Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813141842
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings by : Brian Purnell

Download or read book Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings written by Brian Purnell and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-05 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) established a reputation as one of the most important civil rights organizations of the early 1960s. In the wake of the southern student sit-ins, CORE created new chapters all over the country, including one in Brooklyn, New York, which quickly established itself as one of the most audacious and dynamic chapters in the nation. In Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, historian Brian Purnell explores the chapter's numerous direct-action protest campaigns for economic justice and social equality. The group's tactics evolved from pickets and sit-ins for jobs and housing to more dramatic action, such as dumping trash on the steps of Borough Hall to protest inadequate garbage collection. The Brooklyn chapter's lengthy record of activism, however, yielded only modest progress. Its members eventually resorted to desperate measures, such as targeting the opening day of the 1964 World's Fair with a traffic-snarling "stall-in." After that moment, its interracial, nonviolent phase was effectively over. By 1966, the group was more aligned with the black power movement, and a new Brooklyn CORE emerged. Drawing from archival sources and interviews with individuals directly involved in the chapter, Purnell explores how people from diverse backgrounds joined together, solved internal problems, and earned one another's trust before eventually becoming disillusioned and frustrated. Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings adds to our understanding of the broader civil rights movement by examining how it was implemented in an iconic northern city, where interracial activists mounted a heroic struggle against powerful local forms of racism.

The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North

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Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479801313
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North by : Brian Purnell

Download or read book The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North written by Brian Purnell and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did American racism originate in the liberal North? An inquiry into the system of institutionalized racism created by Northern Jim Crow Jim Crow was not a regional sickness, it was a national cancer. Even at the high point of twentieth century liberalism in the North, Jim Crow racism hid in plain sight. Perpetuated by colorblind arguments about “cultures of poverty,” policies focused more on black criminality than black equality. Procedures that diverted resources in education, housing, and jobs away from poor black people turned ghettos and prisons into social pandemics. Americans in the North made this history. They tried to unmake it, too. Liberalism, rather than lighting the way to vanquish the darkness of the Jim Crow North gave racism new and complex places to hide. The twelve original essays in this anthology unveil Jim Crow’s many strange careers in the North. They accomplish two goals: first, they show how the Jim Crow North worked as a system to maintain social, economic, and political inequality in the nation’s most liberal places; and second, they chronicle how activists worked to undo the legal, economic, and social inequities born of Northern Jim Crow policies, practices, and ideas. The book ultimately dispels the myth that the South was the birthplace of American racism, and presents a compelling argument that American racism actually originated in the North.

The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North

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Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479801313
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North by : Brian Purnell

Download or read book The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North written by Brian Purnell and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did American racism originate in the liberal North? An inquiry into the system of institutionalized racism created by Northern Jim Crow Jim Crow was not a regional sickness, it was a national cancer. Even at the high point of twentieth century liberalism in the North, Jim Crow racism hid in plain sight. Perpetuated by colorblind arguments about “cultures of poverty,” policies focused more on black criminality than black equality. Procedures that diverted resources in education, housing, and jobs away from poor black people turned ghettos and prisons into social pandemics. Americans in the North made this history. They tried to unmake it, too. Liberalism, rather than lighting the way to vanquish the darkness of the Jim Crow North gave racism new and complex places to hide. The twelve original essays in this anthology unveil Jim Crow’s many strange careers in the North. They accomplish two goals: first, they show how the Jim Crow North worked as a system to maintain social, economic, and political inequality in the nation’s most liberal places; and second, they chronicle how activists worked to undo the legal, economic, and social inequities born of Northern Jim Crow policies, practices, and ideas. The book ultimately dispels the myth that the South was the birthplace of American racism, and presents a compelling argument that American racism actually originated in the North.

Strike the Hammer

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Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501754424
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Strike the Hammer by : Laura Warren Hill

Download or read book Strike the Hammer written by Laura Warren Hill and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 24, 1964, chaos erupted in Rochester, New York. Strike the Hammer examines the unrest—rebellion by the city's Black community, rampant police brutality—that would radically change the trajectory of the Civil Rights movement. After overcoming a violent response by State Police, the fight for justice, in an upstate town rooted in black power movements, was reborn. That resurgence owed much to years of organizing and resistance in the community. Laura Warren Hill examines Rochester's long Civil Rights history and, drawing extensively on oral accounts of the northern, urban community, offers rich and detailed stories of the area's protest tradition. Augmenting oral testimonies with records from the NAACP, SCLC, and the local FIGHT, Strike the Hammer paints a compelling picture of the foundations for the movement. Now, especially, this story of struggle for justice and resistance to inequality resonates. Hill leads us to consider the social, political, and economic environment more than fifty years ago and how that founding generation of activists left its mark on present-day Rochester.

The Jim Crow North

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 1985900254
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (859 download)

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Book Synopsis The Jim Crow North by : Matthew George Washington

Download or read book The Jim Crow North written by Matthew George Washington and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located approximately forty miles northwest of Philadelphia, the working-class borough of Pottstown does not immediately come to mind as an influential site of the Black freedom struggle. Yet this small town in Pennsylvania served as a significant hub of interracial civil rights activism with regional as well as national impact. In The Jim Crow North: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Matthew George Washington adds another interpretive perspective to historiography by using both the "freedom North" and the "long civil rights movement" theoretical models to frame the borough's unique history. Primary documents, including newspaper accounts, census records, oral histories, and correspondence present a vivid account of a rapidly changing town, from the dawn of its civil rights movement during World War II to the revitalization of its NAACP branch in the early 1950s and its activism throughout the 1960s. Placing special emphasis on the demographic nature of the movement, Washington explores how interracial collaboration among the working class made up the movement's critical base—and how, through it all, Black activists remained front and center. This critical examination of Pottstown illuminates the struggle for African American civil rights in one of the long-ignored urban spaces of the North, providing a rich and in-depth portrait of the Black freedom struggle of postwar America.

The Negro Motorist Green Book

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Author :
Publisher : Colchis Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Negro Motorist Green Book by : Victor H. Green

Download or read book The Negro Motorist Green Book written by Victor H. Green and published by Colchis Books. This book was released on with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North

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Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479881198
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North by : Brian Purnell

Download or read book The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North written by Brian Purnell and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did American racism originate in the liberal North? An inquiry into the system of institutionalized racism created by Northern Jim Crow Jim Crow was not a regional sickness, it was a national cancer. Even at the high point of twentieth century liberalism in the North, Jim Crow racism hid in plain sight. Perpetuated by colorblind arguments about “cultures of poverty,” policies focused more on black criminality than black equality. Procedures that diverted resources in education, housing, and jobs away from poor black people turned ghettos and prisons into social pandemics. Americans in the North made this history. They tried to unmake it, too. Liberalism, rather than lighting the way to vanquish the darkness of the Jim Crow North gave racism new and complex places to hide. The twelve original essays in this anthology unveil Jim Crow’s many strange careers in the North. They accomplish two goals: first, they show how the Jim Crow North worked as a system to maintain social, economic, and political inequality in the nation’s most liberal places; and second, they chronicle how activists worked to undo the legal, economic, and social inequities born of Northern Jim Crow policies, practices, and ideas. The book ultimately dispels the myth that the South was the birthplace of American racism, and presents a compelling argument that American racism actually originated in the North.

Before Busing

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Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469662787
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis Before Busing by : Zebulon Vance Miletsky

Download or read book Before Busing written by Zebulon Vance Miletsky and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many histories of Boston, African Americans have remained almost invisible. Partly as a result, when the 1972 crisis over school desegregation and busing erupted, many observers professed shock at the overt racism on display in the "cradle of liberty." Yet the city has long been divided over matters of race, and it was also home to a far older Black organizing tradition than many realize. A community of Black activists had fought segregated education since the origins of public schooling and racial inequality since the end of northern slavery. Before Busing tells the story of the men and women who struggled and demonstrated to make school desegregation a reality in Boston. It reveals the legal efforts and battles over tactics that played out locally and influenced the national Black freedom struggle. And the book gives credit to the Black organizers, parents, and children who fought long and hard battles for justice that have been left out of the standard narratives of the civil rights movement. What emerges is a clear picture of the long and hard-fought campaigns to break the back of Jim Crow education in the North and make Boston into a better, more democratic city—a fight that continues to this day.

Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement

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Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813179939
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement by : Joe William TrotterJr.

Download or read book Pittsburgh and the Urban League Movement written by Joe William TrotterJr. and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Great Migration, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became a mecca for African Americans seeking better job opportunities, wages, and living conditions. The city's thriving economy and vibrant social and cultural scenes inspired dreams of prosperity and a new start, but this urban haven was not free of discrimination and despair. In the face of injustice, activists formed the Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP) in 1918 to combat prejudice and support the city's growing African American population. In this broad-ranging history, Joe William Trotter Jr. uses this noteworthy branch of the National Urban League to provide new insights into an organization that has often faced criticism for its social programs' deep class and gender limitations. Surveying issues including housing, healthcare, and occupational mobility, Trotter underscores how the ULP—often in concert with the Urban League's national headquarters—bridged social divisions to improve the lives of black citizens of every class. He also sheds new light on the branch's nonviolent direct-action campaigns and places these powerful grassroots operations within the context of the modern Black Freedom Movement. The impact of the National Urban League is a hotly debated topic in African American social and political history. Trotter's study provides valuable new insights that demonstrate how the organization has relieved massive suffering and racial inequality in US cities for more than a century.

The Harlem Uprising

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231543840
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Harlem Uprising by : Christopher Hayes

Download or read book The Harlem Uprising written by Christopher Hayes and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1964, after a white police officer shot and killed an African American teenage boy, unrest broke out in Harlem and then Bedford-Stuyvesant. Protests rose up to call for an end to police brutality and the unequal treatment of Black people in a city that viewed itself as liberal. A week of upheaval ensued, including looting and property damage as well as widespread police violence, in what would be the first of the 1960s urban uprisings. Christopher Hayes examines the causes and consequences of the uprisings, from the city’s history of racial segregation in education, housing, and employment to the ways in which the police both neglected and exploited Black neighborhoods. While the national civil rights movement was securing substantial victories in the 1950s and 1960s, Black New Yorkers saw little or uneven progress. Faced with a lack of economic opportunities, pervasive discrimination, and worsening quality of life, they felt a growing sense of disenchantment with the promises of city leaders. Turning to the aftermath of the uprising, Hayes demonstrates that the city’s power structure continued its refusal to address structural racism. In the most direct local outcome, a broad, interracial coalition of activists called for civilian review of complaints against the police. The NYPD’s rank and file fought this demand bitterly, further inflaming racial tensions. The story of the uprisings and what happened next reveals the white backlash against civil rights in the north and crystallizes the limits of liberalism. Drawing on a range of archives, this book provides a vivid portrait of postwar New York City, a new perspective on the civil rights era, and a timely analysis of deeply entrenched racial inequalities.

The New Brooklyn

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442266589
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Brooklyn by : Kay S. Hymowitz

Download or read book The New Brooklyn written by Kay S. Hymowitz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-01-22 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The New Brooklyn, Kay Hymowitz chronicles the policies and events that transformed Brooklyn so dramatically in such a short period of time. Her portrait of the dramatic transformation of one urban center offers prescriptions that any city can employ and will be required reading for everyone interested in the rebirth of America’s cities.

King Al

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Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823298884
Total Pages : 135 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis King Al by : Ron Howell

Download or read book King Al written by Ron Howell and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible story of the man and legend who has come to symbolize the continuing pursuit of justice for Blacks in the United States Through the 1980s, the mainstream press portrayed the Reverend Al Sharpton as a buffoon, a fake minister, a hustler, an opportunist, a demagogue, a race traitor, and an anti-Semite. Today, Sharpton occupies a throne that would have shocked the white newspaper reporters who covered him forty years ago. A mesmerizing story of astounding transformation, craftiness, and survival, King Al follows Reverend Sharpton’s life trajectory, from his early life as a boy preacher to his present moment as the most popular Black American activist/minister/cable news host. In the 1980s, Rev. Al created controversies that would have doomed a lesser man to the dustbin of history. Among these controversies were his work with the FBI as the agency attempted to locate Black Liberation Army leader Assata Shakur; and his involvement in the 1987 Tawana Brawley episode. Regarding the Brawley matter, a white prosecutor sued Sharpton, successfully, for falsely accusing him of having raped the then-fifteen-year-old Brawley. It was the white press, in its glory days, that created the podium from which Sharpton became both famous and infamous. Those reporters would joke that the most dangerous place in New York was between Al Sharpton and a television camera. But it was those reporters who made Sharpton the media figure he is today. Today, as host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation news program, Sharpton has more news viewers than those reporters ever had readers. The Reverend Al’s rise to respectability is a testament to an endurance and boldness steeped in Black American history. Born in Brooklyn to parents from the old slave-holding South, he transformed himself into one of the most respected and politically influential Blacks in the United States. In his in-depth coverage, author Ron Howell tells the stories of Sharpton’s ascendance to the throne. He tells us about the glory years of American newspapers, when Sharpton began his rise. And he tells us about the politicians who intersected with Sharpton as he climbed the ladder. King Al is an engaging read about the late-twentieth-century history of New York City politics and race relations, as well as about the remarkable staying power of the colorful, politically skillful, and enigmatic Sharpton.

Battle for Bed-Stuy

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674545060
Total Pages : 425 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (745 download)

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Book Synopsis Battle for Bed-Stuy by : Michael Woodsworth

Download or read book Battle for Bed-Stuy written by Michael Woodsworth and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-06 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1960s Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood was labeled America’s largest ghetto. But its brownstones housed a coterie of black professionals intent on bringing order and hope to the community. In telling their story Michael Woodsworth reinterprets the War on Poverty by revealing its roots in local activism and policy experiments.

Fight the Power

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Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479811084
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Fight the Power by : Clarence Taylor

Download or read book Fight the Power written by Clarence Taylor and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A story of resistance, power and politics as revealed through New York City’s complex history of police brutality The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri was the catalyst for a national conversation about race, policing, and injustice. The subsequent killings of other black (often unarmed) citizens led to a surge of media coverage which in turn led to protests and clashes between the police and local residents that were reminiscent of the unrest of the 1960s. Fight the Power examines the explosive history of police brutality in New York City and the black community’s long struggle to resist it. Taylor brings this story to life by exploring the institutions and the people that waged campaigns to end the mistreatment of people of color at the hands of the police, including the black church, the black press, black communists and civil rights activists. Ranging from the 1940s to the mayoralty of Bill de Blasio, Taylor describes the significant strides made in curbing police power in New York City, describing the grassroots street campaigns as well as the accomplishments achieved in the political arena and in the city’s courtrooms. Taylor challenges the belief that police reform is born out of improved relations between communities and the authorities arguing that the only real solution is radically reducing the police domination of New York’s black citizens.

Shirley Chisholm

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Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 470 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Shirley Chisholm by : Anastasia C. Curwood

Download or read book Shirley Chisholm written by Anastasia C. Curwood and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaking up New York and national politics by becoming the first African American congresswoman and, later, the first Black major-party presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm left an indelible mark as an "unbought and unbossed" firebrand and a leader in politics for meaningful change. Chisholm spent her formative years moving between Barbados and Brooklyn, and the development of her political orientation did not follow the standard narratives of the civil rights or feminist establishments. Rather, Chisholm arrived at her Black feminism on her own path, making signature contributions to U.S. politics as an inventor and practitioner of Black feminist power—the vantage point centering Black girls and women in the movement that sought to transform political power into a broadly democratic force. Anastasia C. Curwood interweaves Chisholm's public image, political commitments, and private experiences to create a definitive account of a consequential life. In so doing, Curwood suggests new truths for understanding the social movements of Chisholm's time and the opportunities she forged for herself through multicultural, multigenerational, and cross-gender coalition building.

A More Beautiful and Terrible History

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Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807075876
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis A More Beautiful and Terrible History by : Jeanne Theoharis

Download or read book A More Beautiful and Terrible History written by Jeanne Theoharis and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised by The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Bitch Magazine; Slate; Publishers Weekly; and more, this is “a bracing corrective to a national mythology” (New York Times) around the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement has become national legend, lauded by presidents from Reagan to Obama to Trump, as proof of the power of American democracy. This fable, featuring dreamy heroes and accidental heroines, has shuttered the movement firmly in the past, whitewashed the forces that stood in its way, and diminished its scope. And it is used perniciously in our own times to chastise present-day movements and obscure contemporary injustice. In A More Beautiful and Terrible History award-winning historian Jeanne Theoharis dissects this national myth-making, teasing apart the accepted stories to show them in a strikingly different light. We see Rosa Parks not simply as a bus lady but a lifelong criminal justice activist and radical; Martin Luther King, Jr. as not only challenging Southern sheriffs but Northern liberals, too; and Coretta Scott King not only as a “helpmate” but a lifelong economic justice and peace activist who pushed her husband’s activism in these directions. Moving from “the histories we get” to “the histories we need,” Theoharis challenges nine key aspects of the fable to reveal the diversity of people, especially women and young people, who led the movement; the work and disruption it took; the role of the media and “polite racism” in maintaining injustice; and the immense barriers and repression activists faced. Theoharis makes us reckon with the fact that far from being acceptable, passive or unified, the civil rights movement was unpopular, disruptive, and courageously persevering. Activists embraced an expansive vision of justice—which a majority of Americans opposed and which the federal government feared. By showing us the complex reality of the movement, the power of its organizing, and the beauty and scope of the vision, Theoharis proves that there was nothing natural or inevitable about the progress that occurred. A More Beautiful and Terrible History will change our historical frame, revealing the richness of our civil rights legacy, the uncomfortable mirror it holds to the nation, and the crucial work that remains to be done. Winner of the 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize in Nonfiction

Soul City

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Publisher : Metropolitan Books
ISBN 13 : 1627798617
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (277 download)

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Book Synopsis Soul City by : Thomas Healy

Download or read book Soul City written by Thomas Healy and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice The fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country” In 1969, with America’s cities in turmoil and racial tensions high, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announced an audacious plan: he would build a new city in rural North Carolina, open to all but intended primarily to benefit Black people. Named Soul City, the community secured funding from the Nixon administration, planning help from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and endorsements from the New York Times and the Today show. Before long, the brand-new settlement – built on a former slave plantation – had roads, houses, a health care center, and an industrial plant. By the year 2000, projections said, Soul City would have fifty thousand residents. But the utopian vision was not to be. The race-baiting Jesse Helms, newly elected as senator from North Carolina, swore to stop government spending on the project. Meanwhile, the liberal Raleigh News & Observer mistakenly claimed fraud and corruption in the construction effort. Battered from the left and the right, Soul City was shut down after just a decade. Today, it is a ghost town – and its industrial plant, erected to promote Black economic freedom, has been converted into a prison. In a gripping, poignant narrative, acclaimed author Thomas Healy resurrects this forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality. Was it an impossible dream from the beginning? Or a brilliant idea thwarted by prejudice and ignorance? And how might America be different today if Soul City had been allowed to succeed?