Weary Feet, Rested Souls : : a Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Outstanding submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 26, 2013, 11:03am This book is written in a *style* that is nearly the antithesis of what I like in a book. I want a long, cohesive *story*. Fiction, non-fiction, doesn't matter. Just make it long and pull me in.

This is, really and truly, a guided history. The book is broken into a chapter for each state in the South that played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, then divided further by city. Within that, it is broken down to individual sites that were important in the Movement and tells about, in a paragraph to a page or two, the people and events that happened there. It's the perfect book for taking through the South with you and creating your own Civil Rights tour.

I complained about my challenge reading this style to my husband, who said, "So put it down." I thought for a moment and said, "Can't. It's too good."

Even in this choppy format, the author manages to tell a cohesive story of the events, people, and progress of the Movement. In some ways, the matter-of-fact recounting of site after site of injustices, attacks, injuries, and deaths becomes even more powerful for the realization that the depths of the structural problems and the violence brought to bear on those trying to create change were, simply, everywhere. The Freedom Summer workers were harassed here and there and this other place; and the churches was bombed in this city, and that city, and a dozen more cities; the houses were shot at on this street, and firebombed in that neighborhood, and received threatening phone calls over in this other place. It was impossible to see either the problems or the push for change or the bravery and commitment of the activists as isolated.

One night I actually had to put the book down, because it was just too much.

An excellent book paired with Anne Moody's _Coming of Age in Mississippi_, which gives a single person's perspective on the deep South, growing up with segregation, and choosing to be part of the solution.