The Civil Rights Movement: The Black Freedom Struggle in America - Paperback

by Bruce J. Dierenfield (Author)

Now in its second edition, The Civil Rights Movement: The Black Freedom Struggle in America recounts the extraordinary story of how tens of thousands of African Americans overcame segregation, exercised their right to vote, and improved their economic standing, and how millions more black people, along with those of different races, continue to fight for racial justice in the wake of continuing police killings of unarmed black men and women.

In a concise, chronological fashion, Bruce Dierenfield shows how concerted pressure in a variety of forms has helped realize a more just society for many blacks, though racism is far from being extinguished. The new edition has been fully revised to include an entire chapter on the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition, the black experience in the slave and Jim Crow periods has been expanded, and greater emphasis has been placed throughout on black agency. The book also features revised maps, new primary documents, and an updated further reading section that reflects recent scholarship.

This book will provide students of American history with a compelling and comprehensive introduction to the Civil Rights Movement.

Author Biography

Bruce J. Dierenfield is Professor Emeritus of History and the former director of the All-College Honors Program at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, USA. The prize-winning author of five other books, he has been a senior Fulbright scholar in Germany, held a Peter Canisius Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the African American Experience, and is a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.