F. Michael Higginbotham

It's possible this is a better book than my rating may imply. Certainly, the first two-thirds of the book is the most concise, yet comprehensive history of black civil rights I've ever read, and I've read many. This is not just Civil War slavery and Martin Luther King civil rights marches. This covers it all, from Jamestown to Trayvon Martin. Everyone should know at least this much about the subject. At some point, the author shifts gears from being an outstanding history lecturer to something that is an odd blend of a political speech to a crowd that already agrees with him and a legal summation to the Supreme Court where legal theories are assumed knowledge for everyone in attendance. The lucidity of the author's points ebbs and flows. Familiar with Grutter v. Bollinger? The author seems to think it's a key to how to finally break out of the perpetual motion machine that's driven by the twin concepts of white superiority and black inferiority that have driven black history in America. I might add that the author doesn't spend a great deal of time documenting why whites are not superior or why blacks are not inferior. It's pretty much taken for granted that he's correct, but when I asked myself midway through the book why that was so, it occurred to me. Imagine a foot race where the contestant is not told where the race starts, is required to delay his start after everyone else, must have one foot in a cast with rickety crutches, and even if he arrives at the finish line first, is told he's disqualified. Well, the issue of inferiority or superiority is never really the issue, is it?… (meer)