Robert Parris Moses

A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots

By Laura Visser-Maessen

456 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 10 halftones, 1 map, appends., notes, bibl., index

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-2798-4
    Published: May 2016
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-6650-1
    Published: May 2021
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-2799-1
    Published: February 2016
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4835-2
    Published: February 2016

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One of the most influential leaders in the civil rights movement, Robert Parris Moses was essential in making Mississippi a central battleground state in the fight for voting rights. As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Moses presented himself as a mere facilitator of grassroots activism rather than a charismatic figure like Martin Luther King Jr. His self-effacing demeanor and his success, especially in steering the events that led to the volatile 1964 Freedom Summer and the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, paradoxically gave him a reputation of nearly heroic proportions. Examining the dilemmas of a leader who worked to cultivate local leadership, historian Laura Visser-Maessen explores the intellectual underpinnings of Moses’s strategy, its achievements, and its struggles.

This new biography recasts Moses as an effective, hands-on organizer, safeguarding his ideals while leading from behind the scenes. By returning Moses to his rightful place among the foremost leaders of the movement, Visser-Maessen testifies to Moses’s revolutionary approach to grassroots leadership and the power of the individual in generating social change.

About the Author

Laura Visser-Maessen is assistant professor of American literature and culture at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
For more information about Laura Visser-Maessen, visit the Author Page.

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