The Black Power Movement, Democracy, and America in the King Years

Taylor' Branch's America in the King Years trilogy stands as a singular achievement in civil rights historiography. Collectively, the trilogy covers the years 1954-1968, the time in which Martin Luther King Jr became a national civil rights leader and a global icon for human rights and rac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American historical review 2009-10, Vol.114 (4), p.1001-1016
Main Author: JOSEPH, PENIEL E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activists
African American culture
African Americans
AHR Forum: Taylor Branch's "America in the King Years"
Biographies
Black history
Black power
Black studies
Branch, Taylor
Civil rights
Civil rights movements
Democracy
Historiography
King, Jr., Martin Luther
King, Martin Luther Jr (1929-1968)
Leadership
Political movements
Political revolutions
Radicalism
Review articles
U.S.A
United States history
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Summary:Taylor' Branch's America in the King Years trilogy stands as a singular achievement in civil rights historiography. Collectively, the trilogy covers the years 1954-1968, the time in which Martin Luther King Jr became a national civil rights leader and a global icon for human rights and racial justice. Here, Joseph focuses on the subject of Black Power, looking at Branch's trilogy. He notes that this trilogy hews closely to the conventional script and the received historical and political wisdom that casts the movement as politically naive, largely ineffectual, and ultimately stillborn. Moreover, he asserts that Black Power has transformed struggles for racial justice by altering notions of identity, citizenship, and democracy.
ISSN:0002-8762
1937-5239
DOI:10.1086/ahr.114.4.1001