Here is the official press release, adjusted by me for a Black press audience. We were on “The Michael Eric Dyson Show” today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLACK PRESS VETERANS WRITE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY

Foreword written by Civil Rights Movement legend Congressman John Lewis

The 2008 election of Barack Obama to the presidency marked a watershed moment in American history. Given our country’s eventful—and at times, quite ugly—past, there were some who heralded the moment as America turning a corner on race relations, as though a single election signaled the end to injustices dividing our people and fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.

In fact, if anything, the ascension of President Obama as this country’s leader threw into heightened relief the deep racial divisions remaining.

This is revealed in “Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today,” a sweeping new history published by Publications International, Inc. and written by veteran Black press journalist Herb Boyd. The award-winning Black press veteran found that old animosities were given cover as detractors cried “Socialist!” and worse at the new president, while the opposition party took obstructionist positions to unheard of heights, openly cheering for the failure of this administration.

“Civil Rights: Yesterday & Today”—written with assistance from Black press historian and former nationally syndicated Black press columnist Todd Steven Burroughs—takes a clear-eyed look at America’s distant past and finds its echoes reverberating to the present day.

“So often with books about the Civil Rights Movement, you get so little about what happened before and after. So ‘Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today’ is an attempt to tie it all together,” said Boyd, author of more than 20 books. Boyd recently assisted acclaimed documentary filmmaker Keith Beauchamp with his Investigation Discovery cable television series on Civil Rights Movement-era cold cases, “The Injustice Files.”

“Civil Rights: Yesterday & Today” carries a Foreword from U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an eyewitness and participant in some of the darkest days of the Movement. As one who marched alongside Dr. King, he knows well of what he speaks when he says, “…the final frontier is in the hearts and minds of humankind.”

Presented with hundreds of startling, eye-catching images, coupled with thoughtful, reader-friendly prose, “Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today” offers the case that, while the police dogs and fire hoses may be gone, racial injustice is still alive and well in the land of the free.

Consider this:

* There are more African-American citizens held in U.S. correctional control today than there were enslaved in the 1850s.

* Even today, the average white household is approximately eight times wealthier than the typical black household.

* The Black unemployment rate jumped from 8 to 16 percent during the recession while the white rate went from only 4 to 8 percent.

These startling statistics and more illustrate the case to be made that the struggle for civil rights is not yet over. Conversely, there is cause for hope. Today, African-Americans make up the highest number of entrepreneurs in this country. “Cold case” high profile crimes against Blacks, such as the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, have been successfully re-opened in recent years, with convictions won. And the rate of African-Americans obtaining college diplomas has steadily increased since the 1950s (though still remaining below that of whites).

So while we’ve come a long way as a nation, said Boyd, what’s happened in the last few years represents a good start, not a solution.

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These books can be bought in any quantity and are priced accordingly. For a quote or to place an order, contact the following:

For bulk orders:                                          For small quantities:

Abby Rubenstein                                            Vanessa Hudson

847-329-5726                                                  877-528-1444 x 3752

arubenstein@pubint.com Vanessa.hudson@perseusbooks.com