Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965

by Juan Williams, Julian Bond (Introduction)

Overview

The 30th-anniversary edition of Juan Williams's celebrated account of the tumultuous early years of the civil rights movement

From the Montgomery bus boycott to the Little Rock Nine to the Selma–Montgomery march, thousands of ordinary people who participated in the American civil rights movement; their stories are told in Eyes on the Prize. From leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., to lesser-known figures such as Barbara Rose John and Jim Zwerg, each man and woman made the decision that somethinghad to be done to stop discrimination. These moving accounts and pictures of the first decade of the civil rights movement are a tribute to the people, black and white, who took part in the fight for justice and the struggle they endured.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143124740
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Series:	Eyes on the Prize
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	205,911
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Juan Williams is an American journalist and a political analyst for Fox News. He also writes for several newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal and was a senior news analyst for National Public Radio from 1999 until 2010.

Julian Bond is an American social activist, professor, writer, and politician with more than twenty years of service in Georgia’s legislative chambers. He was also the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1998 until 2010.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: God Bless the Child: The Story of School Desegregation
Chapter Two: Standing for Justice: Mississippi and the Till Case
Chapter Three: We're Not Moving to the Back, Mr. Blake: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Chapter Four: Hall Monitors from the 101st: The Little Rock Story
Chapter Five: Down Freedom's Main Line: The Movement's Next Generation
Chapter Six: Freedom in the Air: The Lessons of Albany and Birmingham
Interlude: The March on Washington
Chapter Seven: Mississippi: Freedom Has Never Been Free
Chapter Eight: Selma: The Bridge to Freedom

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Credits
Staff
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for previous editions:

“A fascinating, fast-moving overview.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Skillfully combines written and oral sources with the historical narrative . . . Will be invaluable to students as well as the general reader.” —The Boston Globe

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating, fast-moving overview.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Skillfully combines written and oral sources with the historical narrative . . . Will be invaluable to students as well as the general reader.” —The Boston Globe

From the Publisher

...[W]ill instruct while it fascinates even the casual reader....Given the symbolic status ascribed to the Supreme Court's "first Negro," Marshall's tenure of nearly a quarter century on the Court cannot be glossed over.
— Books & Culture: A Christian Review

Lucas E. Morel

This liberally illustrated companion volume to an upcoming six-part PBS-TV series, produced by black filmmakers, offers a detailed account of the Civil Rights movement. Assisted by the film's production team, Washington Post national correspondent Williams singles out from the main political events, demonstrations and legal actions the stories of little-known activists, some of whom lost their lives fighting for political, social, economic and educational rights. Quotes from the students involved in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Little Rock cases are recorded, as are those of a woman whose son was lynched and those of both black and white participants in sit-ins, Freedom Rides and marches, some of whom were badly beaten and jailed. An epilogue traces the lives of the movement's leaders and other activists since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 75,000 first printing; 60,000 ad/promo; BOMC and QPBC alternates; author tour. (January 26)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This companion volume to the PBS TV series of the same name is an excellent, highly readable account of black America's struggle for social and political equality, covering the civil rights battle from the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 to the Selma protest marches and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Williams focuses upon specific key events, providing a narrative overview of each, interspersed with photographs and excerpts from interviews and writings of the participants. He gives a vivid portrait of the courage of individual blacks and the violence they had to endure in their struggle for desegregation and the right to vote in the South. The events themselves provide the drama. Recommended for academic and public libraries. BOMC alternate. Louis Vyhnanek, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman

Library Journal

YAEyes On the Prize is an outstanding contribution to the memory of the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement. Williams brings the events of the nonviolent civil rights years to life with photographs and lucid text, as well as brief asides interspersed throughout to provide participants' perspectives. Written in conjunction with the production team of the PBS-TV series of the same name, the book uses still photography, which provides different insights than the film footage of the same events shown on television. While the two could be used together, the book stands solidly alone as one of the best available summaries of the period. Dorcas Hand, Episcopal High School, Bellaire

School Library Journal