Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement

by Townsend Davis

" Weary Feet, Rested Souls is a valuable and beautiful road map to a landscape we must not forget."―Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund Thirty years after the Civil Rights Movement transformed America, Weary Feet, Rested Souls brings the landscape of this compelling period of history back to life. Logging 30,000 miles of research and more than 100 hours of interviews with Civil Rights veterans, Townsend Davis has written both a history of the struggle and an indispensable traveler's guidebook to Civil Rights in the Deep South. Ranging from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s childhood neighborhood to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three Civil Rights workers were murdered, to Selma and Birmingham and scores of other sites, Weary Feet, Rested Souls is a uniquely inspiring and deeply commemorative guide to the Movement and its heroes. 25 original maps and 113 photographs

Genres: American History

438 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written in a *style* that is nearly the antithesis of what I like in a book. I want a long, cohesive *story*. Fiction, non-fiction, doesn't matter. Just make it long and pull me in.

This is, really and truly, a guided history. The book is broken into a chapter for each state in the South that played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, then divided further by city. Within that, it is broken down to individual sites that were important in the Movement and tells about, in a paragraph to a page or two, the people and events that happened there. It's the perfect book for taking through the South with you and creating your own Civil Rights tour.

I complained about my challenge reading this style to Scott, who said, "So put it down." I thought for a moment and said, "Can't. It's too good."

Even in this choppy format, the author manages to tell a cohesive story of the events, people, and progress of the Movement. In some ways, the matter-of-fact recounting of site after site of injustices, attacks, injuries, and deaths becomes even more powerful for the realization that the depths of the structural problems and the violence brought to bear on those trying to create change were, simply, everywhere. The Freedom Summer workers were harassed here and there and this other place; and the churches was bombed in this city, and that city, and a dozen more cities; the houses were shot at on this street, and firebombed in that neighborhood, and received threatening phone calls over in this other place. It was impossible to see either the problems or the push for change or the bravery and commitment of the activists as isolated.

One night I actually had to put the book down, because it was just too much.

An excellent book paired with Anne Moody's _Coming of Age in Mississippi_, which gives a single person's perspective on the deep South, growing up with segregation, and choosing to be part of the solution.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t really a book to sit down and read but more of a resource or encyclopedia of place, dates, and people that are important to the Civil Rights Movement. There is information I was unaware of included.

[Scarlett S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous Book!! Well written and really brings The Movement to heart and makes you feel apart of each historical event.