We Shall Overcome to We Shall Overrun: The Collapse of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Revolt (1962-1968)

We Shall Overcome to We Shall Overrun uses the metaphor of a nervous breakdown to critique the collapse of the American Civil Rights Movement from a historical perspective. Focusing on the years 1962 to 1968, using a topical chronological approach, this work seeks to discuss the major organizations and personalities central to the African American freedom struggle in the 1960s with an emphasis on the debate over the meaning, the means, and the attainment of 'black power.' The five major national groups that made up the civil rights coalition ultimately divided and "broke-down" as concerns of strategy and methodology were compounded by questions of black identity. A nuanced interpretive psycho-intellectual history such as this seeks to redefine our understanding of the American Civil Rights Movement altogether.

Hettie V. Williams completed her graduate work in history at Monmouth University. She has subsequently taught courses on U.S. history, the history of African Americans, and Gender Studies. Currently, she teaches as a lecturer of African American history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University.