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Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader on the Black Struggle. Edited by Jonathan Birnbaum and Clarence Taylor. (New York and London: New York University Press, c. 2000. Pp. xxii, 936. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-8147-- 8249-3; cloth, $85.00, ISBN 0-8147-8215-9.)
Civil Rights Since 1787 is a collection of 188 documents and essays that deal with civil rights in the United States. Most of the essays are written from a perspective that is to the left-of-center, and about two-thirds of the 936 pages deal with the years since 1950.
The book begins by ruing the fact that "the story of civil rights is sometimes written as the story of great white and black men" (pp. 1-2) and ends with an essay entitled "We Don't Need Another Dr. King," which emphasizes the importance of ordinary people. In between, the editors insist that the goal of the movement was not simply equal rights for all; the movement sought (in the words of King) to force America "to face all its interrelated flaws-the racism, poverty, militarism, materialism.... evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society" (quoted on pp. 843-44).
Some of the best entries are essentially descriptive. Among them are Harvard Sitkoff s account of "Blacks and the New Deal"; Steven F. Lawson's narrative on "The Selma Movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965"; Adam Fairclough's review of the SCLC's activities in Chicago; and William L. Van Deburg's report on revolutionary black union movements in the automotive industry. Yet this volume is memorable primarily for the overall point of view it presents. Many of the essays are intended to answer conservative and neoliberal criticisms of the...