This one will be on Ron DeSantis's shit list for sure! A thorough recounting of one pivotal year, 1966, when the movement for integration transformed into more radical change. It features in-depth looks at Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis, James Meredith, Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson; SNCC, the Black Panther Party, voting rights, and the Vietnam War. It's all here, as the talented writer and researcher concludes convincingly that this was the year that everything changed, especially for white sympathizers, who had to be convinced that it was more appropriate to focus on defeating white racism than on organizing southern Black communities, which proved to be a painful fissure. The author's thesis is that movements like the Black Power effort usually required a charismatic leader in order to succeed. He believes that Malcolm X was that leader, and that his assassination slowed down the coming cataclysm. I think he gives short shrift to Fred Hampton, the murdered leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party, who could have been as influential as Malcolm, had he lived. This is an inside look at a most underappreciated time of radical change that impacted every gain and loss that followed.

Quote: "The media took it as a threat, as something sinister to white folks. In our minds, what it really meant was Black empowerment - the power to control our own destiny." ( )