New book documents civil rights activists’ efforts to push back against police violence and surveillance

This story was updated on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, at 5:46 p.m.

In his new book, University of Baltimore U.S. history professor Joshua Clark Davis examines the intersection of police violence, surveillance and the Civil Rights Movement. It’s called “Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back.”

He says he spent eight years researching, combing through police and civil rights activists’ records, as well as news reports. In his book, he seeks to tell a fuller story about police actions amid the 1960’s fight for racial equality.