We Shall Overcome to We Shall Overrun uses the metaphor of nervous breakdown to critique the collapse of the American Civil Rights Movement from a historical perspective. Focusting on the years 1962-1968, using a topical chronological approach, this work seeks to discuss the major organizations and personalities central to the African American freedom struggle in the 1960s with an emphasis on the debate over the meaning, the means, and the attainment of "black power."