Waking from the Dream: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abstract

An exploration of civil rights activism in the quarter century following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Waking from the Dream challenges the notion that the black freedom struggle became “stagnant” or “directionless” in these years (p. xii). David L. Chappell argues that the period was “full of ferment and vital experimentation in civil rights” and resulted in several substantive yet underappreciated victories (ibid.). There was no landmark legislation on par with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but such breakthroughs are the historical exception. Although it lacked a heroic narrative, the story of civil rights in the late twentieth century was one of determined perseverance that sustained the struggle to which King dedicated his life. The book opens with a chapter detailing the passage of the Fair Housing Act (1968). Chappell posits that piece of legislation as the final triumph of the 1960s but notes that its exclusions and lack of enforcement provisions made it a harbinger of the more difficult and ambiguous struggles that lay ahead. Two additional chapters also explore legislative achievements. One chronicles the effort to pass the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act in 1978, and the other examines the establishment of an annual holiday honoring King in 1983. Chappell emphasizes the difficult compromises necessary to ensure the bills’ passage and that limited their impact. Based on those experiences, he argues that African Americans had learned by the 1980s that they would find greater success when they set their sights slightly lower than they had in the 1960s. This strategic realism resulted in a series of victories, including the strengthening of the Fair Housing Act, sanctions against South Africa in 1986, and the Civil Rights Restoration Act (1988).