ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains that Ronald Walter witnesses his buddy Haywood's gruesome death as their regiment takes incoming fire, a death that obligates him to write a letter to Haywood's parents. It also explains that Walter waiting for the enemy to make a move, declaring himself ready to move away from. The book suggests a sequence of texts that could be covered in a fifteen-week semester, and by including discussion questions and ideas for research and writing projects. It explores the civil rights studies by making visible actors who, in the top-down male-centered narrative, remain in King's shadow and also by connecting movement activities in the classical period with collective action that came after. The book focuses on the political maelstrom enveloping the country in 1963.
