People Get Ready

<p><b>Reframes civil rights history through the lens of rehearsal and embodied preparation</b><br><br>The spectacular public moments—the marches, sit-ins, and defiant protests—of the civil rights movement are etched in the global imagination. Yet behind these iconic events lay an intricate, often overlooked world of preparation. In <i>People Get Ready</i>, Paige McGinley asks a vital question: How did ordinary people prepare to perform such extraordinary acts?<br><br>In an exploration spanning from the 1930s through the 1960s, McGinley reveals that the movement's milestones were forged in the "backstage" spaces of rehearsal. For many organizers, performance was no mere metaphor; it was a rigorous organizing principle. Through deep archival research, she documents the improvisational exercises, role-playing scenarios, and large-scale simulations that allowed participants to test strategies, anticipate contingencies, and envision new models of collectivity. These sites of experimentation—from interracial institutes to citizenship schools—were about more than following a script; they were rich terrains for cultivating radical courage and new ways of living together.<br><br>By centering embodied practices such as meditation, singing, and theatrical rehearsal, McGinley intervenes in civil rights historiography and suggests a startlingly new genealogy of performance studies, one where Black grassroots organizers take their place as the primary innovators of some of the field's core concepts. <i>People Get Ready</i> provides an essential look at the deliberate choreography of social change, dismantling the myth of spontaneous upheaval. Ultimately, it offers vital, practical tools for contemporary movements seeking to rehearse a more just future.</p>