"A story of courage. . . .
At the Dark End of the Street is an important step to finally facing the terrible legacies of race and gender in this country." --
The Washington Post "McGuire goes far beyond other historians in exploring the origins of the civil rights movement.... A powerful book that should alter forever how the civil rights movement is viewed." --
Grand Rapids Press "A vital retelling.... Full of lively ... storytelling, and buttressed by excellent research, Danielle McGuire's provocative narrative forces readers to rethink what they know about that pivotal movement in U. S. history: its time frame, its actors, its legacy." --
Ms. "One of those rare studies that makes a well-known story seem startlingly new. Anyone who thinks he knows the history of the modern civil rights movement needs to read this terrifying, illuminating book." --Kevin Boyle, author of
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age, winner of the National Book Award.
"Valuable for reminding us of Parks's radicalism. She was not a frail old lady who wouldn't get up from her bus seat 'because she was tired and her feet ached.' . . . A welcome corrective." --
The Independent Weekly (Raleigh, NC) "Groundbreaking. . . . Inspiring." --
Elle "People can learn about a new side of Rosa Parks. They can also discover other previously unknown female freedom fighters." --
Time "This gripping story changes the history books, giving us a revised Rosa Parks and a new civil rights story. You can't write a general U.S. history without altering crucial sentences because of McGuire's work. Masterfully narrated,
At the Dark End of the Street presents a deep civil rights movement with women at the center, a narrative as poignant, painful and complicated as our own lives." --Timothy B. Tyson, author of
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story "McGuire restores to memory the courageous black women who dared seek legal remedy, when black women and their families faced particular hazards for doing so. McGuire brings the reader through a dark time via a painful but somehow gratifying passage in this compelling, carefully documented work." --
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Just when we thought there couldn't possibly be anything left to uncover about the civil rights movement, Danielle McGuire finds a new facet of that endlessly prismatic struggle at the core of our national identity." --Diane McWhorter, author of
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution "Eye-opening." --
Sacramento Book Review "Following the lead of pioneers like Darlene Clark Hine, Danielle McGuire details the all too ignored tactic of rape of black women in the everyday practice of southern white supremacy. Just as important, she plots resistance against this outrage as an integral facet of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This book is as essential as its history is infuriating." --Nell Irvin Painter, author of
The History of White People