November 5, 2006

Book 41: The River of No Return

The River of No Return
Cleveland Sellers

Sometimes events are best recounted by those who lived through them, by those who shaped them and who are intricately connected to history through direct participation and effect. Autobiographies can be especially useful in cases where the official story has been obviously distorted and changed by the existing power structure. I believe that the black civil rights struggle is one of these situations where the story may be best told by the actual organizers of the movement, lest it become distorted in the hands of whites eager to preserve their innocence and the necessity of reactionary police measures. However, it's also vital that the other side of the story doesn't become distorted, and unfortunately Seller's autobiography is full of questionable qualifications and hostile rhetoric that often clouds the story in off-putting offense.

The story of Sellers intersects perfectly with the life of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committe, in which the autobiography draws its focus and crosses the difficult line between personal and general history. The reader gets a good grasp on the history of the organization, including an interesting look into the inside politics that eventually helped tear the organization apart. The major frustration I had, however, is the author's inability to try to see both sides of any situation, particularly when it comes to SNCC's expelling all whites from the organization. The reader is firmly on his side as he denounces obviously racist police actions against him and other black leaders, but his enthusiasm clouds the narrative and is excessively partisan, to the point of alienating the reader.

The narrative also suffers from that fundamental vice of autobiography: it is often disorganized, with some letdowns (Sellers introduces an event as almost getting him killed but the actual narration is anticlimactic in this regard) or it is over-dramatic and sweeping in its generalizations. The format is best when it is limited to the perspective of the author, and an occasional tie-in with the greater scope of events is certainly warranted and interesting, but this account refuses to take a side and instead oscillates between the two extremes, becoming either too personal and uninteresting or too broad to lead to sympathy or a deep understanding.

Sellers manages to paint a good, if disorganized, portrait of the life and times of SNCC. His literary technique could use a bit of work, but the volume remains educational and entertaining enough for a day or two of reading. For an in-depth, on the ground report of the black civil rights movement of the sixties, Sellers isn't a horrible place to turn.

Grade: B

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