History professor earns presitgious award
Writer investigates lingering oppression from the Civil Rights era

The American black man is the world’s most shameful case of minority oppression…How is a black man going to get "civil rights" before he first wins his human rights? If the American black man will start thinking about his human rights, and then start thinking of himself as one of the world’s greatest people, he will see he has a case for the United Nations. -Malcolm X

The struggle for obtaining human rights over civil rights is the premise of Carol Anderson’s book Eyes off the Prize—The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955. The book won Anderson, a history professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the 2003 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. The award commends works that further the understanding of the complexities of bigotry and attempts to overcome its myriad forms.

"I was blown away by this award; it was totally unexpected," Anderson said. "It’s such an unbelievable honor when someone commends something you’re so passionate about."

Eyes off the Prize examines why the Civil Rights Movement did not ease the problems such as housing, health care and unemployment facing the African-American community. Anderson presents an insightful look at how the front-line for the fight for equality was not Alabama, but the UN Commission on Human Rights. She discusses how the United States undermined the United Nation’s human rights efforts because of Jim Crow. Anderson argues that the United States' actions in the United Nations ultimately meant that the Civil Rights Movement’s focus on political and legal rights could not solve the ongoing human rights crisis in Black America.

"The Myers Awards Panelists commended the book for its comprehensive and balanced account," Anderson said. "Nobody in my book is presented as a hero. Instead, they are depicted as real people, and real people are flawed."

The title Eyes off the Prize originated from Anderson’s conversation with a friend about how the true prize for equality in the United States, despite the thrust of the award-winning documentary Eyes on the Prize, is human rights and not civil rights. Once African Americans were forced to take their eyes off the prize of human rights the Civil Rights Movement was doomed to limited progress, Anderson said.

Eyes off the Prize was published by Cambridge University. Anderson is working on her next book that discusses decolonization during the early Cold War.

Additional links:

Carol Anderson
Department of History

Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America
Cambridge University Press

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