The Civil Rights Movement was among the most important historical developments of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century freedom struggle, re-centering the narrative around the mobilization of ordinary people.

Thomas C. Holt is James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of American and African American History at the University of Chicago and the author of Children of Fire: A History of African Americans and The Problem of Race in the Twenty-First Century.

• List of Illustrations


• Introduction: Carrie's Rebellion


• Chapter 1: Before Montgomery


• Chapter 2: Communities organizing for change: New South cities


• Chapter 3: Communities organizing for change along the New South-Old South divide


• Chapter 4: Organizing in "the American Congo": Mississippi's Freedom Summer and its aftermath


• Chapter 5: Freedom movements in the North and the quest for Black power


• Chapter 6: Legacies: "Freedom is a constant struggle"


• References


• Further Reading


• Index