In the preface of March to a Promised land, former UPI reporter Al Kuettner tells readers about a high school student who heard him speak of the Civil Rights movement. A We have it in history books, the student said, A but I still don't understand it; please tell me the story of what happened.  

Then Kuettner says—to that student, and to all of us—shall we start from the beginning? Chapter 1. 1954 B Supreme Court Bans Segregated Schools. Turning pages, we begin a guided journey through sixteen suspense-filled and emotion-packed years that ended up stirring our perceptions of humanity, of law, and of our world.

Al Kuettner, born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1913, was well placed to view this story. Always a meticulous reporter, he traveled thousands of miles, talked with participants individually and in groups, observed and digested. He put into words for people around the world the growing pains of a country coming to terms with A all men are created equal.

At times the book reads like high-drama fiction. There's enough suspense, fear, and action to fill several mystery thrillers. There's plenty of love, selfless giving, and tears. But this is history, and the story is told with order and crystal clarity. If we remember those days—as this reviewer does—we soon realize we can trust the narrator. If we feel emotion, it comes rolling out from our close-up view of events.

For example, from Kuettner's account of voter registration in Selma, Alabama:

Voter registration books were only open two days a month, and no more than thirty blacks were allowed to register in a day. The...test for blacks contained four questions on government, four on the Constitution, and a section that required recall of portions of the Constitution. With more than one hundred variations of the test, it was virtually impossible to study for the exam. Whites were passed routinely after only a few elementary questions.

 

From Kuettner's account of the funeral of Medgar Evers:  (Evers was assassinated in 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi during a voter registration drive. Kuettner was dictating his story from a phone behind scenes in the church.)
        

I felt almost detached from the charged atmosphere of the setting. As the long funeral service...drew to a close, the chorus stood for a hymn, filling the auditorium with the strains of...We Shall Overcome. When the final verse began, the chorus was joined by twelve golden trumpets. It was too much; my dictation faltered, and I wept into the phone.

Kuettner spent one-on-one time with hundreds of individuals while doing research for his reports to UPI, including segregationist white officials, Presidents, black leaders like Martin Luther King and Roy Wilkins, and many everyday citizens, black and white, sitting on porches or standing in streets. He was literally inside the story, smelling tear gas, even dodging attack dogs, fire hoses, and gunfire. In this book he brings it all before our minds and hearts.

If history is truth-telling about what people think, feel, and do during a certain period of time, then this is the strongest kind of history—a book for the ages.

Many reviewers have written about many books: It should be required reading for everyone.

Yes. For the good of us all, it most certainly should.

 

Review by Radine Trees Nehring