A work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr, a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr, a journalist working on the front lines of change today.
This memoir of survival is critical to understanding the movement from the perspective of the people on the ground ... Moving, evocative, and haunting, this father-son perspective on the civil rights movement is a necessary read and a great addition for all library collections.
... gripping ... Recollections brought to life in subtle and evocative prose paint him and his fellow activists as heroic but fallible, often terrified of the dangers inherent in their work and resentful of leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., when they seemed to be dodging those risks. As he hardened himself to the necessity of ordering volunteers to undertake perilous organizing missions, he felt that he was 'losing [his] humanity.' This captures a remarkably intimate and vivid portrait of the human side of the civil rights movement.
