Books on the American civil rights movement

At the end of my Eyes on the Prize post from earlier this week, I asked people for their favorite books on the American civil rights movement. Here’s what I got back:

• Lots of people recommended America in the King Years by Taylor Branch, a trilogy of books on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement.
• The second most frequently recommended book was Common Ground by J.A. Lukas, a book about busing and segregation in Boston in the 70s.
• Walking With the Wind by John Lewis and Michael D’Orso.
• Carry Me Home by Diane McWhorter.
• Old news: Resurrection City by Jill Freedman.
• The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 by Steven Kasher.
• Stride Toward Freedom and Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Eyes on the Prize by Juan Williams.
• Black Boy and Native Son by Richard Wright.
• Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault. (Eric Etheridge is photographing the Freedom Riders and pairing those photos with their Freedom Ride mugshots for a new book.)
• The Promised Land by Nick Lemann.
• You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn.
• We Are Not Afraid by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray.
• Notes of a Native Son, The Fire Next Time, and Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin.
• A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner.
• The Struggle for Black Equality by Harvard Sitkoff.
• Angela Davis An Autobiography by Angela Davis.
• Death at an Early Age by Jonathan Kozol.
• The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois.
• Southern Horrors and Other Writings by Ida B. Wells Barnett.
• Civilities and Civil Rights by William Chafe.
• I’ve Got the Light of Freedom by Charles Payne.
• Local People by John Dittmer.
• Speak Now Against the Day by John Egerton.
• Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown.
• Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
• Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves.
• I’ve Got the Light of Freedom by Charles Payne
• Local People by John Dittmer
• Speak Now Against the Day by John Egerton

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations; these all sound great.

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