Books like Fire This Ttime by Gerald Horne

In August 1965, the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles erupted in flames and violence after an incident of police brutality. "Fire This Time" offers the first comprehensive treatment of the uprising, detailing how property losses reached hundreds of millions of dollars, the official death toll was thirty-four, and the event altered the political landscape. The book discusses how the civil‑rights movement shifted from images of peaceful protest to the reality of “rioting” Black communities, sparking a white backlash that influenced Ronald Reagan’s 1966 gubernatorial election. Horne examines the roles of Ronald Reagan, Tom Bradley, Martin Luther King Jr., Edmund G. Brown, and organizations such as the NAACP, Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, and local gangs, while also exploring the Cold War’s impact on desegregation and the broader social dynamics of Los Angeles post‑war, including race, region, class, gender, and age, set against global developments in Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and Africa.

First publish date: September 1, 1997