Name: The King Years
ISBN: 9781451678970

Taylor Branch

A chronicle of key events in the civil rights movement traces how it evolved from a bus strike to a political and social revolution.

Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement

The King Years

Jeremy Anderberg

In this slim distillation of Branch’s massive trilogy on the Civil Rights Movement, the renowned author aims to share “the gist of the patriotic struggle in which the civil rights pioneers, like modern Founders, moved an inherited world of hierarchy and subjugation toward common citizenship.” As is expected in an abridgment, there’s some context missing and the short chapters feel somewhat clipped, but The King Years is hard to beat as a primer on how the triumphs of that movement came to be. 

For my own understanding of that time period, this book was an important read in a couple ways. 

First, it helped me realize just how unpopular the Civil Rights Movement was at the time. Upwards of 60% of Americans disapproved of the numerous, near-constant protests, speeches, and “dramatics.” Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., though revered in our modern age, were two of most hated public figures of the era. Today, for comparison, the Black Lives Matter movement has public support that’s the inverse of 50 years ago, with over 60% of people in favor of the principles behind it. 

Second, given the short chapters that focus on pivotal moments, years go by with the turn of a page. The reader realizes just how long and drawn out the fight for civil rights really was. The Montgomery bus boycott was in 1956 and the Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed until 1964, with the Voting Rights Act following on its heels in 1965. It was nearly a decade of struggle and social change for our nation — in the midst of the Cold War and a presidential assassination. The ‘60s were intense, man.

In light of the passing of John Lewis, who makes numerous appearances in the book, this volume is especially worth reading. (As is the entire trilogy, though at over 2,300 pages, it does require some endurance.) More than the other books featured in this article, it provides hope for what could be. As Branch concludes: 

Above all, the King years should serve as a bracing reminder that citizens and leaders can work miracles together despite every hardship, against great odds.

The King Years Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement

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