About this item
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s is now remembered as a distant, sepia-toned campaign, whose achievements and idealism were soon eclipsed by angry, confrontational Black Power activists. However, far from marking the end of an era, as is commonly thought, the 1965 Voting Rights Act wrested open a dam holding back radical political impulses. This political explosion initially took the form of the Black Power Movement, which, though conventionally adjudged a failure, in fact laid the groundwork for a crucial new wave of black leadership culminating in the inauguration of Barack Obama. In Dark Days, Bright Nights, acclaimed scholar Peniel E. Joseph elucidates Black Power’s forgotten achievements by retelling the story of the movement through the lives of activists, intellectuals, and artists including Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka, and Barack Obama.
About the Author
Dr. Peniel E. Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and professor of history and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author and editor of six books on African American history, including the award winning Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative HIstory of Black Power in America and Stokely: A Life. Professor Joseph is a frequent national commentator on issues of race, civil rights, and democracy and a contributing opinion writer for CNN.com whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR, CNN, MSNC, PBS NewsHour, and C-SPAN. Professor Joseph is the proud son of Haitian immigrants who came to the United States during the civil rights era's heroic period. Born and raised in New York City he stood on his first picket lines in elementary school and learned about Black history and social justice activism at the feet of his mother, a hospital worker, trade unionist, writer, feminist, and human rights activist.
