New Prize for These Eyes, Juan Williams
New Prize for These Eyes, Juan Williams
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New Prize for These Eyes
The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement

Author: Juan Williams

Narrator: Juan Williams

Unabridged: 9 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/14/2025


Synopsis

With “arresting prose and keen insights” (Donna Brazile, New York Times bestselling author of Hacks), bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement in this highly anticipated follow-up to Eyes on the Prize.

More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama’s presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement—a second civil rights movement—began to erupt.

In New Prize for These Eyes, award-winning author Juan Williams shines a light on this historic, new movement. Who are its heroes? Where is it headed? What fires, furies, and frustrations distinguish it from its predecessor?

In the 20th century, Black activists and their white allies called for equal rights and an end to segregation. They appealed to the Declaration of Independence’s defiant assertion that “all men are created equal.” They prioritized legal battles in the courtroom and legislative victories in Congress. Today’s movement is dealing with new realities. Demographic changes have placed progressive whites in a new role among the largest, youngest population of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in the nation’s history. The new generation is social media savvy, and they have an agenda fueled by discontent with systemic racism and the persistent scourge of police brutality. Today’s activists are making history in a new economic and cultural landscape, and they are using a new set of tools and strategies to do so.

Williams brilliantly traces the arc of this new civil rights era, from Obama to Charlottesville to January 6th and a Confederate flag in the Capitol. An essential read for activists, historians, and anyone passionate about America’s future, New Prize for These Eyes is more than a recounting of history. It is a forward-looking call to action, urging Americans to get in touch with the progress made and hurdles yet to be overcome.

About Juan Williams

Juan Williams is a prizewinning journalist and historian. He is the author of the bestselling civil rights history Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954–1965, which accompanied the PBS series of the same name, and its follow-up New Prize for These Eyes. He also wrote the landmark biography of the first African American on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, as well as the New York Times bestsellers Enough and Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate. Williams worked for The Washington Post as a celebrated national political correspondent, White House correspondent, and editorial writer. His NPR talk show took ratings to a new high. He has written for The New York TimesThe Wall Street JournalThe New YorkerThe Atlantic, and Ebony. He is currently senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a columnist for The Hill.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Eric on January 22, 2025

This book is a fascinating and in depth look into the Second Civil Rights Movement. The book covers the rise of this movement from the election of Barack Obama through the tragic murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd and too many others which gave rise to the Black Lives Matter move......more

Goodreads review by Greg on March 12, 2025

It’s conceivable that voters could point to President Obama or President Trump as the leader of a post-racial America. Any post-racial claim would be met with some measure of scrutiny or disbelief, but since the first civil rights movement, improvements for Black Americans and minorities have improv......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on December 15, 2024

Obama hit the nail on the head. His presidency, Black Lives Matter, and even the Trump backlash are all essential parts of the Second Civil Rights Movement. from New Prize for These Eyes by Juan Williams I knew this history–I lived through it. And yet, seeing it in a narrative was a revelation. It wa......more

Goodreads review by Emily on April 09, 2025

A really interesting perspective on where we were in 2008 and where we are now, hard to swallow sometimes in today’s climate but ultimately offers an optimistic future......more


Quotes

"Journalist and television personality Juan Williams’s audiobook arrives four decades after his first book, EYES ON THE PRIZE (1987), which covered the mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights movement. This work argues that Barack Obama’s presidency and the development of the social media age reflect the emergence of a second civil rights movement. Fueled in part by police killings of Black men and women and Obama’s epoch-making political success, this movement arises with Internet speed while battling white nationalism and expanded racism—against Asians and Jews, as well as Black people. Williams, who has a lot of broadcast experience on radio as well as television, narrates clearly and with conviction. His audiobook ends with an examination of the gains of the Biden administration, which now seem short-lived."