What the Hell Do You Have to Lose?

Starred review from September 1, 2018

One assertion Republican candidate Donald Trump made during the 2016 presidential campaign becomes the title of this lively book by journalist and political commentator Williams (Eyes on the Prize; Thurgood Marshall). This latest work illustrates the African American story relating to voting rights (Bob Moses and his work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), education (James Meredith being the first African American student at the segregated University of Mississippi), public accommodation (Everett Dirksen, a conservative Republican Senator who lived up to the party of Lincoln), equal rights legislation (novelist James Baldwin confronting Robert Kennedy), employment (civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph), and housing (Robert Weaver, the first African American cabinet secretary). These histories help put the African American experience in context, while also describing class differences among racial lines. In contrast, Williams provides information on President Trump that reveals a history of hostility toward and ignorance of African Americans. VERDICT Though historians and political scientists might already be familiar with its content, this page-turning work sheds much-needed insight on exposing demagoguery in an era of alternative facts.--William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018
During the presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump reached out to African-American voters by asking, "what the hell do you have to lose?" Here is a cogent response from a veteran journalist.Williams (Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, 2011, etc.), currently a columnist at The Hill, provides detailed answers to Trump's question regarding six different realms of government discrimination against African-Americans, using the Civil Rights Act as approved by Congress in 1964 as his guide for selecting those elements. Other key laws include the Fair Housing Act and the Voting Rights Act. In each area, the author documents the dreadful early record of the Trump administration, followed by a succinct history of the civil rights gains made against stiff opposition during the second half of the 20th century. As Williams focuses on the gains, he singles out a primary advocate in each of the six realms: voting rights (Bob Moses), education (James Meredith), public accommodations (Everett Dirksen), equal rights legislation (James Baldwin), employment (A. Philip Randolph), and housing (Robert Weaver). Williams is an accomplished storyteller; as a result, the oft-documented historical gains in each chapter feel fresh again. Trump has been shamed countless times for translating his racist tendencies into abhorrent public policy, so Williams does not mount any groundbreaking attacks. However, his skillful succinctness makes his anti-Trump commentaries often devastating. Some readers might consider the author's account of past gains overly enthusiastic. He notes that while never deviating from accepted factual accounts, he intends for the historical context of the gains to spawn inspiration. Williams writes that he feels optimistic about the post-Trump future for civil rights because those on the correct side of the law can rely on far more resources, digital and otherwise, than their predecessors.As he ends this relevant and well-grounded book, Williams tells Trump that African-Americans have "a lot" to lose, "far more, it appears, than [Trump] will ever know."

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