Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
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Book Overview
The Montgomery bus boycott was a formative moment in twentieth-century history: a harbinger of the African American freedom movement, a springboard for the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., and a crucial step in the struggle to realize the American dream of liberty and equality for all. In Daybreak of Freedom, Stewart Burns presents a groundbreaking documentary history of the boycott. Using an extraordinary array of more than one hundred original documents, he crafts a compelling and comprehensive account of this celebrated year-long protest of racial segregation.
Daybreak of Freedom reverberates with the voices of those closest to the bus boycott, ranging from King and his inner circle, to Jo Ann Robinson and other women leaders who started the protest, to the maids, cooks, and other 'foot soldiers' who carried out the struggle. With a deft narrative hand and editorial touch, Burns weaves their testimony into a riveting story that shows how events in Montgomery pushed the entire nation to keep faith with its stated principles.
Daybreak of Freedom reverberates with the voices of those closest to the bus boycott, ranging from King and his inner circle, to Jo Ann Robinson and other women leaders who started the protest, to the maids, cooks, and other 'foot soldiers' who carried out the struggle. With a deft narrative hand and editorial touch, Burns weaves their testimony into a riveting story that shows how events in Montgomery pushed the entire nation to keep faith with its stated principles.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0807846619
ISBN13:9780807846612
Release Date:October 1997
Publisher:University of North Carolina Press
Length:392 Pages
Weight:1.50 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 6.3" x 9.2"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
A worthwhile read that adds much to the subject
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
I take issue with the reviewer who criticizes Burns for his scholarship. This work has a clear, succinct purpose: To let the boycott participants on all sides of the issue tell the story themselves. Burns never intended for this work to be definitive, only elucidating, and it is that, and more. This publication arose out of Burns' work editing the King papers at Stanford, spurred by a suggestion from senior editor Clayborne Carson. Burns masterfully edits and assembles the letters, interviews, transcripts of court actions, newspaper clippings, and other materials, adds just enough gloss for clear understanding, and gets out of the way. It takes skill, judgment, and respect for the sources to strike such a balance, and he gets it just right. I'll take this approach any day over a tome by some windbag scholar who has digested the sources and wants to tell me what to think about this important, complex, seminal event in American history. Read the materials yourself, and do your own thinking. That's what Burns set out to accomplish, and in my opinion, he's hit the mark admirably. I highly recommend it.
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