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New Prize for These Eyes

The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
In this highly anticipated follow-up to Eyes on the Prize, bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement.
More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama's presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement—a second civil rights movement—began to erupt.

In New Prize for These Eyes, award-winning author Juan Williams shines a light on this historic, new movement. Who are its heroes? Where is it headed? What fires, furies, and frustrations distinguish it from its predecessor?

In the 20th century, Black activists and their white allies called for equal rights and an end to segregation. They appealed to the Declaration of Independence's defiant assertion that "all men are created equal." They prioritized legal battles in the courtroom and legislative victories in Congress. Today's movement is dealing with new realities. Demographic changes have placed progressive whites in a new role among the largest, youngest population of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in the nation's history. The new generation is social media savvy, and they have an agenda fueled by discontent with systemic racism and the persistent scourge of police brutality. Today's activists are making history in a new economic and cultural landscape, and they are using a new set of tools and strategies to do so.

Williams brilliantly traces the arc of this new civil rights era, from Obama to Charlottesville to January 6th and a Confederate flag in the Capitol. An essential read for activists, historians, and anyone passionate about America's future, New Prize for These Eyes is more than a recounting of history. It is a forward-looking call to action, urging Americans to get in touch with the progress made and hurdles yet to be overcome.
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    • Booklist

      November 1, 2024
      Fox News political analyst Williams (We the People, 2016) follows up his 1987 history of the Civil Rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, with this account of the civil rights activists of the twenty-first century. Beginning with Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 DNC, this book traces the backlash to Obama's presidency and the rise of left-wing efforts from the Black Lives Matter movement to large-scale voter registration initiatives in swing states. Suspicious of top-down leadership, and adept at using social media to communicate their messages, the members of this "second civil rights movement" aim to advance racial justice in every sphere of American life. While generally evenhanded, Williams places great importance on activism taking place at the national level, an emphasis that often overlooks the deeply local, community-driven initiatives common among the younger generation of organizers. Despite this pitfall, New Prize for These Eyes ably explores the ongoing fight for racial justice over the course of the last two decades. If journalism may be considered the first draft of history, this book is a worthy second draft.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      January 15, 2025
      Following in the footsteps of civil rights heroes. Years before he became best known as a Fox News political analyst, Williams wrote his first book, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, a companion to the acclaimed documentary series that aired on PBS in 1987. Williams has followed that work with an examination of what he calls America's Second Civil Rights Movement. "They cannot fairly be compared," he rightfully observes of the two distinct struggles for equal rights. "This Second Civil Rights Movement had to deal with persistent, deep-seated cultural issues that the First Movement had left unresolved, and in some cases, new issues that arose in the backlash to its legislative and political victories." Not surprisingly, Williams centers much of the book on Barack Obama, who has credited the Civil Rights Movement for making possible his own rise to power. Williams explores the hope, backlash, and disappointment that Obama's presidency elicited, addressing police violence against Black Americans, demographic shifts, academic and economic progress and regression, and the Trump and Biden presidencies. "There is no real argument about the fact that a large percentage of Black and brown people continue to struggle to survive in twenty-first-century America," he writes. "But whites in Trump's Republican Party shun the history of America's racial oppression as well as stories of racial inequality today. Instead, they express fear of the government discriminating against white people." The case of Black Lives Matter is especially telling, Williams writes, noting how the movement went from "instant online sensation" to "high visibility scapegoat for the Republicans." Generations after the Civil Rights Movement, it is clear that activists have much work ahead of them: They must still keep their eyes on the prize. An important appraisal of the present-day struggle for civil rights.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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