Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement

by Jon Meacham

A literary anthology of important and artful interpretations of the civil rights movement and the fight against white supremacy, past and present—including pieces by Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, and John Lewis “Jon Meacham . . . has done about the best job of anthologizing the movement that I’ve ever seen.”—Tom Wicker, Mother JonesEditor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham has chosen pieces by journalists, novelists, historians, and artists, bringing together a wide range of perspectives and experiences. The result is an unprecedented and powerful portrait of the movement’s spirit and struggle, told through voices that resonate with passion and strength.Maya Angelou takes us on a poignant journey back to her childhood in the Arkansas of the 1930s. On the front page of The New York Times, James Reston marks the movement’s apex as he describes what it was like to watch Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his heralded “I Have a Dream” speech in real time. Alice Walker takes up the movement’s progress a decade later in her article “Choosing to Stay at Ten Years After the March on Washington.” And John Lewis chronicles the unimaginable courage of the ordinary African Americans who challenged the prevailing order, paid for it in blood and tears, and justly triumphed.Voices in Our Blood is a compelling look at the movement as it actually happened, from the days leading up to World War II to the anxieties and ambiguities of this new century. The story of race in America is a never-ending one, and Voices in Our Blood tells us how we got this far—and how far we still have to go to reach the Promised Land.This powerful anthology contains works  Maya Angelou • Russell Baker • James Baldwin • Taylor Branch • Hodding Carter • Ellis Cose • Stanley Crouch • Ralph Ellison • William Faulkner • Marshall Frady • Henry Louis Gates, Jr. • Peter Goldman • David Halberstam • Alex Haley • Elizabeth Hardwick • Charlayne Hunter-Gault • Murray Kempton • John Lewis • Louis E. Lomax • Benjamin E. Mays • Willie Morris • Flannery O’Connor • Walker Percy • Howell Raines • James Reston • Carl T. Rowan • John Steinbeck • William Styron • Calvin Trillin • Alice Walker • Robert Penn Warren • Pat Watters • Bernard Weinraub • Eudora Welty • Rebecca West • E. B. White • Gary Wills • Tom Wolfe • Richard Wright

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Politics, American History, American

576 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer who is serving as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral since November 7, 2021. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He is the author of several books. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University.

Reviews

[John Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing anthology of Civil Rights Movement coverage. So unfortunately relevant to our times. I had to put it down for a month after reading reporter coverage of the Wallace campaign containing identical descriptions to any modern Trump rally. Familiar with the speeches and essays of Civil Rights leaders, the book offered to me new brilliant stories and essays from journalists covering the movement.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a huge disappointment. The essays started out super interesting but as I continued to read I noticed there were a disproportionate amount written by white authors. Also some of them were blatantly racist in that old fashioned least racist of the racists way (looking at you Faulkner essay). Many of the essayists praised Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King jr. (rightfully so) but unnecessarily demonized Malcom X and many other more radical members involved in the black power movement. At the end I looked up the editor and realized of course he was white. So this is a typical white liberal/moderate compilation of essays moderate essays. Some are worth reading but definitely not all.

[Veronica Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!! This is a complete work of history that must be read by all. For those interested in the civil rights movement from it's early beginnings to today's implications on our current political situation. Jon Meacham gathered 40 of the best authors for this subject that takes us from the thoughts on slavery yo the civil rights movement under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as dealing with issues that impact us today.

The book does allow you to read by subject or by the order the editor placed it together. I read this twice because I wanted to appreciate not only the time period but also the individual story of each author that was added to the anthology itself. I spent a lot of time learning about the individualistic history of each of the 40 authors, men and women who had individual struggle with being black in America.

[Lisa Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the time it takes to read

This anthology is good on so many levels. Kudos to the editor for his choices and the way he organized the pieces. The book is basically chronological and covers quite a span of time. The pieces are grouped in sections, and each section has an introduction. These introductions provide background on the authors and pieces coming up. I found them helpful. Some books on the Civil Rights era can make a white person feel steamrolled - just overwhelmed by the rage and horror caused by racism. It can make it hard to persevere through the book. This book had doses of that (as it should), but was balanced by a wide range of viewpoints and styles.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sometimes harsh reminder of how it was provides insight into how it is and the complexity of racial issues in our time. For those of us who grew up as middle class whites in the segregated South of the 60s, it's a good reminder that what we experienced and what we remember is both truth and a myth.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this anthology. I just visited the Civil Rights South, and so it was/is especially relevant. It is a strong collection of writing.

[Fernando Biorato · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good detailed book in my perspective. Helped me a lot for my research paper on the Civil Rights movement.