"Clarence Taylor long has been recognized as the most important historian of this nation's most important city: New York. Now he has assembled a veritable "Dream Team" of scholars who contribute their own unique expertise in shedding light on how and why Gotham engaged the critically profound question of Civil Rights in the way it did. This book, as a consequence, is a monumental contribution to the history of Civil Rights, African-American History, Urban History, Latino History and--most of all--the history of New York City." -- -Gerald Horne author, of 'Mau Mau in Harlem? The U.S. and the Liberation of Kenya' "Several monographs on [this subject] have been written, but none rival this one in terms of breadth or depth." -- -Peter B. Levy York College "Attempts to provide some balance through 10 academic essays that cast light on struggles between blacks and organized labor, civil rights and the cold war, discrimination that extended even to garbage collection, and the competing visions of Mayors David N. Dinkins and Rudolph W. Giuliani." -The New York Times "I've been waiting for such a book for years. Anyone interested in postwar New York or the modern civil rights movement needs to read this book. The history of the black freedom struggle looks much different when we widen our gaze from the Cradle of the Confederacy to the home of Ellis Island." -- -Jeanne Theoharis Brooklyn College of CUNY "The book, edited by Professor Taylor, revives the forgotten roles of figures like Ella Baker of the N.A.A.C.P., Robert Moses and Bayard Rustin..." -The New York Times