Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America since 1941

Bringing noted historian Steven Lawson’s classic presentation of the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the U.S. into the new millennium, the fourth edition of Running for Freedom details the history of African–American civil rights and black politics from 1941 to 2014. This edition features a new chapter on the election of Barack Obama as the first African–American president in American history, an event that marked the culmination of the long struggle of African Americans to gain the right to vote and political power in the nation that had once enslaved, segregated, and disfranchised them. Lawson explores the idea that Obama’s two presidential election victories did not in fact herald a race–neutral or post–racial blind society. He shows us that race remains a polarizing force in American politics and society, and that gaps in racial equality between whites and blacks persist—and in many instances have widened. Other updates to the text include the impact of the controversial Zimmerman acquittal in the Trayvon Martin murder trial, 50th–anniversary commemorations of the historic 1963 March on Washington, the Supreme Court’s recent weakening of the Voting Rights Act, and more. Told with eloquence and scholarly precision, Running for Freedom, Fourth Edition , is an indispensable resource on America’s continued quest of racial equality and harmony.

Steven F. Lawson is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University. He has served as an adviser to the television documentary series Eyes on the Prize and has participated as an historical consultant on voting rights cases. His publications include Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944–1969 (1976), In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965–1982 (1985), Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle (2003), and To Secure These Rights: The Report of President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights (2004).