Parting the Waters

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Parting the Waters (Magill Book Reviews)

What distinguishes PARTING OF THE WATERS from other accounts of the Civil Rights era is the sense of immediacy--the feeling of being there--that Branch achieves by combining his formidable research skills with his considerable abilities as a storyteller. The book begins with the tale of how Martin Luther King, Jr.’s parents met and married, and how John D. Rockefeller, a Baptist convert, built New York City’s Riverside Church, in which King, Jr. would deliver some of his most stirring sermons. Against such historical background, Branch introduces the reader to King himself, to President John F. Kennedy, to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, and to others, including government agents and movie stars. These luminaries speak for themselves, but Branch puts their views into a perspective that allows the reader to see the relationship of actions to reactions as they occurred, as well as to judge events from the vantage point of time.

Branch also acquaints the reader with the black leaders who came to anchor the civil rights movement, men such as Andrew Young, Robert Moses, John Lewis, and Bayard Rustin; their story will be continued in Branch’s second volume. PARTING THE WATERS is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how and why the civil rights movement began.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. LXXXV, November 15, 1988, p. 534.

Kirkus Reviews. LVI, October 15, 1988, p. 1499.

Los Angeles Daily Journal. November 23, 1988, p. 7.

The New Leader. LXXI, December 26, 1988, p. 7.

The New York Review of Books. XXXV, November 10, 1988, p. 10.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIII, November 27, 1988, p. 1.

Newsweek. CXII, November 28, 1988, p. 84.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIV, November 4, 1988, p. 65.

Time. CXXXII, November 28, 1988, p. 95.

The Washington Post Book World. XVIII, November 20, 1988, p. 1.