(1984) - The Demand for Reform, 1954 - 1960 - Manning Marable
In this book Race, Reform, and Rebellion, the third chapter, The Demand for Reform, 1954-1960, Manning highlights the large disparities present amongst white and Black Americans, particularly with regard to Jim Crow laws. Segregated schools were slowly being challenged and people who were upholding Jim Crow's laws were being upended in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Many leading civil activists were present during this time period, such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., E.D. Nixon, Ralph Abernathy, and Bayard Rustin. But there was still racist terror occurring amidst all the activism, with many people reinforcing Jim Crow laws and politicians disengaging from movements which supported the freedom of Black Americans.
Almost every black person resisted segregation, because it was imposed upon him/her by a powerful white capitalist order. Beyond that, the black consensus for building alternative institutions which addressed the critical needs of black workers and the poor fell apart.