Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland

With some mystery, history, violence, black liberation, and important questions on police brutality and the ethics of protest, you'll find whatever the fuck you're looking for in this. James Robenalt recounts the shit that went down in 1968, during a bloody fight in Cleveland between the cops and black nationalists. Not only does this book inform, but it also explains the responses of the badass African American figures, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. A great example of how truth can be so much more interesting than fiction, this book is great for anyone who enjoys history, a good story, or the exploration of ethics when dealing with protests and authority. This thick (370 page) tome covers all the riveting local events and then places them in the larger context of the times (MLK, JFK, etc) and then links them to the continuing problems of police brutality and racial injustice today.

“This important book recalls some agonizing history but it is a history we must not forget. With the passage of fifty years, one can ask, as Robenalt does, why has there been so little progress in race relations?”  - Walter Beach, former Cleveland Browns champion and assistant to Mayor Carl B. Stokes (1967-1968)