Living Legacies ─ Literary Responses to the Civil Rights Movement

On Memorial Day 2016, the History Channel aired the first episode of Roots: The Saga of an American Family. In an interview for National Public Radio, co-executive producer Lavar Burton addressed the question of why, after the enormously successful 1977 TV mini-series based on Alex Haley’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Americans needed another version of the same story. After pointing out that half of the Americans alive today were not alive in 1977, Burton made the following argument: because misperceptions persist—about slavery and about black people—we must continue to find ways to spark meaningful conversations about race. Burton’s final word underscored the role of storytelling in helping American citizens to understand slavery as both a shared and a living legacy: "If you are alive and participating in this democracy, then Roots is your story."

The same could be said about the civil rights movement.

Living Legacies: Literary Responses to the Civil Right Movement invites teachers and students to learn about the civil rights movement—their (his)story—through selected works of literature.

With essays on anthologies of women’s autobiographical writing, children’s literature, a comic book, nonfiction essays and speeches, poetry, novels by a major and a minor writer, drama, photographs, and film, Living Legacies demonstrates how literature can be used to empower readers to be participants in a democracy not fully realized.

Laura Dubek is a Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University.