Leading scholars reassess the origins and trajectory of the American civil rights movement. Essays highlight the importance of black activism in the 1930s and 1940s and show how white liberals misunderstood the movement. Comparisons with Britain and South Africa reveal how movement leaders secured sympathetic responses at home and abroad and how nonviolence characterised the movement. The essays also challenge traditional concepts of ‘race’ and ‘racial equality’, consider the impact of the struggle on participants and trace black political thought since the 1960s.