Freedom Bound: A History of America's Civil Rights Movement

In this singe volume, Robert Weisbrot gives a vivid, admirably balanced history of the civil rights movement--from its rise with the Brown decision and the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s, through the dramatic sit-ins, freedom rides, marches, and great legislative gains in the 1960s, to its decline in the urban riots, disputes over leadership, and affirmative action in the late 1960s and 1970s. Black-and-white photos.

YA-- Where Weisbrodt offers a scan of many years of the civil rights movement, Seeger and Reiser focus on the people involved and the songs that heartened them. From Montgomery in 1955 to Memphis in 1968, they show the southern campaign from the inside. The words of such people as Bob Moses and Rosa Parks, Dorothy Cotton and Bob Zellner give a sense of what it was like to be part of an exciting and dangerous movement. Photos add immediacy to a work that colors the history of an important time. Weisbrodt offers a comprehensive overview of the movement, from the first sit-ins of 1959 through the Reagan years. In chronological fashion, he documents the growth of the movement through the organizations and individuals involved, its struggles in both the South and the North, the reactions to it, its policical victories and failures, and the factionalism and bitterness of its later years. A useful final chapter summarizes both gains and losses as they are visible in the 1980s. --Sally Bates, Houston Public Library
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