In this lucid, textbook-like volume, Boyd (Race and Resistance
; The Harlem Reader
) takes readers on a journey through the Civil Rights movement, a march of progress bookended here by murders: the first chapter describes the 1955 Mississippi lynching of Emmett Till, which drew the nation's attention to racism in a way that previous killings had not, and the final chapter recalls the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. In between, Boyd considers the resistance of Rosa Parks, the agitating of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the murder of Medgar Evers and the March on Washington, both in 1963. Simple but strong prose is accompanied by photographs (the all-black 24th Infantry in the Korean War; Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court steps) and sidebars (Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock"; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's statement of purpose). Two audio CDs, narrated by actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, offer everything from protests songs to the recollections of sit-in participants. Boyd's volume is a useful compilation of information arranged in an economical, accessible format, one sure to appeal to students, amateur historians and general readers. Agent, Marie Brown. (Nov. 29)
