Robert Parris Moses

“While focusing on Moses’s civil rights work, Visser-Maessen conveys that his subsequent work in education was not a departure, but a meaningful step forward. Of special value is the final section, a comprehensive critique of Moses’s treatment in civil rights historiography.” — Publishers Weekly

“An intriguing character study of one of the most profoundly impactful local organizers of the civil rights era. . . . This compelling biography will be sought after by scholars of civil rights history and local organizing.” — Library Journal

“[This] carefully researched, well written, and nuanced account of Moses’s life. . . . sheds new light on a man and a movement whose lessons could not be more valuable today." — Mike Miller, Dissent Magazine

“Skillfully tracks the evolution of Moses' leadership, no matter how reluctantly he might have wielded it.” — Chicago Tribune

“Exemplifies the new strain of historical inquiry that transcends simple narrative, examining the ideas and lived values of civil rights and social justice and not merely the personalities or politics of the time. Essential.” — CHOICE

“A thought-provoking study that not only illuminates Moses’s activism, Mississippi freedom struggles, and SNCC history, but also invites scholars to investigate and probe further the underlying themes and issues involved in local community organizing and local civil rights struggles.” — American Historical Review

“An extensive and thoughtful examination of Bob Moses. . . . An extraordinary and useful picture of the frozen political, economic, and social system of white supremacy in Mississippi in the mid-twentieth century.” — H-Net Reviews

“Visser-Maessen’s insightful biography of Robert Parris Moses . . . paints a precise and multilayered analysis of the internal and external forces that shaped the life of a very private and introspective figure.”—Journal of African American History

"A brilliant assessment of the complexities of social movement leadership. Visser-Maessen superbly explores the story of how a leader helped to shape the civil rights movement without imposing his own will, and by encouraging grassroots activists to make their own decisions.” — William H. Chafe, author of Hillary and Bill: The Clintons and the Politics of the Personal

“Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) broke new ground in the struggle for voting rights in Mississippi by daring to go where few activists and organizers before him dared to go. This first substantial examination of his work and ideas is essential reading for anyone seeking understanding of the 1960s civil rights movement. Nuanced in its analysis not just of Moses but also of a movement far more complex than many realize, it gives us insight into the still practically invisible Moses while opening a window onto the still largely misunderstood grassroots organizing work of SNCC in the Black Belt South.” — Charlie Cobb, author of This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible and On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail