Summary Of At The Dark End Of The Street

Throughout the history of civil rights activism, African-American leaders brought light to the injustices that the people of color faced in their everyday lives. However, many Americans neglect to understand that several of these societal heroes were women. Danielle McGuire’s At the Dark end of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance – A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, McGuire highlights the black, female political revolutionaries present in the United States in the 1900s. Among these activists are Recy Taylor, a young woman whose horrific story sheds light on a dark past. Another is Claudette Colvin, who stood up to racial injustice by sitting down in her rightful seat. And finally,

Parks was indeed an instrumental piece in resolving the civil rights inequality in her time. Although other cases of black women refusing to move from their rightful seats on a public bus had happened, none had involved a more perfect convict than this. Because Parks had an unblemished record, was known for consisting of the best behavior and manners, was respectable, kind, intelligent and, above all, blameless, there was nothing anyone could have accused her of to weaken her argument. In At the Dark end of the Street, McGuire quotes NAACP President E. D. Nixon who said, “she could ‘stand on her feet, she was honest, she was clean, she had integrity. The press couldn’t go out and dig up something she did last year, or last month, or five years ago. They couldn’t hang [anything] like that on Rosa Parks’” (166). Rosa Parks was made famous by this act of bravery and this would lead the civil rights movement further than it had ever been before. This courageous stand would lead to the Montgomery bus boycott, which would cripple the transportation system while teaching it a powerful lesson: the world cannot run correctly without the participation and, most importantly, the equal inclusion of the African-American people of America. Furthermore, Parks did more than just defy public opinion and discrimination, she actively fought against it. In 1943 Parks joined the NAACP as an investigator into

In the unjust exploitation of Recy Taylor, the civil rights movement was pushed forward giving the NAACP the power it so desperately needed. Claudette Colvin, a highschool teenager put into perspective the evils of the corrupt and untrustworthy system of discrimination in the United States. And finally, Rosa Parks. Possibly the most important piece of the injustice puzzle, Rosa Parks actively fought against every heinous act of inequality while also supporting the rightful, honest black people of America. Without these three figures of justice in the United States it is very possible that segregation could still exist. These women fought for a black woman’s right to dignity and sovereignty over her own body, and they brought justice where justice was due, whether they knew it or