Summary Of Parting The Waters

In 1988 Taylor Branch produced a mammoth first volume of a trilogy on the American Civil Rights Movement. Branch hoped to capture the essence of the movement through who he believed to be the epitome of the movement itself—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch’s stated purpose in writing Parting the Waters is quite clear. He says on page xii “My purpose is to write a history of the civil rights movement out of the conviction from which it was made, namely that truth requires a maximum effort to see through the eyes of strangers, foreigners, and enemies. I hope to sustain my thesis that King’s life is the best and most important metaphor for American history in the watershed postwar years.” The extent to which Branch researched and analyzed source documents, interviews, and accounts of the events that unfolded in these early years of the Movement indeed do display a “maximum effort”.
Although not a trained historian but a journalist, the quantity and quality of sources that Branch employed in writing Parting the Waters is especially impressive.
The book’s bibliography runs nearly 80 pages long. Branch’s breakdown of his sources, both primary and secondary, is essential in crafting a narrative history that is assessable to layperson as well as analytical and thought provoking enough for the historian and student of history. Branch is eloquent and natural in his storytelling approach to this pivotal period of the American past. His narrative transports the reader to a front row seat to events like the Birmingham Bus Boycott in 1955 and the Freedom Rides of 1961.
Branch organizes his work in chronologically ordered chapters. The foundation laid in the opening chapters gives the reader a glimpse into the history of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as insights into the African-American church generally. These institutions are instrumental in understanding King’s rise to prominence in the
Movement.
The bulk of Branch’s work indeed centers on understanding the political culture of the African-American church, especially the Baptist denomination in which King and his father were pastors. Branch reveals the divisions over class, status, and the upholding tradition that plague churches across the country—black and white churches alike. The class divide in Montgomery was seen in the Dexter Avenue Baptist church, which was the middle class black church, and the First Baptist Church which was a working class church. As Branch examines the Movement, divisions such as the ones in Montgomery crop up over how to proceed. The more conservative elements, both secular and sacred, cautioned restraint due to a fear of tarnishing reputations.
Although King is the central figure in Parting the Waters, Branch also profiles other actors in the Movement in the book. The Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is discussed at length as well as the importance of the lunch counter sit-ins that started in Greensboro, NC and spread across the South.
Parting the Waters is an assessable book that describes in detail the early days of the struggle for civil rights in America. Branch sets out to prove that King is “the best and most important metaphor for American history in the watershed postwar years.” Was he successful in this endeavor? Largely, yes he was. Branch argues successfully that the King era was a turing point in American history.