And Gently He Shall Lead Them: Robert Parris Moses and Civil Rights in Mississippi (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the words of Manhattan lawyer Burner, Robert Parris Moses, a black teacher from New York City, was "one of the most important yet most elusive figures" of the civil rights movement. Given Moses's noncooperation, this brief study--which relies almost exclusively on secondary sources--can hardly penetrate the subject's psyche. Rather, this is a Moses-centric history of the early 1960s civil rights movement in Mississippi, describing the leader's move toward greater radicalism regarding black political and economic power, his consensual leadership style, his work organizing the 1964 "Freedom Summer" involving white college students and his disillusionment after the rejection of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic Convention. After a self-imposed exile teaching in Tanzania from 1969 to 1977, Moses returned to the United States, received a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant and established the Algebra Project to teach math in the inner cities and in Mississippi. While Burner's intentions are worthy, his coverage of his subject is disappointingly limited. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

"This moving account of a key figure in American history contributes greatly to our understanding of the past. It also informs our vision of the servant leader needed to guide the 1990s movement."
—Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund

"First-rate intellectual and political history, this study explores the relations between the practical objectives of SNCC and its moral and cultural goals."
—Irwin Unger, Author of These United States and Postwar America

"Robert Moses emerges from these pages as that rare modern hero, the man whose life enacts his principles, the rebel who steadfastly refuses to be victim or executioner and who mistrusts even his own leadership out of commitment to cultivating the strength, self-reliance, and solidarity of those with and for whom he is working. Eric Burner's engrossing account of Robert Moses's legendary career brings alive the everyday realities of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the gruelling campaign for voter registration and political organization in Mississippi."
—Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities, Emory University, author of Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South

Next to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Bob Moses was arguably one of the most influential and respected leaders of the civil rights movement. Quiet and intensely private, Moses quickly became legendary as a man whose conduct exemplified leadership by example. He once resigned as head of the Council of Federated Organizations because "my position there was too strong, too central." Despite his centrality to the most important social movement in modern American history, Moses' life and the philosophy on which it is based have only been given cursory treatment and have never been the subject of a book-length biography.

Biography is, by its very nature, a complicated act of recovery, even more so when the life under scrutiny deliberately avoids such attention. Eric Burner therefore sets out here not to reveal the "secret" Bob Moses, but to examine his moral philosophy and his political and ideological evolution, to provide a picture of the public person. In essence, his book provides a primer on a figure who spoke by silence and led through example.

Moses spent almost three years in Mississippi trying to awaken the state's black citizens to their moral and legal rights before the fateful summer of 1964 would thrust him and the Freedom Summer movement into the national spotlight. We follow him through the civil rights years — his intensive, fearless tradition of community organizing, his involvements with SNCC and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and his negotiations with the Department of Justice —as Burner chronicles both Moses' political activity and his intellectual development, revealing the strong influence of French philosopher Albert Camus on his life and work.

Moses' life is marked by the conflict between morality and politics, between purity and pragmatism, which ultimately left him disillusioned with a traditional Left that could talk only of coalitions and leaders from the top. Pursued by the Vietnam draft board for a war which he opposed, Moses fled to Canada in 1966 before departing for Africa in 1969 to spend the next decade teaching in Tanzania. Returning in 1977 under President Carter's amnesty program, he was awarded a five-year MacArthur genius grant in 1982 to establish and develop an innovative program to teach math to Boston's inner-city youth called the Algebra Project. The success of the program, which Moses has referred to as our version of Civil Rights 1992, has landed him on the cover of The New York Times Magazineemphasizing the new, central dimension that math and computer literacy lends to the pursuit of equal rights.

And Gently He Shall Lead Them is the story of a remarkable man, an elusive hero of the civil rights movement whose flight from adulation has only served to increase his reputation as an intellectual and moral leader, a man whom nobody ever sees, but whose work is always in evidence.

From his role as one of the architects of the civil rights movement thirty years ago to his ongoing work with inner city children, Robert Moses remains one of America's most courageous, energetic, and influential leaders. Wary of the cults of celebrity he saw surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and fueled by a philosophy that shunned leadership, Moses has always labored behind the scenes. This first biography, a primer in the life of a unique American, sheds significant light on the intellectual and philosophical worldview of a man who is rarely seen but whose work is always in evidence.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814712509
• ISBN-13: 978-0814712504
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,099,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TRUE AMERICAN HERO, February 18, 2002

By	A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

IN this time of increased jingosim and nationalism,when dissent is called dishonor and treason[by the current Attorney General of the United States}, this book is like a balm. Robert Parris Moses is a certifiable HERO,and is a character drawn almost by his philosophical champion, the great Algerian exixtentialist and Noble Laurete, Albert Camus. Moses went to Mississippi in the early 1960's, in Mccomb county and began the torturous process of registering people to vote.Slight, in his horn rimmed glasses, with white T shirt under his bib overalls, Moses tirelessly and fearlessly went up against crooked judges, Klukers and corrupt and racist law enforcement, and slowly[with the eventual aid of the Justice department and John Doar, who ,though a republican, was also the justice dept. lead lawyer in the impeachment proceedings against President Richard m. Nixon}, registered voters, and changed the shape of american history. With his backround in philosophy}[from Harvard} and a steely determination to do the right thing, Moses at times singlehandely carried on, living with local balck families in Hamlets throught Mississippi.One of the few memebers of the civil rights movement was was not in the least bit awed by Martin Luther King,jr.[perhaps beacuse he knew himself to be the equal of any man} he sallied forth under pressure and fear that I literally cannot comprehend. this is a fine book about a period of american history that should be celebrated,not consigned to february alone. It was a tuime when politicians thought they could "possibly" cahnge things, and far more importantly, when people such as Mr. Moses felt it was imperative for they themselves to change things. My Admiration for Mr.Moses is second to no one. He, along with John Lewis, are certifiable living heroes,men who make me proud to be american. This book, then is one way to get to know this great, yes,great man. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Bob Moses as a Facilitator, November 5, 2009

By	James Marshall "Researcher" (Brookline, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This biography of Bob Moses coincides well with my personal interviews of him as a planner and facilitator in encouraging local Mississippians in their quest to overcome their oppression at the hands of official and unofficial Mississippi. He not only led by example, he brought out the leadership qualities of poor, rural and illiterate Mississippians who then led themselves in fighting Mississippi's "closed society." He worked at the invitation of the movement leaders of the 1950's --Amzie Moore, C.C. Bryant, Webb Owens, and E.W. Steptoe-- and established an important link between the older civil rights movement in the state with the student movement of SNCC, CORE , and COFO. Decisions made concerning the Freedom Summer project are to be found in this well written biography of him as a facilitator of the Mississippi movement.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An unsung hero, Bob Moses, February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: And Gently He Shall Lead Them: Robert Parris Moses and Civil Rights in Mississippi (Hardcover)

This book gives Bob Moses the attention his life deserves. You should also check out The Children Bob Moses Led by William Heath. It's a novel that blends fact with fiction to tell the story of Moses and Freedom Summer.