A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History

Theoharis explains that by the year 2000, “the civil rights movement had come to embody American grit, courage, and resolve” (ix), most often represented by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. American commentators have routinely delivered neatly packaged and sanitized narratives of the movement that celebrate American democracy and these central figures who envisioned and worked for a more equal society. The many invocations of Dr. King, the memorials, and the narratives, however, misrepresent the movement. King and Parks among others, for example, were thoroughly demonized by white Americans and were far more radical than they have since been given credit for. Popular perceptions of the struggle for civil rights shifted from fear and backlash to “a powerful tale of courageous Americans defeating a long-ago evil” (x).

Theoharis explains that this process of history revision has presented systemic racism as something both outdated and limited to the individual level. Additionally, it helps Americans sidestep ongoing racism and inequality, instead embracing a false but flattering narrative of America as a land of total equality. Despite the many challenges to the status quo that continue into the 21st century, many Americans—particularly white influential ones—uphold the myth of full American freedom; this myth silences Black suffering (xii).