Parting the Waters

First of a 3-volume social history, Parting the Waters is more than a biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the decade preceding his emergence as a national figure. This 1000-page effort profiles the key players & events that helped shape the American social landscape following WWII but before the civil rights movement of the 1960s reached its climax. Branch then goes a step further, endeavoring to explain how the struggles evolved as they did by probing the influences of the main actors while discussing the manner in which events conspired to create fertile ground for change. Also analyzing the beginnings of black self-consciousness, this book maps the structure of segregation & bigotry in America between 1954 & 1963. The author considers the constantly changing behavior of those in Washington with regard to the injustice of official racism operating in many states at this time.

Forerunner: Vernon Johns

Rockefeller and Ebenezer

Niebuhr and the Pool Tables

First Trombone

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

A Taste of the World

The Quickening

Shades of Politics

A Pawn of History

The Kennedy Transition

Baptism on Wheels

The Summer of Freedom Rides

Moses in McComb, King in Kansas City

Almost Christmas in Albany

Hoover's Triangle and King's Machine

The Fireman's Last Reprieve

The Fall of Ole Miss

To Birmingham

Greenwood and Birmingham Jail

The Children's Miracle

Firestorm

The March on Washington

Crossing Over: Nightmares and Dreams

Endorsements

Pulitzer Prize

National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction