A more beautiful and terrible history : the uses and misuses of civil rights history / Jeanne Theoharis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the political uses and misuses of civil rights history and memorialization in the present -- The long movement outside the south: fighting for school desegregation in the "liberal" north -- Revisiting the uprisings of the 1960s and the history of injustice and struggle that preceded them -- Beyond the redneck: polite racism and "the white moderate" -- The media was often an obstacle to the struggle for racial justice -- Beyond a bus seat: the movement pressed for desegregation, criminal justice, economic justice, and global justice -- The great man theory of history part I: where are the young people? -- The great man view of history part II: where are the women? -- Extremists, troublemakers and national security threats: the public demonization of rebels, the toll it took, and government repression of the movement -- Learning to play on locked pianos: the movement was persevering, organized, disruptive, and often disparaged, and other lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott -- Afterword: a history for a better world.