Book Review: At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle L. McGuire, narr. Robin Miles

[juushika]

Title: At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Author: Danielle L. McGuire
Narrator: Robin Miles
Published: Books on Tape, 2019 (2010)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 365
Total Page Count: 523,740
Text Number: 1904
Read Because: I think I found this by browsing chthonic_cassandra's Goodreads, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is one of the most difficult books I've read, emotionally; and I've read a fair bit of true crime which intentionally places specific cases within the cultural context that birthed them; but this is many cases, spanning decades, and it's a brutal read. Like much academic writing, there's an excess of signposting and repetition; and, because the message is so emphatic, the repetition can make it feel preachy. But who cares. This is a crucial reframing of the historical narrative, centering the ubiquity of black women's experiences with sexual violence, using it to chart the changing tides of the civil rights movement and to uncover the formative role women played in building it—a necessary reclamation.