Synopses & Reviews
Now with a new afterword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle in Birmingham as the movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation."The Year of Birmingham," 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in America’s long civil rights struggle. Child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches against segregation. Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls. Diane McWhorter, daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI records, archival documents, interviews with black activists and Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative of the personalities and events that brought about America’s second emancipation.
In a new afterword—reporting last encounters with hero Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and describing the current drastic anti-immigration laws in Alabama—the author demonstrates that Alabama remains a civil rights crucible.
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
Winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award
One of Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books since 1923
“Best Books” List: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, American Heritage
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"An exhaustive journey through both the segregationist and integrationist sides of Birmingham's struggle . . . [McWhorter] contributes significantly to the historical record."
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“A big, important book, a challenging portrait of an American city at the center of the most significant domestic drama of the twentieth century."
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"McWhorter's own involvement in the story . . . reenergizes the struggle, serving as a reminder that history is always personal."
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“This epic of reportage and history about Birmingham, Alabama, in the early'60s reads like a big ambitious novel. . . . McWhorter's complex narrative roves skillfully forward and backward . . . the cast is huge and vivid, the story brimming with courage, drama, villains and heroes. The War and Peace of the civil right movement.”
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“The most important book on the movement since Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters."
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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"A tour de force, comparable in
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“A tour de force, comparable in importance to J. Anthony Lukas's Common Ground and Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters. Carry Me Home is destined to become a classic in the history of the civil rights movement."
Synopsis
THE YEAR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in Americas long civil rights struggle. Child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches against segregation. Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls. Diane McWhorter, daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI records, archival documents, interviews with black activists and Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative of the personalities and events that brought about Americas second emancipation. In a new afterword, the author demonstrates that Alabama remains this countrys civil rights crucible.
About the Author
Diane McWhorter is a long-time contributor to The New York Times and the op-ed page of USA TODAY, among other national publications. Her young adult history of the civil rights movement is A Dream of Freedom. She is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and now lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface
Introduction: September 15, 1963
Part I: Precedents, 1938-1959
- The City of Perpetual Promise: 1938
- Ring Out the Old: 1948
- Mass Movements: 1954-1956
- Rehearsal: 1956-1959
Part II: Movement, 1960-1962
- Breaking Out
- Action
- Freedom Ride
- Pivot
- The Full Cast
- Progress
Part III: The Year of Birmingham, 1963
- New Day Dawns
- Mad Dogs and Responsible Negroes
- Baptism
- Two Mayors and a King
- D-Day
- Miracle
- Mayday
- The Threshold
- Edge of Heaven
- No More Water
- The Schoolhouse Door
- The End of Segregation
- The Beginning of Integration
- All the Governor's Men
- A Case of Dynamite
- The Eve
- Denise, Carole, Cynthia, and Addie
- Aftershocks
- BAPBOMB
- General Lee's Namesakes
Epilogue
Abbreviations Used in Source Notes
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index