Ezra's Bookshelf

Into the Bright Sunshine

by Samuel G. Freedman · 517 pages · ~9.5 hrs

HistoryPolitics & GovernmentBiography & Memoir

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Samuel G. Freedman examines Hubert Humphrey's transformation from a young Minneapolis mayor into the voice that pushed the Democratic Party toward civil rights at its 1948 convention. Humphrey's speech urging Democrats to 'walk into the bright sunshine of human rights' sparked a Southern walkout that reshaped American politics, and Freedman traces the intellectual and moral development that led to that moment. The book follows Humphrey through the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s, his complicated relationship with Lyndon Johnson, and his tragic 1968 presidential campaign overshadowed by Vietnam. Freedman, a journalism professor and author of previous books on race and religion in America, draws on extensive research to reconstruct the world of Minnesota progressive politics that shaped Humphrey's convictions. The book examines Humphrey's alliances with labor unions, his early opposition to Cold War anticommunism before he reversed course, and his legislative craftsmanship in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Freedman does not ignore Humphrey's flaws - his verbosity, his desperate desire for approval, his capitulation to Johnson on Vietnam - but argues that understanding these weaknesses illuminates what made his courage on civil rights so significant. The book serves as both a biography of an underappreciated political figure and a history of the Democratic Party's halting journey toward racial justice.

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