David Halberstam (1934–2007)

I expected this book to be worth reading. I didn't expect it to be so worthwhile in the way it was. At its core, this is a book about the young black students in Nashville, led by a devout apostle of the nonviolent approach to social action of Mahatma Gandhi, to begin what in some respects was the second major leg of the American Civil Rights Movement with the Nashville Boycotts, starting in 1958. (Rosa Parks was taken off the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in late 1955, beginning the Montgomery boycott. Emmitt Till was killed a few months earlier, with his mother courageously using an open casket to show the world what had been done to her son, in essense to all blacks over the many Jim Crow years.) The author writes about the actions together and apart of the people in this civil rights movement, often taking the reader aside to tell a sort of mini-biography of the cast of characters, allowing a deeper understanding of the complexities of managing a group of each of the individuals joining together to accomplish a type of societal earthquake. As I delved into the story being told, I sensed a certain tone to the writing, a certain reserve, which I eventually decided was one of reverence for the people he was writing about. The author is able to pass along this same reverence to readers by immersing us into the very human aspects of the individuals and their goals. The narrative goes beyond the Nashville boycotts to the Freedom Riders and, somewhat less so, to Freedom Summer, the March on Washington, and other notable events. All in all, the blending of biographies and deep insights into historical events is quite mesmerizing. Eventually, however, the author gets to the follow-through. What happened to these "characters" after all these notable events? In a movie, this is usually just a few minutes, at best, of "Bill Jones, quarterback for the State Champion football team, now sells used cars in his hometown. Mary Smith went on to serve as a nurse in the Vietnam War..." In this book, the author essentially continues the mini-biographies of each of the cast of characters, some being natural extensions of what they had been doing as students, some far removed, into such items as what Dairy Queen they sold to get a Burger King franchise, which they, in turn, traded in for a McDonald's franchise. In short, not every follow-up was instructive to the point of the book, but the author seemingly felt compelled to tie up all lose ends. Indeed, the author was thorough in his reporting throughout. So, what exactly made the author write this book the way he did? He is best known for a Pulitzer Prize and best-selling books on the Vietnam War. Secondarily, he is also very well known for his classic sports related books about epic World Series games and the like. (He died in a car accident on his way to interview a famous NFL quarterback in research for another epic championship game.) The answer comes from the fact that this notable journalist got his professional start at the Nashville Tennessean as these "Children" of the book were forming the SNCC and making history in America. I think of this book as the author's homage to those only slightly younger black students who he studied as a young reporter some 40 years earlier than when this book was written. Despite having already having read literally dozens of books on the struggle for civil rights in America, I still found this book highly rewarding.… (mais)