Race and Civil Rights
Selected and introduced by Peter C. Myers
The documents in the present volume present an extended series of reflections by black and white Americans on whether and how these two racial groups could come to coexist and thrive as fellow citizens in this country. 聽Picking up the story at the end of the Civil War, they tell of the long effort, stretching over 150 years and continuing through the present day, to bring an end to race-centric injustice in the United States. On that objective, framed in highly general terms, there is unanimity or near unanimity among the selections. 聽Descending from that high level of generality however, there are much variety and lively disagreement on more specific questions of ends and means.
Race and Civil Rights should be read in conjunction with the published volumes Slavery and Its Consequences and Gender and Equality. Together, they offer documentary evidence necessary for understanding and engaging thoughtfully in America’s ongoing debate over the meaning of equality.
Documents include:
- Robert Brown Elliott, Speech on the Proposed . . ., 1874
- Ida B. Wells, 鈥淪elf-Help,鈥� 1892
- Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895
- W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
- A. Philip Randolph, 鈥淲hy Should We March,鈥� 1942
- Senator Howard Smith et al., Southern Manifesto, 1956
- Malcolm X, 鈥淭he Ballot or the Bullet,鈥� 1964
- Loving v. Virginia, 1967
- Clarence Thomas, Speech to the National Bar Association, 1998
- Barack Obama, 鈥淎 More Perfect Union,鈥� 2008
- Black Lives Matter, Statements of Purpose, 2016
- Robert L. Woodson, 鈥淭he Crucial Voice of 1776,鈥� 2020