Memphis 68

Memphis 68
Author: Stuart Cosgrove
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2017-10-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 085790938X

WINNER OF THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE 2018 In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al Green and Isaac Hayes, and by 1968 was a city synonymous with soul music. It was a deeply segregated city, ill at ease with the modern world and yet to adjust to the era of civil rights and racial integration. Stax Records offered an escape from the turmoil of the real world for many soul and blues musicians, with much of the music created there becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movements. The book opens with the death of the city's most famous recording artist, Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash in the final days of 1967, and then follows the fortunes of Redding's label, Stax/Volt Records, as its fortunes fall and rise again. But, as the tense year unfolds, the city dominates world headlines for the worst of reasons: the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Detroit 67

Detroit 67
Author: Stuart Cosgrove
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2016-10-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0857903349

First in the award-winning soul music trilogy—featuring Motown artists Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and others. Detroit 67 is “a dramatic account of twelve remarkable months in the Motor City” during the year that changed everything (Sunday Mail). It takes you on a turbulent journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through the city in 1967 and tore it apart in personal, political, and interracial disputes. It is the story of Motown, the breakup of the Supremes, and the damaging clashes at the heart of the most successful African American music label ever. Set against a backdrop of urban riots, escalating war in Vietnam, and police corruption, the book weaves its way through a year when soul music came of age and the underground counterculture flourished. LSD arrived in the city with hallucinogenic power, and local guitar band MC5—self-styled holy barbarians of rock—went to war with mainstream America. A summer of street-level rebellion turned Detroit into one of the most notorious cities on earth, known for its unique creativity, its unpredictability, and self-lacerating crime rates. The year 1967 ended in social meltdown, rancor, and intense legal warfare as the complex threads that held Detroit together finally unraveled. “A whole-hearted evocation of people and places,” Detroit 67 is “a tale set at a fulcrum of American social and cultural history” (Independent).

16n68

16n68
Author: Hester Johnson Moore
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-12-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781892324559

NO THIS IS NOT WHAT DR. KING WANTED As a 16-year-old girl, Hester Johnson, found herself participating in Civil Rights marches in Memphis in support of the Sanitation workers that she knew personally. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support their efforts her life and the world changed forever. Afraid of what was to happen next. "God Help Me!" Glass breaking all around me. Screams and then sirens blaring...policemen swinging sticks. I heard a man yell..."RUN, RUN! GO BACK TO THE CHURCH!" I searched for the Pastor and saw him covering his nose and his mouth with a handkerchief, pointing in the direction of Clayborn Temple. "Oh God help me!" Fearing for our lives we gathered inside the walls of Clayborn Temple. Then the police blasted over a bullhorn..."YOU'VE GOT 15 MINUTES TO COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" We looked out the balcony window and saw hundreds of policemen lined up across the street. The minister pleaded with us "Do what the police say!"

Bearing the Cross

Bearing the Cross
Author: David J. Garrow
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 599
Release: 2015-02-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 150401152X

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.