At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power

In the Epilogue, McGuire describes the 2009 presidential inauguration, during which Michelle Obama became the first Black First Lady. Does Michelle Obama’s achievement prove that Black women have won full social equality in the United States, or do structures of oppression against Black women still exist? Use concrete examples to support your argument.

Why has Rosa Parks’s history as a radical activist been forgotten? In what ways does this erasure of Parks’s role serve as an important political tool?

A recurring idea throughout At the Dark End of the Street is the politics of respectability, in which “middle-class decorum” is required of activists to gain broad political support (76). How does this idea shape three of the anti-rape campaigns discussed throughout the book?