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Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights
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About This Book
From one of the country's most distinguished journalists, a revisionist and riveting look at the American politician whom history has judged a loser, yet who played a key part in the greatest social movement of the 20th century. As Samuel G. Freedman points out, Hubert Humphrey's public life began and ended in disgrace. Humphrey started out as an outlier in the post-war Democratic Party and ended the same--as the man who lost his bearings during the Vietnam War and then lost the presidency to Richard Nixon. Freedman therefore has not written a hagiography of Humphrey. Instead, he uses the stock characterization of Humphrey to illuminate his most triumphant early career, when his early efforts to promote racial justice not only transformed the Democratic Party (with its hardcore Dixiecrat, anti-integrationist element) but the nation as well. Humphrey was "woke" before anyone else in his party and he dragged them into the light. As Freedman shows, Humphrey's 1948 speech to the Democratic Convention electrified the nation. At the age of 37--younger than Beto O'Rourke, Andrew Gillum, and Stacey Abrams are today--he picked up the mantle of civil rights and carried it forward. Here is the Humphrey few know, and, after reading Freedman's book, no one will forget.
Reviews
"But Freedman's reassessment of Humphrey's beginnings is a valuable starting point to more effectively assess his contributions to American life."
"It helps that he is such a fine writer, telling his story with clarity and empathy ..."
"Mining an archival trove of personal letters, Freedman renders Humphrey as a torn young man ..."
"A strong step in rehabilitating Humphrey's image as a practical politician and civil rights activist."
"He restores Humphrey to his rightful place in American politics, and reminds readers that America's battles over access and equality have deep roots in a long, anguished past."
"His brilliant profiles of these local heroes are gripping and, in many ways, the spine of the book ..."
"senator, the criticism he endured for supporting the Vietnam war, his campaign against Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential election after a tumultuous nominating convention in Chicago that catalyzed riots and police brutality, and his struggle with cancer."
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