Summary Of At The Dark End Of The Street

If you asked multiple people what they thought of history and history books they might say, It’s boring…those books are filled with bias opinions. Well Danielle L. McGuire’s book, At the Dark End of the Street, is defiantly not boring. Reading this book helps me better understand the role African American women had, and how it was so important. This is a book mentions not only the struggles African Americans had during the civil rights movement, but the struggles women faced specifically. You always hear about the super famous men who started and influenced the movement, but what about the women. Without some of the women, and their stories, we see throughout the book we would really have no clue as to how hard these women worked. We couldn’t …show more content…
He includes history of both her mother and father and how they got here as well. When going through Rosa’s history readers find out she was a member of the NAACP. Back in that time frame of the civil rights movement women really didn’t know their place, so to become a member of such a prominent groups of people was a big deal. McGuire also tells us a story about Recy Taylor, and her being gang raped by white men. Now back in this time that was nothing new or out of the ordinary (which is sad). Rosa parks heard about Taylor’s story and, “eleven years later a group of homegrown leaders would take history in their hands and become heralded as the Montgomery Improvement Association, eventually vaulting its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” (6) Not saying that rape is a good thing, but if this incident wouldn’t have happened to Mrs. Taylor then we see no progress in trying to get her justice. I think them making MLK president was great choice for publicity, but not for the message they needed to send out. If Rosa had become president of the organization, it would have sent the message of African American women not taking any more crap from anyone, and exposing people for who they really are. In the end the group was made for all African Americans to get justice and be heard within the civil rights …show more content…
McGuire tells a heart breaking story of a group of students on their way back from a conference. They stop at a diner and are arrested for trying to eat at the diner. Once in custody they are beaten and raped in front of everyone several times. After the group was let out, “she told her story on national television at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 and continued to tell her story until the day she died” (195). She referring to Fannie Lou Hamer, and her story of how she was brutally beat and raped. After sharing her story other women began to share theirs. Jeanne Nobles was also a victim of police brutality in jail and said, “I can think of no greater indignity than rape…or sexual exposure…or unsanitary conditions” (198). As more stories got told more media attention came to the subject. This is probably my favorite story out of the entire book because of how brave these women were. Even though something tragic happened to them, they told their truths of what was really happening to women of color in jail. For that, laws were changed and women of color now have a foundation to build upon for