Black Power and the American Myth

50th Anniversary Edition

By: C.T. Vivian

Narrated by: Matthew J. Harris

In 1970, C. T. Vivian, a close colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a member of his executive staff, sat down to take stock of the civil rights movement and the progress it had made. His assessment was that it failed, and that the blame lay in the existence of myths about America.

As prophetic today as it was fifty years ago, Vivian's voice rings out as a critique and a call to action for a society in deep need of justice and peace.

The civil rights struggle that began when Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, decided to sit in the front of a bus has deeply altered American society and the American conscience. Yet from several perspectives, that movement has resulted in failure. The Black struggle for independence is more of an uphill climb than ever. Why? C. T. Vivian asserts that the civil rights movement failed because it was built on certain myths about America:

• The myth that Americans will do what is right as soon as they know what is right.
• The myth that legislation leads to justice.
• The myth that America is an open society where any minority group can advance.
• The myth that an ethic of love forms the core of the American conscience.

©1970, 2020 Fortress Press (P)2022 Tantor

Outstanding!

Oh how some things have changed so little. It reads like a contemporary report on our present condition in America & abroad. As the world contemplates who’s human & what constitutes genocide. Mr. C.T Vivian was always a hero of mine. One of the most courageous men of the movement. This is a book that I’ll come back to, over and over again.

Oppression is Played Out

I understand how the system undermines the advancement of Melanated People but is so Narcissistic when it comes to the rights and freedoms of those who helped build this country.