A more beautiful and terrible history: the uses and misuses of civil rights history

Preface: A dream diluted and distorted

THE HISTORIES WE GET. Introduction: The political uses and misuses of civil rights history and memorialization in the present

THE HISTORIES WE NEED. The long movement outside the South : fighting for school desegregation in the "liberal" North

Revisiting the uprisings of the 1960s and the history of injustice and struggle that preceded them

Beyond the redneck : polite racism and "the white moderate"

The media was often an obstacle to the struggle for racial justice

Beyond a bus seat : the movement pressed for desegregation, criminal justice, economic justice, and global justice

The great man view of history, part I: Where are the young people?

The great man view of history, part II: Where are the women?

Extremists, troublemakers, and national security threats : the public demonization of rebels, the toll it took, and government repression of the movement

Learning to play on locked pianos : the movement was persevering, organized, disruptive, and often disparaged, and other lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Afterword: A history for a better world.