The American Civil Rights Movement By: Linda Jacobs Altman

This book was about the Civil Rights Movement in America. It talked about the different programs involved in the Civil Rights Movement that were trying to accomplish racial equality by non-violent tactics. For example, the NAACP and the SNCC were both organizations that fought for no segregation peacefully. I was amazed at how calm and collected the victims of cruel crimes were when they were brutally attacked by protesters. Freedom Riders, members of the Little Rock Nine, and just plain every day black people can testify that they experienced horrible crimes all the time, and were usually able to stay calm for the sake of Martin Luther King Jr. The book mostly revolved around Martin Luther King Jr., and talked about his belief that if a person believes strongly enough in something, realizes that something is terribly wrong with their government, or stands out in the crowd, that that person should stand up for who they are and what they believe in, as long as that person does is without violence. The book ranges from events occurring in the Civil Rights Movement in 1909 to 1968, the assassination of MLK. Most people thought that MLK's death would be the end of the Civil Rights Movement. However, just the opposite of what people thought, became the truth. More people fought even harder than before out of anger and grief of what happened to MLK. They were outraged that such a peaceful man who only wanted to help his people could be killed so violently. They honored him saying that he died in the line of duty, and he died doing what he believed was the right thing to do.

Because the book describes so many events in the Civil Rights Movement, it focused more on telling the story bluntly than expressing a number of literary elements. There was however one symbol in the book overall. It was the message that was sent when showing that the black people achieved their dreams of equality in America. It shows that no matter how hard that white people tried to take away their strength, they fought with more strength everyday. It symbolized that no matter how much white people wanted to feel superior,it was humanly impossible because of the strength that the black people had during the American Civil Rights Movement.