Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America by Peniel E. Joseph

Description

With the rallying cry of “Black Power!” in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King’s pacifism and, building on Malcolm X’s legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality.

Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, Peniel E. Joseph vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined Black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations.

In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration.

Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour traces the history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality.

About the Author

Dr. Peniel E. Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and professor of history and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author and editor of six books on African American history, including the award winning Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative HIstory of Black Power in America and Stokely: A Life.

Professor Joseph is a frequent national commentator on issues of race, civil rights, and democracy and a contributing opinion writer for CNN.com whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR, CNN, MSNC, PBS NewsHour, and C-SPAN.

Professor Joseph is the proud son of Haitian immigrants who came to the United States during the Civil Rights Era’s heroic period. Born and raised in New York City he stood on his first picket lines in elementary school and learned about Black history and social justice activism at the feet of his mother, a hospital worker, trade unionist, writer, feminist, and human rights activist.