As the author of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks and A More Beautiful and Terrible History and more, Theoharis is a leading historian of the civil rights movement whose work has reshaped how we understand Black freedom struggles, state repression, and the politics of historical memory. The easy tale we often tell on King Day and in textbooks is that Dr. King and courageous southerners built this movement and, with the help of northern liberals and journalists, ultimately succeeded in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In King of the North, you challenge the common myth that segregation was only a southern problem, asking, “What if the 1964 Civil Rights Act had actually been enforced against northern school districts?” You show how King’s activism in Chicago and other northern cities — especially around school and housing segregation — was met with fierce resistance and often dismissed or downplayed by the media.
Author: Jesse Hagopian
Published at: 2026-01-17 19:44:18
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