Freedom Bound: A History of America's Civil Rights Movement

by Robert Weisbrot

Traces the history of the American civil rights movement and looks at new directions for Black political expression

Genres: History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Piker7977 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Weisbrot provides a thorough study of the Civil Rights Movements in Freedom Bound. The chronological narrative is well structured and covers the numerous figures, locations, and events associated with the movement. The main actors, like King, Malcolm X, and Stokley Carmichael, are given plenty of background and context which provides the reader with relevant information about their role in the period.

Wesibrot begins his study, after a brief introduction, with the Eisenhower Administration. The nuts and bolts of this study is the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the alliance with liberal politicians. There are few surprises here but the conclusions are important. Kennedy was a reluctant supporter but was on board after the March on Washington. LBJ cemented the relationship with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the various economic developments under the Great Society programs. This alliance became frayed with emergence of Black Nationalism and the arrival of the Vietnam War. It is interested how sectarian the various factions were within the Civil Rights Movement and how the became united during the early 1960s and fell apart by the end of the decade.

This study is showing its age. The epilogue only covers through the Reagan Administration but the conclusion are still valid. The pages are dense and loaded with information which makes for some sluggish reading but there is a wealth of information available. Freedom Bound can be digested as a historical narrative or as an encyclopedic reference of the Civil Rights Era.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if anyone else experienced this, but all through school, when we would do American history, we would run out of time, usually right after World War II, so more modern events, such as the civil rights movement, were essentially ignored. The result has been, to my mind, an appalling ignorance about the struggles for equality by African Americans of the 1950s and '60s, rectified only piecemeal through news articles and other remembrances, especially as the 50th anniversary of key events has been marked over the past few years.

For beginners like me, Robert Weisbrot's Freedom Bound is a readable, concise and fair summary of the movement, from its birth in 1954 to its fragmentation and collapse in the late 1960s. I got it from the library to use as background material for a paper I'm writing about events in 1968, but it quickly sucked me in, and I stayed up until 4 a.m. to finish it. You might not have quite that nerdy a response, but if you have felt gaps in your knowledge of the people, politics and events of the civil rights movement, Freedom Bound is a great place to start.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book offered a good overview of the civil rights movement. It was a little slow to read, but very informative.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of the best books I read this year.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is one of the reasons I started to really like history.