Photographs of My Father
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Photographs of My Father Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Paul Spike (Author), MacLeod Andrews (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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At the National Council of Churches, Robert Spike had organized American churches to support the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, to march in Selma, and to organize in Mississippi. An important White leader in the Black civil rights struggle, he helped the LBJ White House pass legislation and write crucial civil rights speeches. In the midst of what he described as "the dirtiest fight of my life" while struggling to save a federal Mississippi education program, he was viciously murdered in Columbus, Ohio. The murder was never solved. Very little effort went into finding the murderer. The Columbus police and the FBI hinted the unsolved murder was connected to Spike's undisclosed gay life.

During his father's rise in the civil rights movement, Paul Spike lived a life typical of a young man in the 1960s, finding his way through a labyrinth of booze, drugs, and girls. At Columbia University, he was active in the 1968 student rebellion and friends with many SDS radicals. That rootless life ended with his father's murder.

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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 48 minutes
  2. Author
    Paul Spike
  3. Narrator
    MacLeod Andrews
  4. Audible release date
    June 21, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B01GVZXFIG
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 48 minutes
Author Paul Spike
Narrator MacLeod Andrews
Audible.com Release Date June 21, 2016
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B01GVZXFIG
Best Sellers Rank #680,085 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#684 in Biographies of Activists
#800 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Audible Books & Originals)
#8,590 in Social Activist Biographies

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

R. H. Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars A Civil Rights leader restored
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
Paul Spike has written a personal memoir which is intertwined with the life of his father, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Spike, who led the National Council of Churches support for the 1963 March on Washington, support for the Freedom Riders, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. His father way brutally murdered in 1966, which may have been by an arranged assassination or the result of a homosexual pick up. No one was ever tried for the crime. The press picked up on the latter explanation, and because of the climate of the times erased him from most histories.
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JHill
4.0 out of 5 stars I would recommend it to anyone interested in the civil rights struggle ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book held my interest primarily for its historical insight and the portrait of such a loving relationship between a father and son. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. It also serves as a reminder of how the real truth can be supplanted by a more palpable "public truth". Whether or not the death of Robert Spike was perpetuated by our government for political reason is something we should consider. There should be little argument, however, concerning the cultural attitude towards homosexuality at that time and how it could always be counted on to be used as a weapon of negative propaganda. Up until recently I was beginning to believe that as a society we had become wiser to the ways we could be influenced and manipulated by such matters, but now I'm not so sure. Personally I couldn't care less about the sexual orientation of Robert Spike. What's there, and what his son has shown, is the portrait of a very compassionate man who was courageous enough to stand up to the forces that perpetuated racism.
One person found this helpful
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Lee Underwood — Poet: INTO LIGHT
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of the '60s, that lives today, in the almost equally tumultuous times we live in.
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
Can't begin to express how deeply moved I am by Photographs of My Father. Young Paul's personal coming of age story, his father Robert Spike's story, Paul's portraits of the crazy times in the '60s — the Civil Rights marches his father participated in; the behind the scenes political intrigues surrounding President Johnson's efforts to get Civil Rights for the nation; the murders of Martin Luther King, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, and Reverend Spike himself. An absolutely brilliant, heartfelt, and well-written book. I also see it was written when young Paul was only in his early 20's, just a few years after attending the private prep school "Keaton" (fictitious name of a real place) and only a few years later after his father's murder. In other words, Paul sprouted into a first-rate writer while still a very young man. A five star work all around.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Story Now Not Lost
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2021
I was delighted to see this book! It first came out in 1973 and I read it then and it still sits on my shelf. A keeper, a total keeper. I was a student at Union Theological Seminary and a young activist during the years that Robert Spike was active. He was deeply respected and a guide for many of us. His murder was shocking. As his son writes in this powerful narrative, the murder had all the marks of professional kill. Read this book to get the sense of immediacy of the sixties. The courage and the cost that so many, including Spike, had.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars There is something so gripping about being in the very ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
There is something so gripping about being in the very heart of history. As a republished book from the 1960's this book opens up not long distant memories (that often become retold and reshaped to suit the present) but instead a fresh emotional journey from the inside of what now seems to be another world... or is it? Essential reading for students of civil rights, human rights and history who think they knew it all already...
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