David J. Garrow

The definitive account of Barack Obama's life before he became the 44th president of the United States - the formative years, confluence of forces, and influential figures who helped shaped an extraordinary leader and his rise - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross.

The Making of Barack Obama

Rising Star

This biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., and examination of the movement he led draws on over seven hundred interviews.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Bearing the Cross

This biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., and examination of the movement he led draws on over seven hundred interviews

Clayborne Carson

Director Clayborne Carson, Ph.D.

Gerald Gill

Vincent Harding

Darlene Clark Hine

Examines the background of the Civil Rights movement

Civil Rights Reader : Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1954-1990

The Eyes on the Prize

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: The definitive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. In this monumental account of the life of Martin Luther King Jr., professor and historian David Garrow traces King’s evolution from young pastor who spearheaded the 1955–56 bus boycott of Montgomery, Alabama, to inspirational leader of America’s civil rights movement. Based on extensive research and more than seven hundred interviews, with subjects including Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, and Coretta Scott King, Garrow paints a multidimensional portrait of a charismatic figure driven by his strong moral obligation to lead—and of the toll this calling took on his life. Bearing the Cross provides a penetrating account of King’s spiritual development and his crucial role at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, whose protest campaigns in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, led to enactment of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. This comprehensive yet intimate study reveals the deep sense of mission King felt to serve as an unrelenting crusader against prejudice, inequality, and violence, and his willingness to sacrifice his own life on behalf of his beliefs. Written more than twenty-five years ago, Bearing the Cross remains an unparalleled examination of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the legacy of the civil rights movement.

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s

We Shall Overcome

Bill Kovach

Presents over one hundred newspaper and magazine articles and book excerpts that chronicle the Civil Rights movement from 1941 to 1963, and includes a chronology, journalist biographies, and photographs.

American Journalism 1941-1963

Reporting Civil Rights Vol. 1 (LOA #137)

The author of Bearing the Cross, the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr., exposes the government’s massive surveillance campaign against the civil rights leader When US attorney general Robert F. Kennedy authorized a wiretap of Martin Luther King Jr.’s phones by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he set in motion one of the most invasive surveillance operations in American history. Sparked by informant reports of King’s alleged involvement with communists, the FBI amassed a trove of information on the civil rights leader. Their findings failed to turn up any evidence of communist influence, but they did expose sensitive aspects of King’s personal life that the FBI went on to use in its attempts to mar his public image. Based on meticulous research into the agency’s surveillance records, historian David Garrow illustrates how the FBI followed King’s movements throughout the country, bugging his hotel rooms and tapping his phones wherever he went, in an obsessive quest to destroy his growing influence. Garrow uncovers the voyeurism and racism within J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI while unmasking Hoover’s personal desire to destroy King. The spying only intensified once King publicly denounced the Vietnam War, and the FBI continued to surveil him until his death. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. clearly demonstrates an unprecedented abuse of power by the FBI and the government as a whole.

From "Solo" to Memphis

The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author David J. Garrow’s stirring and essential history of the politics of abortion and America’s battle for the right to choose In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and more than forty years later the issue continues to spark controversy and divisiveness. But behind this historic legal case lie the battles women fought to establish their rights to use contraceptives and choose to have an abortion. Liberty and Sexuality traces these political and legal struggles in the decades leading up to Roe v. Wade—including the momentous 1965 Supreme Court ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut that established a constitutional “right to privacy.” Garrow personalizes the struggles by detailing the vital contributions made by dozens of crusaders who tirelessly paved the way. This expansive and substantial work also addresses the threats to sexual privacy and the legality of abortion that have risen since Roe v. Wade. With abortion still a contentious subject on the national political landscape, Liberty and Sexuality is not just a historical account of the right to choose, but an indispensable read about preserving a freedom that continues to divide America.

The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade

Liberty and Sexuality

Mass Protest and Racial Violence

St. Augustine, Florida, 1963-1964

The definitive account of Barack Obama’s life before he became the 44th president of the United States – the formative years, confluence of forces, and influential figures who helped shaped an extraordinary leader and his rise – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross.

David J. Garrow

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