Light Freedom. Review Book Review Answer Question

¶ … light freedom. Review book review answer question 1) How book cover period written . 2) Did book

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I've Got the Light of Freedom details the struggle of the Civil Rights movement, predominantly as it took place within the Southern region of the United States. Essentially, it provides a case study for this epoch in American history that was centered around the mid-20th Century and is largely responsible for a number of civil rights that African-Americans were able to earn through hard work, dedication, jail time, punishment, and the loss of several lives. Charles M. Payne, who authored the work, provides an analytical glimpse of a number of factors regarding this struggle that deconstructs this time period through several different lenses, and notes the involvement of women, the effects on the community, as well as the political ramifications of those involved in this movement. The author is able to provide a copiously wide amount of details of the daily activity that took place for gains to achieved in the realm of civil rights.

However, it is noteworthy to mention that Payne's examination of this time period is predominantly focused on the civil rights movement from a local, grassroots perspective. Granted, he chronicles many of the tribulations and organizational processes that were instrumental to the effecs that such noteworthy groups as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom movement were able to produce. But he does so largely by writing about the individuals, and their families, who played large roles in the success as well as the struggles of each of these groups.

Consequently, there are both advantages and disadvantages to the author choosing to detail the civil rights involvement of such groups from a local perspective that is centered around the grassroots approach that the movement largely began as. One of the positive aspects about this approach is the lack of literature on this subject from this perspective, since traditionally, most of the historical accountings of the Civil Rights movement tend to focus on it from a widespread, national angle that largely overlooks the series of individual efforts responsible for landing this cause on the national stage. Payne is able to provide a great deal of information that is not easily found outside of I've Got the Light of Freedom, simply by giving the bulk of his attention to the local efforts of those who are so easily overlooked.

Doing so, for example, allows him to shed a great deal of insight into the dynamics of male female involvement within the civil rights campaign. The bulk of the manuscript is concerned with the internal processes that affected this campaign, and mostly ignores the external pressure and forces that may have influenced it. As such, the author is able to focus on the leadership roles that women played in local communities from a perspective that was more social rather than political in its focus. A particularly significant point that the author makes is that while most female leaders were attempting to increase education at a neighborhood level, their male counterparts, for the most part, were more concerned with larger, symbolic gestures that would eventually gain the movement its nationwide prominence. The focus eventually left the attempts to foster a sense of community within the African-American community, and eventually centered upon judicial and political objectives -- which is quite interesting in light of the state of the African-American community today.

Therefore, to the degree that the author is able to provide such valuable, little known information about the internal nuances of the Civil Rights campaign, I've Got The Light of Freedom covers the civil rights epoch astutely well. Yet when one considers the definite dearth of attention that the author gives to the movement at a national level (perhaps because he is assuming that the reader has already learned about that aspect or can find such information elsewhere) one may wish that the author had given a more balanced point-of-view of the movement, that ideally could have encompassed more of the nationwide manifestations of it. There is no denying that this manuscript will hold the attention of readers, particularly for those who are reading it form more than simple academic reasons. The author explains a number of tactics and strategies that were instrumental for organizing efforts at social and political reform, and that may still be employed (with varying degrees of success, more than likely) to this day. To that end I've Got the Light of Freedom should certainly be read by others, particularly those who have a vested interest in learning about ways and methods to organize and actuate masses of people.