In Menand’s overview of the classical phase of the civil-rights movement, he mentions the documentary “Eyes on the Prize,” calling the series a “terrific resource for those sights and sounds, as well as for its interviews with participants.” In the first video, Martin Luther King, Jr., is interviewed shortly after his home in Montgomery was bombed, in late January, 1956, when the bus boycott was still in its early days. He is asked if he is scared. There is a pause before he answers, surprisingly, “No.” I have always considered this moment pivotal: King appears to be accepting the lot that circumstance and history have cast upon him. Menand reminds us that there were many heroes of the movement, but that King remains the chief spokesperson for those times.
Margaret Earley Whitt
Professor Emerita of English, University of Denver