Civil Rights In America

by Rick Beard

Although the Declaration of Independence proclaimed a vision of equality for al, the rights it contained were not extended to the more than 500,000 enslaved African Americans living in the United States. For over 225 years, Africa Americans have continued their struggle to realize the promises made by the Declaration of Independence. The heroic efforts of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. black college students, Freedom Riders - and many others, both famous & unknown - began the journey to fulfill the promises made in 1776. This booklet gives an overview of the struggles & the accomplishments that continue to his day.

Genres: Nonfiction

24 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this 5 stars, not because I have a sense of whether its well-informed, although it seems to represent well, but because it is written with a punch and a snark that I wholeheartedly believe is appropriate with regards to Americas history to slavery, systemic racism and outright aggression towards black people.
We can never give ourselves -American white people- much credit for any progress with regard to the advancement of anyone besides whites and especially not black people. It's a sad state of affairs when, still to this day, the successes of black people are still largely anecdotal and based on proven history whites have fought tooth and nail to reject Civil Rights.
I think what struck me was a section of the booklet which said following the overturning of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1954 Mississippi state legislature passed a law threatening jail and fines to whites who attended schools with blacks. The veil of desire for personal freedom as the reason for rejecting laws protecting black people is so thin when you not only want the freedom to make racist decisions for yourself but to mandate racist behavior onto others, all the while suppressing the rights of a group of people in order to "preserve" your own.
This piece does a nice job of outlining the efforts made by some Presidents and some Supreme court rulings and the amendments to the constitution that attempted to advance Civil Rights but it also does a nice job of pointing out that implementation of the laws and rulings was abysmal and remains that way.
In his very last sentence of the piece he says "yet as today's chant of "black lives matter" reminds us, the fight for African American civil rights is far from finished."

It think this is the PERFECT last sentence for this booklet and in case anyone still missed the point (looking at you Other Guy Who Reviewed The Booklet): Black Lives Matter exists BECAUSE this fight is not over. When people say they are hurting it is not up to anyone to tell them they are not; We must begin to believe people.

Another favorite quote on this subject: "When you're accustomed to privilege, Equality feels like oppression." (translation: your privilege betrays itself by your fear of equality)

One last thing, I read this booklet (which I bought at the dollar store) without knowing the race or gender of the author-I just didn't look until after I read it-but as I read I thought for sure it was written by a black woman or at least a black man but Rick Beard seems to be a white man.
I guess I felt it was expressed in a way that hinted at a personal empathy for the subject and a gentleness towards it that seemed to me would come from a woman.
I think its quite a feat to come from that perspective despite being the exact opposite of it.

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the page length of this book I am not sure if this was meant as a childrens' book or not. Certainly this would be a good book for children. As far as I know this is a fairly accurate history of civil rights in the US, from the earliest days of the country to the present day. It does demonstrate that slavery, and the evils that ensued after it, were an integral part of the county, even though there are those who would like to deny it (looking at you Hillsborough College). Even though this book is brief one is still able to learn quite a bit from it. I admit as a Canadian much of what was contained in here was not part of our history which may be why I was not aware of it. Definitely a worthwhile addition to one's library. Happy reading.

[Juergen John Roscher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short booklet on Civil Rights in America from America's National Parks press. A brief overview of the major events and players involved in the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Overall it is a good overview but the last paragraph left a bad taste in my mouth about the current state of the movement when it referenced the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and just glossed over decades of improvement including eight years of having an African American president.