at the dangerous edge of social justice: race, violence and death in America - Hardcover

by Thomas Fensch (Author)

at the dangerous edge of social justice is a book of profiles on courage on facing prejudice in America. Chapters include: Emmett Till, killed at 14 in 1955; Medgar Evers, killed at 37 in 1963; Malcolm X, killed at 39 in 1965; Martin Luther King, Jr., killed at 39, in 1968, James Byrd Jr. killed at 49 in 1998, Trayvon Martin, killed at 17 in 2012. Other chapters include: John Howard Griffin, who died his skin black and wrote the classic "Black Like Me"; Grace Halsell, who died her skin black and wrote "Soul Sister"; civil rights icons Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks, Rodney King and others. Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech," an Epilogue shows dramatically how far America is from being a fully post-racist society: blacks are still twice as likely as whites to live in poverty; twice as likely to be unemployed as whites; the net worth of white families is 22 times greater than black families -- and on and on -- This is a sad, tragic -- and powerful -- book.