Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63

"Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63" by Taylor Branch tells the story of the civil rights era in America, a time of tremendous upheaval that changed the country and its attitude towards race relations forever. The book begins with the story of Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of a bus and chronicles the civil rights movement through to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

By 1954, Jim Crow laws had been in effect in the South for nearly seventy years, depriving African Americans of their right to vote, segregating them in publicschools, housing, and other public facilities, and subjecting them to discrimination and worse. Despite a Supreme Court ruling that struck down "separate but equal" laws, and the efforts of a small but growing civil rights movement, the activism of the previous decades failed to fundamentally change the entrenched economic and social inequality enforced by local and state governments and by white citizens.

The civil rights movement gained momentum in 1954 when the Supreme Court unanimously struck down school segregation laws in Brown v. Board of Education. Public opinion was quickly changing, spurred in part by the Montgomery bus boycott which started in December 1955 after 42,000 African Americans refused to ride the city's segregated buses. This would start a series of boycotts and demonstrations throughout the South, often met with violence to maintain the status quo. The movement continued over the next decade and grew under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who employed nonviolent civil disobedience to fight for equality.

The movement scored a number of major successes, starting with the 1957 integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which outlawed racial segregation and discrimination in public facilities. In 1963, major demonstrations were held in Birmingham, Alabama and Washington D.C., culminating in the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination based on race, gender, national origin, and religion in public settings. The 1965 Voting Rights Act completed the shift in American public opinion, finally granting African Americans the right to vote.

Thousands sacrificed their lives and safety to fight for change. In Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, Taylor Branch examines the spirit of the era, weaving together the stories of its prominent figures, court battles, violent crimes and ultimate victories against racial inequalities. This riveting and powerful book celebrates the strength of the African American movement and its lasting legacy, which continues to shape America today.