Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch | |
---|---|
Born | (1947-01-14) January 14, 1947 (age 77) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
Education | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) Princeton University (MPA) |
Genre | Nonfiction |
Notable works | America in the King Years |
Notable awards | MacArthur Fellowship National Humanities Medal Pulitzer Prize for History |
Spouse | Christina Macy |
Children | 2 |
Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume of the 2,912-page trilogy, collectively called America in the King Years, was released in January 2006, and an abridgment, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, was published in 2013.
Biography
Early life and education
Branch graduated from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta in 1964. From there, he went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead Scholarship.[1] He graduated in 1968 and went on to earn an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1970.
Career
Branch served as an assistant editor at The Washington Monthly from 1970 to 1973; he was Washington editor of Harper's from 1973 to 1976; and he was Washington columnist for Esquire Magazine from 1976 to 1977. He also has written for a variety of other publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Sport, The New Republic, and Texas Monthly.
In 1972, Branch worked for the Texas campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. Branch shared an apartment in Austin with Bill Clinton, and the two developed a friendship that continues today. He also worked with Hillary Rodham, Bill's then-girlfriend and Yale Law School classmate, and later Clinton's wife.
External videos | |
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Discussion with Branch on his preparations for writing The Clinton Tapes, April 29, 2007, C-SPAN | |
Washington Journal interview with Branch on The Clinton Tapes, September 30, 2009, C-SPAN | |
After Words interview with Branch on The Clinton Tapes, October 17, 2009, C-SPAN | |
Presentation by Branch on The Clinton Tapes, November 14, 2009, C-SPAN |
Branch's book on former president Bill Clinton, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President, was written from many tape-recorded interviews and conversations between the two, most of which occurred in the White House during Clinton's two terms in office and which were not disclosed publicly until 2009 at the time of the book's publication.
Branch was a lecturer in politics and history at Goucher College from 1998 to 2000.[citation needed] Branch has also taught at the University of Baltimore.
Taylor Branch received a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (also known as a "genius grant") in 1991 and the National Humanities Medal in 1999. In 2008, he received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award,[2] presented to him by special guest Edwin C. Moses.[3]
In 2013, he co-produced Schooled: The Price of College Sports based on his 2011 book The Cartel.[4]
in 2015, he received the BIO Award from Biographers International Organization, for his contributions to the art and craft of biography.[5]
Israeli citizenship controversy
A group of Black Hebrew Israelites described as a cult in The New York Times were systematically denied Israeli citizenship over several decades. In 1981, a group of American civil rights activists led by Bayard Rustin investigated and concluded that racism was likely not the cause of the Black Hebrews' treatment.[6] In 1992, Branch opined that the Black Hebrew Israelites' denial of citizenship under the Israeli law of return was because of alleged anti-Black sentiment among Israeli Jews.[7] In 1998, Branch was criticized by Seth Forman, who said Branch's claims seemed to be baseless, particularly in light of Israel's airlift of thousands of black Ethiopian Jews in the early 1990s.[8]
Family
Branch lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife, Christina Macy, and their two children, Macy (born 1980) and Franklin (born 1983).
Books
External videos | |
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In Depth interview with Branch, February 5, 2006, C-SPAN | |
Interview with Branch on Parting the Waters, January 16, 1989, C-SPAN | |
Booknotes interview with Branch on Pillar of Fire, April 12, 1998, C-SPAN | |
Presentation by Branch on At Canaan's Edge, September 30, 2006, C-SPAN | |
Interview with Branch on America in the King Years, April 28, 2007, C-SPAN | |
Presentation by Branch on The King Years, January 22, 2013, C-SPAN | |
Presentation by Branch on The King Years, September 21, 2013, C-SPAN |
- Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Public Interest (with Charles Peters) (Praeger: 1972)
- Second Wind (with Bill Russell) (Random House: 1979)
- The Empire Blues (fiction) (Simon & Schuster: 1981)
- Labyrinth (with Eugene M. Propper): (Viking: 1982, Penguin Books: 1983, ISBN 0-14-006683-7)
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (Simon & Schuster: 1988)
- Pulitzer Prize for History, 1989
- National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, 1988
- English-Speaking Union Book Award, 1989
- Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, 1989
- (Finalist): National Book Award, Nonfiction, 1989
- Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 (Simon & Schuster: 1998)
- American Bar Association, Silver Gavel Award, 1999
- Imus Book Award, 1999
- The Hillman Prize, 1998[9]
- At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 (Simon & Schuster: 2006)
- Heartland Prize for nonfiction, Chicago Tribune, 2006.[10]
- The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President (Simon & Schuster: 2009)[11][12]
- The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA (Byliner, 2011)
- The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement (Simon & Schuster 2013)
References
- ^ "BHS senior awarded Morehead-Cain scholarship". The Transylvania Times. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
- ^ "King biographer latest Literary Peace Prize honoree".
- ^ "Dayton Literary Peace Prize - Edwin C. Moses". www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.
- ^ Schooled: The Price of College Sports at IMDb
- ^ The BIO Award, Biographers International Organization Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Shipler, David K. (January 30, 1981). "Israelis Urged To Act Over Black Hebrew Cult". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ Branch, Taylor "Blacks and Jews: The Uncivil War", in Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews (Salzman, Ed), 1992
- ^ Forman, Seth, Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Liberalism, NYU Press, 1998, p. 14-15
- ^ "The Hillman Prize Previous Honorees". 2009. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
- ^ "Taylor Branch and Louise Erdrich Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, 2006 (video)". Chicago Humanities Festival. 5 November 2006. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ^ "The Clinton Tapes, Wrestling History with the President". Retrieved December 14, 2012.
- ^ Klein, Joe (September 24, 2009). "Bill Session". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
External links
- Official website
- Inventory of the Taylor Branch Papers, 1865-2005, at the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- v
- t
- e
(timeline)
groups
- Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
- Atlanta Student Movement
- Black Panther Party
- Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
- Committee for Freedom Now
- Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
- Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
- Council of Federated Organizations
- Dallas County Voters League
- Deacons for Defense and Justice
- Georgia Council on Human Relations
- Highlander Folk School
- Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
- Montgomery Improvement Association
- NAACP
- Nashville Student Movement
- Nation of Islam
- Northern Student Movement
- National Council of Negro Women
- National Urban League
- Operation Breadbasket
- Regional Council of Negro Leadership
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Southern Regional Council
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- The Freedom Singers
- United Auto Workers (UAW)
- Wednesdays in Mississippi
- Women's Political Council
- Ralph Abernathy
- Victoria Gray Adams
- Zev Aelony
- Mathew Ahmann
- Muhammad Ali
- William G. Anderson
- Gwendolyn Armstrong
- Arnold Aronson
- Ella Baker
- James Baldwin
- Marion Barry
- Daisy Bates
- Harry Belafonte
- James Bevel
- Claude Black
- Gloria Blackwell
- Randolph Blackwell
- Unita Blackwell
- Ezell Blair Jr.
- Joanne Bland
- Julian Bond
- Joseph E. Boone
- William Holmes Borders
- Amelia Boynton
- Bruce Boynton
- Raylawni Branch
- Stanley Branche
- Ruby Bridges
- Aurelia Browder
- H. Rap Brown
- Ralph Bunche
- Guy Carawan
- Stokely Carmichael
- Johnnie Carr
- James Chaney
- J. L. Chestnut
- Shirley Chisholm
- Colia Lafayette Clark
- Ramsey Clark
- Septima Clark
- Xernona Clayton
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Charles E. Cobb Jr.
- Annie Lee Cooper
- Dorothy Cotton
- Claudette Colvin
- Vernon Dahmer
- Jonathan Daniels
- Abraham Lincoln Davis
- Angela Davis
- Joseph DeLaine
- Dave Dennis
- Annie Devine
- Patricia Stephens Due
- Joseph Ellwanger
- Charles Evers
- Medgar Evers
- Myrlie Evers-Williams
- Chuck Fager
- James Farmer
- Walter Fauntroy
- James Forman
- Marie Foster
- Golden Frinks
- Andrew Goodman
- Robert Graetz
- Fred Gray
- Jack Greenberg
- Dick Gregory
- Lawrence Guyot
- Prathia Hall
- Fannie Lou Hamer
- Fred Hampton
- William E. Harbour
- Vincent Harding
- Dorothy Height
- Audrey Faye Hendricks
- Lola Hendricks
- Aaron Henry
- Oliver Hill
- Donald L. Hollowell
- James Hood
- Myles Horton
- Zilphia Horton
- T. R. M. Howard
- Ruby Hurley
- Cecil Ivory
- Jesse Jackson
- Jimmie Lee Jackson
- Richie Jean Jackson
- T. J. Jemison
- Esau Jenkins
- Barbara Rose Johns
- Vernon Johns
- Frank Minis Johnson
- Clarence Jones
- J. Charles Jones
- Matthew Jones
- Vernon Jordan
- Tom Kahn
- Clyde Kennard
- A. D. King
- C.B. King
- Coretta Scott King
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Martin Luther King Sr.
- Bernard Lafayette
- James Lawson
- Bernard Lee
- Sanford R. Leigh
- Jim Letherer
- Stanley Levison
- John Lewis
- Viola Liuzzo
- Z. Alexander Looby
- Joseph Lowery
- Clara Luper
- Danny Lyon
- Malcolm X
- Mae Mallory
- Vivian Malone
- Bob Mants
- Thurgood Marshall
- Benjamin Mays
- Franklin McCain
- Charles McDew
- Ralph McGill
- Floyd McKissick
- Joseph McNeil
- James Meredith
- William Ming
- Jack Minnis
- Amzie Moore
- Cecil B. Moore
- Douglas E. Moore
- Harriette Moore
- Harry T. Moore
- Queen Mother Moore
- William Lewis Moore
- Irene Morgan
- Bob Moses
- William Moyer
- Elijah Muhammad
- Diane Nash
- Charles Neblett
- Huey P. Newton
- Edgar Nixon
- Jack O'Dell
- James Orange
- Rosa Parks
- James Peck
- Charles Person
- Homer Plessy
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
- Fay Bellamy Powell
- Rodney N. Powell
- Al Raby
- Lincoln Ragsdale
- A. Philip Randolph
- George Raymond
- George Raymond Jr.
- Bernice Johnson Reagon
- Cordell Reagon
- James Reeb
- Frederick D. Reese
- Walter Reuther
- Gloria Richardson
- David Richmond
- Bernice Robinson
- Jo Ann Robinson
- Angela Russell
- Bayard Rustin
- Bernie Sanders
- Michael Schwerner
- Bobby Seale
- Cleveland Sellers
- Charles Sherrod
- Alexander D. Shimkin
- Fred Shuttlesworth
- Modjeska Monteith Simkins
- Glenn E. Smiley
- A. Maceo Smith
- Kelly Miller Smith
- Mary Louise Smith
- Maxine Smith
- Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
- Charles Kenzie Steele
- Hank Thomas
- Dorothy Tillman
- A. P. Tureaud
- Hartman Turnbow
- Albert Turner
- C. T. Vivian
- Wyatt Tee Walker
- Hollis Watkins
- Walter Francis White
- Roy Wilkins
- Hosea Williams
- Kale Williams
- Robert F. Williams
- Andrew Young
- Whitney Young
- Sammy Younge Jr.
- Bob Zellner
- James Zwerg
songs
- "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
- "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
- "Kumbaya"
- "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
- "Oh, Freedom"
- "This Little Light of Mine"
- "We Shall Not Be Moved"
- "We Shall Overcome"
- "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"
- Jim Crow laws
- Lynching in the United States
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Buchanan v. Warley
- Hocutt v. Wilson
- Sweatt v. Painter
- Hernandez v. Texas
- Loving v. Virginia
- African-American women in the movement
- Jews in the civil rights movement
- Fifth Circuit Four
- 16th Street Baptist Church
- Kelly Ingram Park
- A.G. Gaston Motel
- Bethel Baptist Church
- Brown Chapel
- Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
- Holt Street Baptist Church
- Edmund Pettus Bridge
- March on Washington Movement
- African-American churches attacked
- List of lynching victims in the United States
- Freedom Schools
- Freedom songs
- Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
- "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
- Voter Education Project
- 1960s counterculture
- African American founding fathers of the United States
- Eyes on the Prize
- In popular culture
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
- Civil Rights Memorial
- Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
- Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
- Freedom Rides Museum
- Freedom Riders National Monument
- King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
- National Civil Rights Museum
- National Voting Rights Museum
- St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
historians