In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma

Civil Rights and Struggle

By: Bernard LaFayette Jr., Kathryn Lee Johnson

Narrated by: Andrew L. Barnes

Bernard LaFayette, Jr., was a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the national coordinator of the Poor People's Campaign. At the young age of 22, he assumed the directorship of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in Selma - a city that had previously been removed from the organization's list due to the dangers of operating there.

In this electrifying memoir, written with Kathryn Lee Johnson, LaFayette shares the inspiring story of his years in Selma.

LaFayette was one of the primary organizers of the 1965 Selma voting rights movement and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, and he relates his experiences of these historic initiatives in close detail. Today, as the constitutionality of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act is still questioned, citizens, students, and scholars alike will want to look to this audiobook as a guide. Important, compelling, and powerful, In Peace and Freedom presents a necessary perspective on the civil rights movement in the 1960s from one of its greatest leaders.

The book is published by the University Press of Kentucky. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2013 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A powerful history of struggle, commitment, and hope." (from the foreword by John Robert Lewis, representative, United States House of Representatives)

"You must read this book and he must write the next one soon." (Andrew Young, US ambassador to the United Nations, 1977-1979)

"LaFayette's book should be required reading for anyone who takes the right to vote for granted." (The Southeastern Librarian)

Good history we should all know

Amazing to have first-hand knowledge of this history written down. These stories of fighting for civil rights in the 1960's are hard to read but important for all to know. The treatment of blacks in the south even during my lifetime is infuriating, but the stories of the brave men and women who stood firm and fought for their rights is inspiring.

Bernard LaFayette was a civil rights activist who led the charge of getting African Americans registered to vote in Selma in the 1960's. He was an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so they often ended up a the same strategic places and events. The march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 was one such event. LaFayette purported non-violence even in the face of danger and foul treatment.

Narrator has a great voice for this project.