Civil Rights Movement 201

September 2, 2020 3:24 PM

Looking for books about the US mid-century Civil Rights movement that focus on strategy, decision making process and organization building. I'm looking to learn about the arguments, debates, and ultimate decisions made on how to carry out campaigns. Please take me to the rooms where SNCC members decided to refuse bail and where CORE chose to ride interstate buses.
posted by latkes to Human Relations (5 answers total)

Best answer: Have you read I've Got the Light of Freedom: the organizing tradition and the Mississippi freedom struggle? Seems like it would be right up your alley.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:48 PM on September 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Barbara Ransby's Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement gets very deep into the inner-workings of SNCC and is also a phenomenal biography of one of the most inspirational figures I've ever read about.
posted by mostly vowels at 5:09 PM on September 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow. Won a Pulitzer.

At some points it feels like you're right in the room.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:26 PM on September 2, 2020

Walking with the Wind by John Lewis is an insider's look at the SNCC.
posted by TrialByMedia at 7:18 AM on September 4, 2020

Response by poster: Have you read I've Got the Light of Freedom: the organizing tradition and the Mississippi freedom struggle? Seems like it would be right up your alley.
Just finished this and it's so good. Such an exciting story, and thoughtfully told. It's heroic and thrilling. But also explores all the strategic questions I had.

I also bought the Barbara Ransby book and it's on my bedside table waiting it's turn.
posted by latkes at 11:59 AM on October 26, 2020