And Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power

This book is wonderful but sad and horrific concerning the things that have happened to african american women. The book is detailed so you must be able to read about gang rape, etc. If these issues are a trigger for you then reading this book is not a good idea. Certain parts made me cringe, and I had to stop reading at certain parts. With all of that said, it is a great read because it gives you another point of view of Rosa Parks and not just the Bus Boycott. She accomplished so much more than that. She was a key figure with the NAACP and I learned a lot about her life from this book. It is a tough read but I am so glad I got a chance to read it and learn about my history.

I've been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time, but I'm glad that I hadn't done so until I left Mississippi. There's a part of me that wishes I would have known to see some of the places mentioned in this book, but I'm also glad that I didn't have to live with the full truth. It's hard to miss the racism, even now that persists in some places down there, but it's apparently not what it was. I grew up learning about slavery and civil rights campaign, but never in this kind of detail and never concentrating on the experiences of the women. Growing up in a community of Hispanics who were either first generation American or not born in the US, we didn't relate to it as our history so it didn't resonate at the time. Even our parents couldn't take it that way because many of them were dealing with Castro during this timeframe.

Since then, I've gotten more into learning US history, lived in more of the country, and known people with a greater variety of backgrounds. I can better appreciate the struggles of others and how they shaped US. This book does an amazing job of relating to the reader how the struggle of black women during this time was unique to them and not necessarily the same as black men or white women. It also ties it into the rest of the civil rights movement and where their struggle finally connected to second wave feminism. There were some parts that were covered that I knew about and many new things, such as Rosa Parks involvement prior to that infamous day on the bus that we're all taught.

This was an enlightening book about the civil rights movement and the role of black women within it. I especially enjoyed the way it didn't veer off into the familiar things that everyone in the US learns in elementary school. Those things were mentioned and given their due, but they didn't overtake the story of the women here, which I thought was great. This was about black women specifically and that there's more to feminism and being a woman than the experience of white women and more to civil rights than the experiences of black men. I had loved the reaction of E.D. Nixon when Parks was arrested that's given in the book (around page 102).

This book is simply outstanding. It is a treasure trove of mostly unknown Black history.

I'm in my sixties, and as a young girl I wondered why my mother, my aunts, and so many other older black women I knew were so loath to wear reveling or tight clothing. For example, I particularly noticed an unwillingness to put on swim suits, to go swimming. I had just put it down as prudishness or as their trying to "be a good Christian." But after reading this book, the pieces fell into place. My mom and her sisters were born in Mississippi in the 1920s. Now I can see why they were taught not to wear clothing that might draw the attention of a man inclined to sexual abuse. Knowing they had no legal protection against the type of outrages outlined in this book, they did everything possible to downplay their sexuality out of a sense of self preservation.

I am myself a published author. I am impressed with the author's writing style. It is clear and concise, but still lively.

I had the honor of interviewing Rosa Parks for my university's newspaper when I was in college. I was very interested in reading about her in this book, which revealed that her role in initiating the Civil Rights movement to be so much more than is generally known.

A well written book full of little known information that should be shared with every American citizen, as it is an integral part of our country's past.

This is a well-documented history that is a gripping and often frightening account that focuses on the the very real dangers black women have endured and fought against in this country. The frequent use of sexual assault and rape as a means of subjugation and the belittling and trivializing of criminal charges when victims attempted to get justice is beyond shameful. It is a powerful book.

I listened to the author on NPR today (WHYY-Radio Times) and was astounded by the level of research she has shared.

It's astonishing to learn that while sexually abused women were suffering in silence--during and before the sixties--black women and some others oppressed in the South stood strong against their abusers. Also important: the men (black and some white) who courageously opposed the abuse.

There's a French saying: the truth does not die but lives like a pauper. Another French saying: The Truth drags its feet.

The victims spoke out, despite widespread collusion against them. If they had lived a few hundred years longer, they would have lived to see their efforts respected, rather than denigrated.

This book adds insight and strength to problems we still face.

We all heard the story of how Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a White man, jump started the Montgomery Bus Boycott & therefore the Civil Rights Movement. But in truth, there's more to this story than just Ms. Park not giving up a bus seat.

The 1st part of this book is a mini bio on Rosa Parks herself, & how her involvement with civil rights goes back to 1943 when she 1st joined the NAACP (her 1st husband Raymond Parks helped collect money for the Scottsboro Boys, a group of Black boys who were accused of raping 2 White women). Afterwards, we see the real reason behind the bus boycott- Black women were getting tried of the sexually harassment & racial insults from the bus drivers. Sadly their struggles gets thrown to the waste side as the media puts a bigger focus on the then unknown Martin Luther King Jr. & turning him into a Moses for people of color.

While reading this book, I sometimes get frustrated reading accounts of Black women getting sexually assaulted by White males & how the courts usually lets them go free, which exposes the double standards of the Jim Crow South; a Black man simply being accused of rape by a White woman is given a death sentence- either from the courts or from a lynch mob.

Thankfully that started to change after the conviction of four men in Tallahassee, Florida for kidnapping & rape in 1959. Although race-driven sexual assaults continued into the 1970s, that case marked the beginning of the end of the double standards of the South letting White males who assault Black women get away scotch free.

The author has done a great job with this book as it's a real page turner & should be a must read for all in order to truly understand the real story behind the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s & 1960s.

I cant emphasize, through words, how essential it is for us to read this book. It exposes the unspoken struggles of women in American history. Further, it alludes to the resilient and unbreakable spirit of the African American woman.

This book presents such a terrifying history with impeccable accuracy. Early organizing around anti-black racism/sexual violence was central to the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement. McGuire centers the work of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer and so many others to show the realities of racism and patriarchy in early 1900's - 1970's south. What is more, the book doesn't simply frame black women as victims. Rather, it shows the many ways in which black women have (for so long) been fighting for justice, dignity and liberation. This is possibly one of the most interesting books I have ever read.

As a young white woman in the 1970s, freshly arrived in America from England, I was pretty ignorant about the history of the Women's Movement in the U.S. over time I have come to appreciate how much of the Peace, Gay, and Feminist movements came out of African american struggle. This book very much pulled it all together for me and I couldn't put it down. Focused on women and the danger and difficulty for African american women to speak out, I recognized not only their struggle but how, for better or worse, their heroism got assumed by men. I knew Rosa Parks was already an activist etc but this gave me much deeper--and broader--understanding. A must-read!

Until you truly understand the background of Rosa Parks, as I learned from this wonderful book by Danielle McGuire, you cannot truly understand the significance of her life within the Civil Rights Movement, and you cannot truly understand the importance of the Civil Rights Movement within our Nation. While Rosa Parks was an often referenced individual in college, and a critical icon during my legal training, until I read At the Dark End of the Street, I had no idea why her life had the impact on our society as it did. Her story, as detailed in this book, was much bigger than she was, precisely because of what she went through and how she reacted to it. For anyone who hears the name Rosa Parks and would like to be swept up into a heart-wrenching story while learning about how one individual led a nation through her action and personal history, rather than an esteemed political position, read At the Dark End of the Street.

Most Americans have only the slightest notions about what was really behind the 1960's civil rights movement. Even though I was a baby boomer who was raised in Detroit, (certainly a racially mixed city), I had no concept of the real motivations behind the great social changes which actually began in the 1950's.
Dr Danielle McGuire is a member of The Organization of American Historians Distinguished Leadership Program. Serving as an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan focuses her research and writing interests on the role of African American Women in the civil rights movement. She explores this era in her captivating book, At the Dark End of the Street, which describes the events leading up to this crucial period
"Sex is the principal around which the whole structure of segregation is organized". As the opening quotation in her book , McGuire immediately confronts us with her primary theme. In the book McGuire describes the sexual terror and violence suffered by African American women and how significant a part they played in the civil rights movement. More importantly she explores the sexual exploitation of southern African American women, by southern white men. The author devotes a substantial portion of the book to the important role black women played in not only starting the movement, but also by providing organization, fund raising and support without which the movement could never have been successful. With these women serving as central to the work, McGuire also provides a tremendous amount of information concerning the civil rights movement itself.
Furthermore the author explains how difficult a task it was for this exploitation to be challenged in the courts by African American women. McGuire identifies this exploitation as the primary factor behind the struggle between whites and African Americans since slavery. Despite segregationist cries against a "mixed breed society" and defense of the white women's honor, McGuire feels that the real civil rights issues centered around the ability of southern white men to have free sexual access to the African American community. She cites countless examples through her narrative clearly demonstrating the validity of her ideas.
McGuire uses the stories of the sexual violence not only to shock the reader but also to educate the reader as to the experience of being a Black female victim of sexual violence in the 1950's. Ranging from 1940 through 1975, At the Dark End of the Street traces the history of several black women, all victims of sexual violence, who were important to the civil rights movement. These women include, but are not limited to: Recy Taylor, Gertrude Perkins, Flossie Hardman, Annette Butler, Betty Jean Owen, Fannie Lou Hammer and Joan Little. A group of 7 white men raped Recy Taylor in 1944: Two white policemen raped Gertrude Perkins in 1949, A young white male raped Flossie Hardman after she had babysat for his family in 1951; Four white males took 16 yr old Annette Butler from her home and raped her: Four white men kidnapped Betty Jean Owens from a car, took her to an isolated spot and raped her in 1959; A doctor performed a forced hysterectomy on Fannie Lou Hammer, during a procedure to remove a small cyst in1961: A sheriffs deputy molested and raped Joan Little in her jail cell in 1974. Maguire also demonstrates how these women and their cases, prior to the 1956 bus boycott, played such an integral role in creating a foundation for the bus boycott. The bus boycott was more than just a struggle for a seat on the bus, it was the pinnacle of a struggle for the dignity of black women throughout the south.
Recy Taylor, the first victim described in the book was twenty four at the time of the crime. She was walking down a country road, in Abbeville Alabama, with friends when a car carrying seven white males stopped on the road. The men confronted Recy with the story that she had been accused of knifing someone earlier in the day. Although both she and her companions denied her involvement since they had been together that day, the white men persuaded Taylor that she needed to come with them. One of the men said, "If she's not the one, we will bring her right back". The men took Taylor to a nearby pecan grove where six of them raped her. The men then drove Recy Taylor to the main highway and dropped her off with no concern for her welfare or for the fact that she might complain to the authorities
McGuire's telling certainly illustrates that these men had absolutely no fear in kidnapping and raping Recy Taylor. They did not hide their faces nor try to conceal the vehicle they were in. Nor was Taylor blindfold during the abduction and subsequent rape. She could clearly identify her assailants. In fact, some of her assailants were actually her neighbors. The pure arrogance of the act demonstrated the men's confidence that the southern judicial system would not prosecute them for acts of violence against African American women. Despite the two grand juries that were formed to investigate the case, none of these men would ever be prosecuted for the crime. What is most remarkable about the case is the courage and fortitude which Recy Taylor demonstrated in telling her family, the police and a jury about the horrendous crime which had taken place. She was a very brave woman to expose her shame on such a public stage.
On March 27, 1949 Gertrude Perkins was walking home from a party in Montgomery Alabama when she was arrested by two white police officers. Smelling beer on her breath, the two officers ordered her to get in their squad car as they accused her of public drunkenness. When she refused they forced Perkins into the backseat. The officers then drove to a railroad embankment and proceeded to rape her several times at gunpoint. When they finished, the officers took Perkins back to where they found her and dumped her in the middle of town. Once more, these events describe an incident where the assailants did nothing to hide who they were and where they were from. The fact that they were local white policemen who knew the legal system, further demonstrates that southern white males knew absolutely nothing would happen to a white male who raped a black female. The local authorities did nothing to pursue the case. After several organizing efforts and pressure on a national level a grand jury was formed to investigate the case. The grand jury found no grounds for prosecuting the officer in question.
In 1951, Sam E Green, a white grocery store owner in Montgomery Alabama, who employed fifteen year old Flossie Hardman as a babysitter, drove her home at the end of the evening. Instead of taking her home, he pulled to the side of a quiet road and raped her. This crime was especially brutal considering the girl was an adolescent. Obviously, even the threat of statutory rape was not enough to discourage Green from attacking Hardman. After a considerable amount of protest by the African American community, Green was brought to trial. An all white jury found him innocent after deliberating for only five minutes. The outcome in this case absolutely enraged the black community. Despite the fact that there was overwhelming evidence that she had been raped, the defendant was released without so much as a slap on the hands. These cases served to provide further tinder to the flame of discontent which was building in the black community.
On Mother's Day, May 13, 1956, four white males went looking for "some colored women" . The .men took weapons including, a sawed off shotgun, and approached an African American man who was preparing for work. The men ordered the African American man to take them to the house where there were some black women inside. They were lead to the house of a sixteen year old African American girl, Annette Butler. She was sleeping in bed with her mother. The teenager was pulled out of bed while the men pointed a shotgun at her mother who they threatened to kill. The men forced the girl into their car and drove to a local swamp. After raping her, the white males left her at the scene. Once again the arrogance of southern white men was described by the author. Not only did these men involve the victim, but also a total stranger who could tie them to the victim and the victim's mother. Although justice was partially served when the four men were given long term sentences, their total disregard for the law demonstrates southern white male confidence that they would not suffer any punishment. What is particularly notable about this case is that it took place in Mississippi. This was the first instance where a white male was given a strong jail sentence for the rape of a black woman.
In addition to doing an excellent job detailing the cases of sexual violence, McGuire goes one step further when she describes the difficulty experienced by these women and their families in attempting to go to the authorities for each of the victims. Not only had the victims felt the trauma associated with the crime, they now had to face an even bigger obstacle. Victims would have to make public their humiliation. More importantly, they would have to face the perpetrators responsible for these crimes. Victims were subjected to death threats, house bombings and abuse in their own towns. Although they all had a support base, many African Americans felt that the proactive stance was dangerous to their community and would only fostered more discontent between the African American and white communities. Most white and many black ministers believed in taking a passive role in these matters and segregation as a while. They felt that things were changing and through the passage of time these injustices would be corrected. McGuire clearly shows the bravery and fortitude of these women and their willingness to take a stand against the southern white supremacist legal system. McGuire firmly believes that the stand taken by these women against violence was critical in the breaking down segregation in the south. Leon A. Lowery, who was head of the Florida state NAACP said after the case that it would help "Negroes more in the long run" by setting a precedent for equal justice in future rape case.
The book spends a good deal of time describing some of the other very important women in the early days of civil rights. Rosa Perkins, Joann Robinson, and Georgia Gilmore were examples of women who played a major rule in the early days of the civil rights movement. Their actions and support during the Montgomery Bus Boycott were critical to the success of the boycott.
McGuire is a passionate author who wastes no time in bringing her message to her audience. The opening quotation of her book is "Sex is the principle around which the whole structure of segregation is organized." This statement succinctly describes McGuire's ideas regarding segregation. Just the title, At the Dark End of The Street conveys the message that what is contained within the book is dark and terrifying. McGuire has a very special skill in not only conveying interesting stories of each victim, but in telling stories for which she has sympathy and compassion. McGuire develops each story so that we not only see the victim but we see that each of these women are heroines demonstrating tremendous courage in the face of a southern judicial system which has ignored them for two hundred years. The bravery that these women demonstrated became an integral part of the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1960's.

Dr. McGuire has opened my eyes to a disturbing part of our history our teachers forgot to mention. I am in awe of the strength and perseverance of the southern black women. This gripping story brings a new light to the brutality inflicted on black women and children and the decades of suppression of their race. I have always been disgusted by the KK. This book examines the larger story of white supremacy and roles our government played in perpetuating segregation. It makes me ashamed to be white. How can we convince people to look at the person within and not judge by the color of their skin? Awareness, tolerance and strength. Read "The Dark End of the Street". It should be a required read for everyone.

This book brings to light some of the most unexplored parts of the Civil Rights Movement. McGuire redefines our understanding of civil rights in America by placing black women, and their struggles against sexism and sexual violence, at the center of the long black freedom struggle. In addition, her well-written prose makes for a fast read. Anyone who desires to know and understand the true history of civil rights and black history in America should grab a copy of this amazing book!

My neighbor recommended this book to me and I honestly can't see why. I read most of it and found it repetitive and overblown. I felt like I already knew alot of the history in here. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.