The romantic vision of the civil rights movement is exhausted, and its inverse, Afropessimism, offers a self-defeating irony. To resolve this impasse, Brandon Terry transforms the standard story of America’s democratic awakening through a tragic reading of the civil rights movement: as an ongoing st...

The romantic vision of the civil rights movement is exhausted, and its inverse, Afropessimism, offers a self-defeating irony. To resolve this impasse, Brandon Terry transforms the standard story of America’s democratic awakening through a tragic reading of the civil rights movement: as an ongoing struggle still worthy of affirmation.