Description

This program features a prologue and epilogue read by the author

From journalist Paul Kix the riveting story never before fully told of the 1963 Birmingham Campaignten weeks that would shape the course of the Civil Rights Movement and the future of America

Its one of the iconic photographs of American history A Black teenager a policeman and his lunging German Shepherd Birmingham Alabama May of 1963 In May of 2020 as reporter Paul Kix stared at a different photothat of a Minneapolis police officer suffocating George Floydhe kept returning to the other photo taken half a century earlier haunted by its echoes What Kix wondered was the full legacy of the Birmingham photo And of the campaign it stemmed from

In You Have To Be Prepared To Die Before You Can Begin To Live Paul Kix takes the listener behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences pivotal 10 week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham Alabama At the same time he also provides a window into the minds of the four extraordinary men who led the campaignMartin Luther King Jr Wyatt Walker Fred Shuttlesworth and James Bevel

With captivating prose that sounds like a thriller Kixs audiobook is the first to zero in on the ten weeks of Project C as it was knownits specific history and its echoes sounding throughout our culture now Its about Where It All Began for sure but its also the key to understanding Where We Are Now and Where We Will Be As the fight for equality continues on many fronts Project C is crucial to our understanding of our own time and the impact that strategic activism can have

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books