Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through The 1980s by Henry Hampton, Steve Fayer (With)

From the Publisher

In this monumental volume, Henry Hampton, creator and executive producer of the acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize, and Steve Fayer, series writer, draw upon nearly one thousand interviews with civil rights activists, politicians, reporters, Justice Department officials, and hundreds of ordinary people who took part in the struggle, weaving a fascinating narrative of the civil rights movement told by the people who lived it.

Join brave and terrified youngsters walking through a jeering mob and up the steps of Central High School in Little Rock. Listen to the vivid voices of the ordinary people who manned the barricades, the laborers, the students, the housewives without whom there would have been no civil rights movements at all.

This remarkable oral history brings to life country's great struggle for civil rights as no conventional narrative can. You will hear the voices of those who defied the blackjacks, who went to jail, who witnessed and policed the movement; of those who stood for and against it—voices from the heart of America.

Publishers Weekly

As the authors graphically show, participating in civil rights marches, sit-ins and Freedom Rides took moral stamina and raw nerve. The heroines and heroes of the movement receive a stirring tribute in this oral history, a tie-in to the TV series Eyes on the Prize , which Hampton produced and Fayer wrote. The book is organized in 31 chapters around key events, with demonstrators offering complementary perspectives. We hear from ordinary people along with well-known activists Ralph Abernathy, Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson and Stokely Carmichael; public officials John Conyers and Nicholas Katzenbach; Black Panthers Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; Alex Haley, Coretta Scott King, Ossie Davis, Tom Hayden, Michael Harrington, Harry Belafonte. Collectively the testimonies reveal how far America has progressed in the drive for equality and how far it still has to go. History Book Club and QPB selections; author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal

The PBS series Eyes on the Prize, parent to a narrative history of the U.S. civil right movement (of the same name, LJ 1/87), now begets a second book, excerpts from the project's interview bank. The book's 32 episodes, starting with the 1955 Emmett Till lynching, include triumphs like Selma and Birmingham alongside the Detroit riots of 1967, Attica, the Black Panthers, and other legacies tragic or ambiguous. The cross-currents and complexities of history are well attended to--as Andrew Young and Stokely Carmichael, for example, argue the role of whites--in the voices of some who won fame, many who did not, and a few who opposed the movement. The selections are brief, cleanly edited with light annotation, and wider ranging than those of another fine oral history, Howell Raines's My Soul is Rested (LJ 9/1/77). Recommended for general readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/89.-- Robert F. Nardini, N. Chichester, N.H.

School Library Journal

YA-- This collection of remembrances and personal anecdotes is based on 1000 interviews and records 30 years of the struggle to achieve equality and gain civil rights for black people. Ordinary people who fought to attain their civil rights are recorded here, as well as the more well-known leaders on the civil rights front. From Selma, Little Rock, King's crusades, and the Boston school busing, to Miami, Atlanta, Cassius Clay, and Affirmative Action, both blacks and whites tell how they felt during these significant moments in history. This book, a companion to the PBS series Eyes on the Prize, is a ``must purchase'' for black history collections. --Gwen Salama, Hastings High School, Alief, I.S.D., TX

Product Details

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Table of Contents