Booker T. Washington and the Long Civil Rights Movement

Check out Ralph Luker's post on Cliopatria concerning Robert J. Norrell's new biography of Booker T. Washington. I've not read Norrell's book yet, but this makes me want to take a look. More interesting is Luker's riff on scholars like Jacquelyn Hall, Glenda Gilmore, and other scholars of the "long civil rights movement." These historians have moved the focus of civil rights scholarship away from the King-centered narrative that we have become accustomed to. In general, I think that's the right move, but there are some who see problems with this new approach. Certainly there are some generational dynamics at work here, as well as some tension between those who were active in the movement and those who are students of it. But, the "long civil rights movement" has injected renewed vigor, vision, and nuance into the study of the fight for racial equality in the United States. That's important. So is Luker's post. It represents the type of debate we historians should be having about the grand narrative of civil rights and so many other topics in American history.