Parting the Waters

Parting the Waters by Taylor branch

Category: Historical Biography Grade: A+

First, warning. Starting this book is a huge commitment. It's 900+ pages long and is the first of three volumes of equal length. I.e. you really, really need to like this kind of book to get started down this path. If you do, however, as you can tell from the grade, you'll be well rewarded. You need to be willing to commit to a lot of reading since, if you make it through this first book, I can't imagine that you, like me, won't want to read the entire series.

The sub-title of the book tells you pretty well what it's about -- America in the King Years 1954-63. The author, in the introduction, summarizes his approach. He doesn't just want to write a biography of Martin Luther King; he also wants to tell the stories of the times and, in particular in this volume, of the broader civil rights movement. His story-telling style leads him to call this book a "narrative historical biography". It's an apt description. Branch won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for this book.

Branch's choice of style makes this a very readable book even for those of you do don't read a lot of non-fiction. Based on contemporary accounts, many interviews and, in an interesting twist of irony, transcripts of FBI wire taps, the book is full of the day to day stories and conversations that made up this movement. Given that this volume covers the movement's early years it is almost exclusively about desegregation and voting rights. Most of the book dwells in fascinating detail on some of the most visible episodes in the decade long battle -- the Montgomery bus boycott, the battles with Bull Connors in Birmingham and the major freedom march on Washington, best known for King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

What makes the book so interesting, however, is that its far from just a recitation of the marches, sit-ins and demonstrations that are the visible symbols of this period. It really focuses on the people involved - in straightforward detail. King, is of course, the focus as he became the face and, especially the voice, of the civil rights movement. We see both the good and the bad about King - his leadership, his amazing oratorical skills, but also his insecurities and, late in the book, his personal weaknesses. We also get a great picture of some of the other movement leaders - Abernathy, Wilkins, Moses, Shuttleworth, etc. While there's a lot in the book about the backroom conflicts between the movement leaders, what comes out so strongly is the shear raw courage that was displayed by these men and the thousands of blacks who enrolled in the day-to-day actions that were as likely to be repelled by arrests, firehoses and dogs and they were to accomplish anything in the short run.

There's nothing like hindsight to bring moral clarity, but Branch doesn't really have to embellish much to paint the segregationist leaders in a bad light. From the major names of the South like Barnett, Wallace and, of course, Bull Connors, to the many small town sheriffs and officials, you watch in disbelief as these powerful people tried to stop black Americans from becoming participants in the American way. Not surprisingly, the most dramatic outcome of the actions of the racist leaders was to provide the dramatic pictures and soundtrack that made clear to the rest of the country where the "right" was.

Because of his historical approach, you also get pictures of some of the other major historical figures of the time -- Eisenhower's discomfort around blacks, the active roll played in the movement by Harry Belafonte, the mostly ineffectual leadership of the Kennedys and, most frighteningly, the level of control that J. Edgar Hoover exercised for decades at the FBI. Near the end of the book, we see glimpses of the very different atmosphere that will be covered in Branch's next book, Pillar of Fire. On the leadership side, this book ends just after the Kennedy assassination as Lyndon Johnson takes over with his surprisingly supportive policies. On the movement side, we see the splits in the black community growing with the arrival on the scene of Malcolm X and, of course, the war in Vietnam has begun to shape the national dialogue.

As is obvious by now, I really recommend this one to anybody who likes history or biography.