A comprehensive history of the African American fight for racial equality from the standpoint of the civil rights movement in South Carolina, Democracy Rising examines the struggle from the end of the Civil War through the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s. In an effort to broaden our understanding of civil rights and democracy in America, Peter F. Lau describes how conflicts born of the state's history of racial exclusion and discrimination continue to shape the social problems and promises of our time. At the center of the book is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lau focuses on the interplay between the national organization and its local affiliates, demonstrating the impact each had on the other in shaping the outcome of grassroots social and political change.