The first book of a formidable three-volume social history,
Parting the Waters is more than just a biography of the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. during the decade preceding his emergence as a national figure. Branch's thousand-page effort, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, profiles the key players and events that helped shape the American social landscape following
World War II but before the
civil-rights movement of the 1960s reached its climax. The author then goes a step further, endeavoring to explain how the struggles evolved as they did by probing the influences of the main actors while discussing the manner in which events conspired to create fertile ground for change. Also analyzing the beginnings of black self-consciousness, this book maps the structure of
segregation and bigotry in America between 1954 and 1963. The author considers the constantly changing behaviour of those in Washington with regard to the injustice of offical
racism operating in many states at this time.
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Background Information
Civil rights for black Americans was guaranteed by the amendments that followed the Civil War, but in practice they were denied throughout the country and especially in the South. Martin Luther King Jr came to national prominence through the Montgomery Bus Boycott and remained the most influential Civil Rights leader until his assassination. The civil rights movement, which aimed to deliver the rights assured black Americans in the post-Civil-War amendments, reached its peak of activity in the 1960's. Before segregation was abolished by President Harry Truman, the American military had policies that kept blacks in their own units under the command of white officers. Race relations between Americans of European origin and others, including Africans, Indians, and Asians, have been an issue since colonial days.