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

Robert Weisbrot (Author), Dolita Cathcart (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1991

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Weisbrot argues that though formal barriers to equality have been abolished, deep-seated racism and indifference continue to confine blacks to a subordinate or marginal role. "An invaluable, fast-paced chronicle that throws three decades of civil rights struggles into sharp perspective," lauded PW. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

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
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Ex-library edition (January 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452265533
• ISBN-13: 978-0452265530
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,399,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, September 24, 2010

By 

Maxtone Witherball - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom Bound: A History of America's Civil Rights Movement (Paperback)

Freedom Bound begins in earnest with the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 and terminates with the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency. It makes the most of its relative brevity (317 pages of close type), at least touching on most everything relevant, large and small, and discussing in depth the most important developments in the black freedom struggle through the late 1980s. Much of the book deals with the decline in the fortunes of the revolution in the months and years following the passage of the Voting Rights Act, as its focus shifted from the securement of civil rights to the securement of economic justice.

Robert Weisbrot's insights are many, and they are unfailingly brilliant, even thunderstriking. They are conveyed in crystal clear and often quite elegant prose. Weisbrot's tone is even, yet profoundly empathetic.

I would highly recommend Freedom Bound to anyone seeking a masterful single-volume overview of or introduction to the movement for civil rights and beyond.

(One caveat: David Garrow, in an otherwise glowing review of Freedom Bound in the December 17, 1989 New York Times, claims that "in his accounts of the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City and the 1966 Chicago freedom movement negotiations between [Martin Luther] King and Mayor Richard J. Daley . . . , Weisbrot err[s] seriously by relying excessively on single sources." Garrow fails to specify what exactly Weisbrot gets wrong, however. The only mistakes I detected were a slightly mangled but still fundamentally accurate quote, and a misspelled surname.)