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At The Dark End Of The Street Chapter Summaries

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Danielle L. McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street, “an important, original contribution to civil rights historiography”, discusses the topic of rape and sexual assault towards African American women, and how this played a major role in causing the civil rights movement (Dailey 491). Chapter by chapter, another person's story is told, from the rape of Recy Taylor to the court case of Joan Little, while including the significance of Rosa Parks and various organizations in fighting for the victims of unjust brutality. The sole purpose of creating this novel was to discuss a topic no other historian has discussed before, because according to McGuire they have all been skipping over a topic that would change the view of the civil rights movement. …show more content…

The chapters begin with a backstory of the victim before going into detail about the event that took place, then concluding with how the court case went and the public's reaction. This is effective due to the fact that it automatically draws the reader in by sharing the devastating stories, while also representing the horrors of this time period without delay. Throughout the chapters, various organizations such as the NAACP and WPC are discussed in order to further portray the significance of the events and the impact these men and women had on society. By concluding each chapter with summarizations of the outcomes of the court cases and/or the public's reaction, Societies transformation is slowly represented because as the chapters go on, the jury votes more in favor of the African American victims. This gives the reader insight into how the different assaults and cases gradually changed society, gaining more and more support for the civil rights movements cause, representing how these women and men's stories greatly influenced the outcome of this …show more content…

This tone also creates a sense of emotional appeal by intriguing the reader and making them feel as though they witnessed the crimes due to the extensive detail. McGuire also uses strong diction to further her argument and represent the sadness of the topic, which only strengthens the overall thesis. The writing style, organization, and factual evidence McGuire used has resulted in her successfully proving her thesis. Along with that , I am convinced because all of the information given is credible and when it is all laid out in front of you as a sort of a timeline, it is obvious that these incidents sparked the protests that began the civil rights

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