Primary sources have become an essential component in the teaching of history to undergraduates. They engage students in the process of historical interpretation and analysis and help them understand that facts do not speak for themselves. Rather, students see how historians construct narratives that recreate the past. Most students assume that the pursuit of knowledge is a solitary endeavor; yet historians constantly interact with their peers, building upon previous research and arguing among themselves over the interpretation of sources and their larger meaning. The documentary readers in this series highlight the value of this collaborative creative process and encourage students to participate in it.

Each book in the series introduces students in American history courses to two important dimensions of historical analysis. They enable students to engage actively in historical interpretation, and they further students’ understanding of the interplay among social, cultural, economic, and political forces in historical developments. In pursuit of these goals, the sources in each text embrace a broad range, including such items as illustrations of material artifacts, letters and diaries, sermons, maps, photographs, song lyrics, selections from fiction and memoirs, legal statutes, court decisions, presidential orders, speeches, and political cartoons.

Each volume in the series is edited by a specialist in the field who is concerned with undergraduate teaching. The goal is not to offer a comprehensive selection of material but to provide items that reflect major themes and debates; that illustrate significant social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of an era or subject; and that inform, intrigue and inspire undergraduate students. The editor of each volume has written an introduction that discusses the central questions that have occupied historians in this field and the ways historians have used primary sources to answer them. In addition, each introductory essay contains an explanation of the kinds of materials available to investigate a particular subject, the methods by which scholars analyze them, and the considerations that go into interpreting them. Each source selection is introduced by a short head note that gives students the necessary information and a context for understanding the document. Also, each section of the volume includes questions to guide student reading and stimulate classroom discussion.

John A. Kirk’s The Civil Rights Movement: A Documentary Reader offers an interactive synthesis of the most important social and political movement of the twentieth century. Within the framework of a “long civil rights movement” he concentrates on the two most pivotal decades – the 1950s and 1960s – that distinguish the modern civil rights movement from its predecessors. Rather than a “long” approach, he embraces a “wide” view of the civil rights movement. Alongside the “top‐down” narrative focusing on Dr. Martin Luther King and national leaders, which only tells part of the story, Kirk examines the black freedom rights struggle from the wider, “bottom‐up” frame of reference of local movement participants.

Balancing multiple perspectives, this wide‐ranging primary‐source reader includes presidential executive orders and speeches; federal, district and local court decisions; congressional legislation; government commission reports; campaign materials and party platforms; newspaper and magazine editorials, articles and reports; and books, memoirs, essays, and pamphlets. Illuminating “bottom‐up” perceptions of marginalized people, Kirk provides a rich array of oral histories and interviews; songs and music; sermons and speeches; field reports of grassroots organizers; and visual sources such as movement photographs.

The challenge of compiling, editing and writing about the primary sources in this book has provided me with yet another new way of thinking about and approaching the study of the civil rights movement. I am grateful to series editors Nancy Hewitt and Steven Lawson for inviting me to contribute this volume, and for their always gentle and instructive comments, guidance, and wisdom. Given that Steven Lawson is one of the leading scholars in civil rights studies, his expertise has been a particularly welcome benefit, and it has kept me even more attentive to the subject matter.

I thank Peter Coveney at Wiley for signing up this project, even though it has outlasted his retirement from the publisher by several years. A number of people at the press have had a hand in seeing the project through from the beginning to the end, and I am thankful for the professionalism and patience of acquisitions editor Jennifer Manias, editorial assistant Elizabeth Saucier, and project editors Denisha Sahadevan, Janani Govindankutty, and Niranjana Vallavan. The anonymous reviewers’ reports on the proposal and draft manuscript were extremely useful in determining the scope and content of the book, and in pointing toward primary sources that may otherwise have escaped my attention. Of course, I take full responsibility for the final material and commentaries in the book that were ultimately shaped by my editorial choices and decisions.

The book was written and compiled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I appreciate the university supporting my research leave that allowed the project to achieve its final completion. Part of the time spent working on the book overlapped with my five years as chair of the History Department. Most of it was concurrent with the past three years serving as director of the university’s Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity. UA Little Rock Chancellor Joel E. Anderson’s interest in issues of race and ethnicity, and his recognition of their crucial role in shaping the city and state, played a significant part in my recruitment to the university. Now that he is Chancellor Emeritus, I am delighted to serve as director of the Institute that is his legacy project. The role has provided me with welcome opportunities for engagement and insight beyond traditional scholarship and classroom teaching. I thank the Institute’s long‐serving program coordinator Tamisha Cheatham for her support, and particularly for sustaining the Institute while I was away on research leave. Two graduate assistants, Sarah Riva and Paola Cavallari, helped tremendously in tracking down the copyright holders of the primary sources.

Completing a book always makes one reflect on one’s formative influences. Professionally, mentorship from some of the very best in the field of civil rights studies, including Richard King, Tony Badger, Adam Fairclough, and Brian Ward, has been invaluable. Personally, my mother and father, Anne and William; my brother and his wife, Alan and Louise; and my niece and nephew, Annabelle and Marcus, form the core of my family back in England. My wife Charlene and her extended family, and my daughter Sadie, form my expatriate family in the United States.

This book is dedicated to my family, with thanks and love.