In the century between the “Emancipation Proclamation” of Abraham Lincoln and the “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King Jr., America sought both to rebuff and to redeem the promise of “liberty and justice for all.” The story of slavery and the bloody civil war that abolished it has been told, but the story of the struggle for liberty and justice by and for African Americans in the half-century following the end of Reconstruction has been largely overlooked. In this highly readable narrative, distinguished historian Ronald C. White Jr. portrays the people, their ideas, and their ongoing struggle for racial reform in the United States from 1877-1925–a vital prelude to the modern civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ronald C. White Jr. is the author of Lincoln: A Biography, a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. White is also the author of Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, honored as a New York Times Notable Book of 2002, and a Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, and The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and a selection of the History Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club. He has lectured at the White House and been interviewed on PBS’s NewsHour. He has taught at UCLA, Princeton Theological Seminary, Whitworth University, Colorado College, and San Francisco Theological Seminary where he served as Dean and Professor of American Religious History.
