Useful information
Acknowledgements
Foreword from civil rights activists and others
From the author
1 Racism in America
Emmett Till’s America
The roots of racism
2 Slavery and Resistance
Early Africa
The Middle Passage
Slave life in America
Slave resistance
3 The Road to Emancipation
Key causes of emancipation
Revolutionary republican ideals
The economic needs of the elite
Abolitionist pressure
The American civil war
4 Neo-Slavery
Reconstruction
Entrenchment
Neo-slavery
Black progress after reconstruction
The challenge of World War Two
5 The Modern Black Rights Movement
Grassroots change
The US system of government
Two approaches to activism
6 Brown v. Board of Education
Dismantling Jim Crow education
Alexander v. Holmes County
7 The Montgomery Bus Protest
'It’s my constitutional right!’
1955–56: The Montgomery bus protest
8 1957: Continuing to Challenge School Segregation
Racial diehards resist change
Integrating Central High
9 1958-60: Black Liberation
The tradition of black self-defence
Early black liberation leaders
Robert F Williams: Advocate for self-defence
10 1960-62: Student Defiance
A new generation of protest
Sit-ins
The Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee
‘Freedom Rides'
James Meredith and the University of Mississippi
11 The Battle for Birmingham
Racism in Birmingham
12 1963-64: Pressing for Real Change
The Civil Rights Act
The Freedom Summer
13 Selma 1965: One Man, One Vote
The SNCC in Selma
King and the SCLC come to Selma
14 1965-67: The Emergence of Black Power
The seeds of discontent
The march against fear
Black power and cultural transformation
The Black Panthers
15 1968-70: Memphis and Beyond
The fight against poverty
King’s assassination
16 1970-2001: Politics and Protest
US presidents from 1970–2001
17 Black Rights in America Today
America’s first black president
The black experience in modern America
Reflection
Appendix: Timeline of Key Dates
