At The Dark End Of The Street: Black Women, Rape, And Resistance--A New History Of The Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks To The Rise Of Black Power (2010)
About book At The Dark End Of The Street: Black Women, Rape, And Resistance--A New History Of The Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks To The Rise Of Black Power (2010)
This is the best book I've read all year. The civil rights movement is often told with a few main characters, these characters are always men and even their stories have been whitewashed to fit a narrative that seeks to erase a history that still cuts deep into the current American psyche. In this book McGuire highlights, magnificently, the abuse, violence and humiliation that black women had to suffer at the hands of white men in the southern states of America but also details how it was these same black women that turned their pain into a movement that is often overlooked. I always find it a little bit of a slap in the face when I realise just how much history is carefully portrayed to us, and no matter how high you go up in the academic ladder the dominant narrative normally stays the same. I can't speak highly enough of this book for telling the stories of black women and further opening my eyes to understanding that we can never let the dominant narrative be the only one heard. I really wish I could give this book five stars, but I can't justify that last star. The problem is that the book lacks flow, and the conclusion lacks a certain polish that I expect from a book.However, despite that, this book is well worth reading. Roughly a third of it is notes and references, so it's really a three hundred page book, relayed in episodic chapters that discussion a different way that rape influenced the civil rights movement. And let's be very honest; the vast majority of people would probably say that rape had nothing to do with the civil rights, and that the civil rights movement was dominated by forward thinking black men who, with speeches and forceful talk convinced the nation that it was time to offer equality, and had nothing to do with women(who were probably persuaded by these leaders, but probably brought nothing of their own).So reallly, this is a book that takes a new and unflinching look at the start of the civil rights movement, and it's well worth reading.
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Disturbing, but well-written account of a differenct aspect of the Civil Rights movement.
—MadRose
