by J. Mills Thornton III
University of Alabama Press, 2006
Cloth: 978-0-8173-1170-4 | Paper: 978-0-8173-5299-8 | eISBN: 978-0-8173-8098-4
Library of Congress Classification E185.93.A3T48 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification 323.119607307611

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK

Presents the story of the civil rights movement from the perspective of community-municipal history at the grassroots level

Thornton demonstrates that the movement had powerful local sources in its three birth cities—Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. There, the arcane mechanisms of state and city governance and the missteps of municipal politicians and civic leaders—independent of emerging national trends in racial mores—led to the great swell of energy for change that became the civil rights movement.