Fairclough, a history professor in England, offers an excellent overview of the historical events that built the modern civil rights movement in the U.S., from the post-Reconstruction era to the present. He starts with the antilynching campaign of Ida B. Wells and then explores the often examined struggle for national leadership between the accommodationist Booker T. Washington and the integrationist W. E. B. DuBois. Fairclough offers insights into Washington's controversial but effective strategic position. He explores the establishment of the NAACP and the cultural disruption over segregation in the South when the NAACP mounted legal challenges to legalized white supremacy prior to and during World War II. The author traces the conflicts between violent and nonviolent strategies during the 1960s, when a new breed of Black Power advocates evolved from the movement made famous by pacifist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Fairclough includes the lesser-known players in the civil rights struggle, from the black women's clubs that supported the movement to the Communist Party's role in the Scottsboro case that integrated street activism with litigation. --Vernon Ford

An overview of black Americans' ongoing struggle for racial equality, from Reconstruction to the present. Although it soon became apparent after the end of the Civil War that white supremacy was the rule of law, Fairclough (Race and Democracy, 1995, etc.) asserts that black Americans never accepted this inferior status and have consistently applied many methods and strategies-most of which fall into three categories: accommodation, militant confrontation, and separatism-to strive for equality with whites. Arranged chronologically and focused predominately on the South, each chapter describes one person or movement in depth. The rise of Martin Luther King and the civil-rights movement of the 1960s (referred to here as the "Second Reconstruction") is already well-documented, of course, but the many events and personalities that preceded that groundbreaking era are also included, providing appropriate historical perspective. The campaign against the widespread lynching of black men by white mobs, particularly the outspoken defiance of black journalist Ida B. Wells in the 1890s, is credited as the "beginning of the fight-back against white supremacy." The "accommodationist" tactics of Booker T. Washington are here described as having laid the groundwork for later civil-rights battles. And the waxing and waning of the NAACP's influence on the lives of black Americans as well as the unexpected assistance of the Communist Party in waging warfare on the judicial front are also explored. In the end (although he cites many examples of improvements in the lives of black Americans by the end of the century), Fairclough looks to the future with considerable pessimism, noting the "deep unease about continuing inequality and confusion over what should be done about it." An incisive rendering of over a century of personal and political struggles for equality by black Americans, and a valuable addition to the studies of black American history and of civil rights.

Fairclough (To Redeem the Soul of America), who teaches American history at the University of East Anglia (U.K.), has written an overview of the American civil rights movement from the turn of the 19th century to the present. Intended specifically for the general reader, the book covers the major aspects of the black struggle for equality, although it slights the Harlem Renaissance and devotes only one brief chapter to the period since 1968. The author argues that this struggle featured conflict and interplay among three models of action-accommodation, confrontation, and separatism. Although it adds little to what experts in the field already know, this well-written work is a fine general introduction to the topic. Recommended especially for public libraries. A.O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Fairclough (To Redeem the Soul of America; Martin Luther King, Jr.), who teaches American history at the University of East Anglia, aims to present "an interpretation of the black struggle for equality in the United States between 1890 and 2000, concentrating on the South." The first half of the book covers 1890 to 1919, with sketches of such individuals as Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Quickly reviewing major events (e.g., the Great Migration, the Scottsboro affair), Fairclough guides readers through the 1910s, '20s and '30s, examining the failure of Garvey's black nationalism and recognizing the role of the Communist Party in fighting racism. After that, the book addresses a m?lange of topics: education, employment, World War II, anti-communism, Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, the sit-ins, the 1965 Los Angeles riots and the Poor People's Campaign. He also analyzes the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., and the effects of the Black Power movement on the struggle for black civil rights. The final chapter, despite the subtitle's promise, skims over the remaining decades of the century. An easy read that relies heavily on secondary sources, this work may disappoint serious students of African-American history with its cursory treatment of some material. Still, Fairclough's approach will probably suit his intended audience, "the general reader... who may have little or no knowledge about the history of race relations since the American Civil War." (July 23) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved