Watch.He lives in .

From Publishers Weekly

The infamous murder of three civil rights workers by a Ku Klux Klan mob and Mississippi law-enforcement officers in 1964 takes on the dimensions of a personal, political and national tragedy in this riveting account. The drama of the triocollege students Michael Schwerner and Andy Goodman, both white Northerners, and James Chaney, a young black activist from Mississippipits their faith in nonviolence against a murderous rage fueled by racism. Cagin and Dray, who coauthored Hollywood Films of the Seventies, have done their homework: interviews, news reports, FBI documents and trial transcripts undergird their brilliant re-creation of the incident, interwoven with a full-scale history of the civil rights movement. The search for the bodies turned up many black corpses, purported victims of police/Klan violence; the Klan conspirators were paroled before serving their full sentences; in the aftermath, Lyndon Johnson questionably maneuvered to defuse the situation. This is surely one of the best books on the civil rights movement.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553282697
• ISBN 13: 9780553282696
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 613