A More Beautiful and Terrible History, by Jeanne Theoharis

Jeanne Theoharis opens her book A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History with a quote from James Baldwin: "American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it." Theoharis expands on the popular view of civil rights history in the U.S.  As the civil rights generation begins dying, their memory become fable and legend, often whitewashed or, at the very least, oversimplified.

As one writer observed, "much of Black History Month takes place in the passive voice."  Theoharis concurs: "Our popular history of the movement largely sidesteps how and by whom racial inequality was perpetrated and maintained."  I found the most revealing and powerful portions of the book to be those that focused on the "de facto" racism of the North.  As a Texas, I have directly and indirectly endured the scorn of northerners who think that they have a moral upper hand on race issues by virtue of geography.

As Theoharis points out, though, while northern states may not have established de jure racism with the enforcement of Jim Crow laws, racist, segregationist policies created de facto racism in schools, housing, and employment.  We remember the kids being spat upon and their buses being pelted with rocks in Alabama.  We don't remember the same things happening in Boston.  We remember people marching in Selma.  We don't remember marches in New York and Detroit.

Theoharis fills in a lot of these gaps, but she also gives a more complete picture of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.  The popular imagination things of MLK as the preacher who followed Ghandi's model, and Rosa Parks as the meek and mild seamstress who just wanted to sit down on the bus after a long day.  These images are not false, but they are far from complete.  Theoharis fleshes out their activism, and details the long months and years of advocacy that preceded the iconic moments of the civil rights movement.

While the body of A More Beautiful and Terrible History was enlightening and solidly researched and documented, as one might expect from someone with a Ph.D., the partisanship of her opening chapter almost made me stop reading.  Her disdain for President Trump, her asserting that his election was illegitimate, and her embrace of the now-discredited Russian "collusion," and her questionable statement that "voter ID laws . . . enabled Trump's victory" reveal a lack of historical perspective and objectivity.  Thankfully, the rest of the book doesn't continue in this vein.  Hopefully, despite his caustic language, the results of Trump's policies will continue to benefit minorities in the U.S.

I appreciate Theoharis's more complete picture of the civil rights movement.  As she points out, the book is not closed on the struggle for equal rights.  While de jure racism may be gone, de facto racism thrives.  Just yesterday I read an article about parents in New York protesting integration of their all-white schools.  It's the same story Theoharis tells; same arguments, same denials of racism, new decade. 


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!