Over the past thirty years, Steven F. Lawson has established himself as one of the nation's leading historians of the black struggle for equality. Civil Rights Crossroads is an important collection of Lawson's writings about the civil rights movement that is essential reading for anyone concerned about the past, present, and future of race relations in America. Lawson examines the movement from a variety of perspectives, local and national, political and social, to offer penetrating insights into the civil rights movement and its influence on contemporary society. Civil Rights Crossroads also illuminates the role of a broad array of civil rights activists, familiar and unfamiliar. Lawson describes the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon Johnson to shape the direction of the struggle, as well as the extraordinary contributions of ordinary people like Fannie Lou Hamer, Harry T. Moore, Ruth Perry, Theodore Gibson, and many other unsung heroes of the most important social movement of the twentieth century. Lawson also examines the decades-long battle to achieve and expand the right of African Americans to vote and to implement the ballot as the cornerstone of attempts at political liberation.
"Civil Rights Crossroads provides a comprehensive and critical survey of the modern civil rights struggle. Steven Lawson's book builds upon the remarkable outpouring during the past two decades of historical studies that have drawn attention to the contributions of little-known grassroots activists as well as national leaders. Lawson's own previous writings have been important pioneering additions
Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project at Stanford Univ
