Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

I purchased this book for my history college course assignment. I very much was impressed with the level of content detail in this publication. I would definitely reccomend to anyone wanting to know more about the beginnings of segregation in America during and post civil war era. It is so written that you feel like you are hearing the words spoken or in the cars or cities with the subjects in the book as the story goes on. Very personal accounts and words bring the history to life. I hope this author writes more, as a history nerd this made me appreciative of the scholar level input that made the assignment I did all the more easy because of it's quality.

Excellent --so many important stories in here that needed telling. We should always be skeptical of the notion that dissent ever really dies, I suspect, but Kelley certainly proves that it not only did not die in that era, but also that it wasn't underground. It was public, determined, and - amazing. I think what the book also contributes - and I think these two things are so important - is, first, the outrage and the frustration people felt over having to fight the same battle again and again and again, and second, the impossible positions a tidal wave of white supremacy in the form of segregation placed people in, demanding a basic right on the grounds of justice on the one hand and simultaneously thinking one could prove to whites that one was not a danger by trying to police behavior, clothing, cleanliness of others in the same situation. The title of the final chapter really captures it.

A very thoughtful, compelling, entertaining, enlightening and enjoyable read. Puts a whole new perspective on the so-called "age of accommodation." To find that many events in Professor Kelley's book clarify the findings in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and to find out that the very laws Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the Montgomery Improvement Association were arrested under go back to the early 19th century from laws enacted to prevent blacks from lawfully protesting Jim Crow segregation treatment in trains and streetcars was a stunner. Truly a must read for the talented tenth, and others as well.

Professor Blair Kelley is a force to be reckoned with. She has a great understanding of history and she seeks to share it. She is not stuffy; these are stories about people's lives and they are very relevant to understanding how we arrived at our present reality. The book can be read for both pleasure and scholarship and I recommend it to anyone. A must read!

I'm torn between being inspired and depressed. Why does progress have to be so hard? Why does it take so long? Why is cultural backlash often stronger - why does it often last longer - than initial success?Primer for grown-ups who actually want to achieve something. Get ready. Steel yourself. Maybe this is how it will go. And even if you don't succeed, perhaps you can comfort yourself with the idea you created the model for a Martin Luther King Jr. to follow in the future.

Very good book.