I Am a Man by Steve Estes was an incredible read; It's a book I would recommend to anyone who loves reading and is also interested in civil rights. Steve Estes does a great job with the organization and detail of this book. This book begins in 1968 with black workers in Memphis protesting low wages, horrible working conditions, and horrible treatment. These workers wanted higher pay to support their families and to start a union. They began a statement "I am a man!" as their motto. Estes says the strikers chose this motto because “manliness” was more than what seemed like a long tradition dating back to the days of slavery. A (page 4), this strike known as The Memphis Sanitation Strike shows that it is not possible to appreciate the fullness of the African American struggles for freedom and show the relationship and ideas about gender relations and also identity. The book then shows different ways of how masculinity has always played a role in black freedom struggles. Estes begins to explore the participation of black men in World War II and where the beginning of the civil rights movement began. World War II used masculine language to raise the different ranks of the military, “the idea that men are more powerful than women, that they should have control over their own lives and authority over others” (page 7). They were posters that said, "Man the guns" or "What did you do in the war, dad?" these posters served to say that man is the protector of the house. World War II also started a labor shortage that opened up new advantages for women and minorities, there were fewer white men. Estes sees this challenge as a white man's supremacy, which emerged around the 1950s and... middle of paper... all these different changes fell short of the black man's self-image. The more politics, the economy, and even society began to open up, the easier it became for black men to show off their manhood where in previous years they would have been punished. Steve Estes throughout the book showed his ideas and presented several discussions on race and gender analysis. She concludes the book with a description of American gender and racial politics from 1980 to the present day. The way author Steve Estes explores different leaders and events and their movements is amazing. The book I Am a Man is a journey that shows not the gender conflicts but also the racial conflicts of the 20th century, but also the awareness and acceptance of civil rights. Works CitedEstes, Steve. I'm a Man!: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Print.