You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America

Journalist Kix (The Saboteur) delivers a gripping, novelistic account of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. The brainchild of the group’s executive director, Wyatt Walker, the idea was to use public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s “virulent” racism against him: through a four-step process of escalation, Walker hoped to push Connor into unleashing his “terrible vengeance” on the SCLC, “which would give the waiting press corps all the gory copy they needed” and bring thousands more protestors to Birmingham, forcing local officials to “broker a fairer and more equitable future.” In brisk, tension-filled chapters, Kix recounts the crusade’s ups and downs and draws vivid profiles of participants including pastor Fred Shuttlesworth, whose bravery and intimate knowledge of the city proved vital, and SCLC director of direct action James Bevel, whose controversial push to recruit children and teenagers to join the protests resulted in the most horrifying—and effective—news coverage. Eschewing rose-colored reminiscences in favor of knotty reckonings with the SCLC’s internal rivalries, supercharged egos, and “‘endless’ deliberation,” Kix makes a persuasive case that Birmingham saved a floundering organization and galvanized the Kennedy administration to commit to civil rights. Readers will be riveted from the first page to the last. (May)