The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 [Paperback]

With a striking selection of images and a lively, informative text, Steven Kasher captures the danger, drama, and bravery of the civil rights movement. After an introduction explaining the significance of photography to the movement, the text in this important book proceeds from the Montgomery bus boycott through the student, local and national movements; the big marches; Freedom summer; Malcolm X; and the death of Martin Luther King. The images&hold a mirror up to Americans, white and black, and what they show us is both terrifying and profound. We were so bad and we were so good; it makes you sad, and it makes you proud. This book, which collects some 150 black-and-white photos, is indeed a history, offering many lesser-known images that also resonate. See&a bespectacled Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, walk stoically ahead of jeering white students; Julian Bond pose with fellow SNCC volunteers, seemingly too young to help change history; and a Mississippi-delta organizing house that has painted the word Freedom on a cross burned by the Klan. Kasher's chapter introductions are lucid overviews of the movement, while the captionssome of which reproduce the original, stilted wire-service captionsare also effective and informative. A moving tribute.