We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement as It Happened

In words, photos and on two audio CDs, witness the courageous and controversial stories that defined America's civil rights movement

An entire generation of Americans faced the lynching of teenager Emmett Till, the murder of four girls at church, and the denial of basic liberties like voting rights, equal education and political representation. This is their story.

We Shall Overcome is a gripping chronicle of the words and voices of the civil rights movement. From stirring speeches to the voices of hate, this collection brings to life the battle for justice and equality that shook America to its core. We Shall Overcome brings you there--from the schools to the sit-ins, from Little Rock to Selma, from the pulpit to the marches.

American Book Award winning author Herb Boyd tells the dramatic stories of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Ella Baker and activist groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Black Panthers.

In words, photos and on two accompanying audio CDs, you'll witness the courageous and controversial stories that defined America's civil rights movement.

"With powerfully superb reporting Herb Boyd slams us back into the most grueling hours of Black America's bloody struggle for Civil Rights."--Gordon Parks, award-winning photographer, writer and filmmaker

"An indispensable window on history. Herb Boyd's dramatic evocation of the legendary civil rights struggle of the 1960s is at once dramatic history and engaging literature."--Paul Robeson, Jr.

"We Shall Overcome captures definitively the drama of the mighty social and spiritual movement that transformed America almost fifty years ago. Vivid, compelling, moving, inspiring, it brings alive the years of struggle and success, strife and hope, that led to the final triumph of justice for black Americans against Jim Crow. This is a gift to be cherished, an enduring reminder of the heroism of those women, men, and children who sacrificed even their lives that all of us might be free."--Arnold Rampersad, author of The Life of Langston Hughes, Days of Grace (with Arthur Ashe), and Jackie Robinson, Cognizant Dean for Humanities and Kimball Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University

"From the murder of Emmett Till to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Herb Boyd takes us on a intellectual and spiritual journey of what it has meant to be an African American resisting in America."--Sonia Sanchez, poet and author of the collections Shake Loose My Skin and Like Singing Coming Off Drums among others