Product Description
Analyzing the beginnings of black self-consciousness, this book maps the structure of segregation and bigotry in America between 1954 and 1963. The author considers the constantly changing behaviour of those in Washington with regard to the injustice of offical racism operating in many states at this time. This book won the 1989 Martin Luther King Memorial prize. ... Read more

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The Civil Rights Movement warrants continuing and extensive examination. The six papers in this collection, each supplemented by a follow-up assessment, contribute to a clearer perception of what caused and motivated the movement, of how it functioned, of the changes that occurred within it, and of its accomplishments and shortcomings. Its profound effect upon modern America has so greatly changed relations between the races that C. Vann Woodward has called it the "second revolution."

In a limited space the eleven scholars range with a definitive view over a large subject. Their papers analyze and emphasize the Civil Rights Movement's important aspects: its origins and causes, its strategies and tactics for accomplishing black freedom, the creative tensions in its leadership, the politics of the movement in the key state of Mississippi, and the role of federal law and federal courts.

In this collection a scholarly balance is achieved for each paper by a follow-up commentary from a significant authority. By deepening the understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, these essays underscore what has been gained through struggle, as well as acknowledging the goals that are yet to be attained. ... Read more

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Rosa Parks was often described as a sweet and reticent elderly woman whose tired feet caused her to defy segregation on Montgomery’s city buses, and whose supposedly solitary, spontaneous act sparked the 1955 bus boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement.

The truth of who Rosa Parks was and what really lay beneath the 1955 boycott is far different from anything previously written.

In this groundbreaking and important book, Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that ultimately changed the world.

The author gives us the never-before-told history of how the civil rights movement began; how it was in part started in protest against the ritualistic rape of black women by white men who used economic intimidation, sexual violence, and terror to derail the freedom movement; and how those forces persisted unpunished throughout the Jim Crow era when white men assaulted black women to enforce rules of racial and economic hierarchy. Black women’s protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South that began during World War II and went through to the Black Power movement. The Montgomery bus boycott was the baptism, not the birth, of that struggle.

At the Dark End of the Street describes the decades of degradation black women on the Montgomery city buses endured on their way to cook and clean for their white bosses. It reveals how Rosa Parks, by 1955 one of the most radical activists in Alabama, had had enough. “There had to be a stopping place,” she said, “and this seemed to be the place for me to stop being pushed around.” Parks refused to move from her seat on the bus, was arrested, and, with fierce activist Jo Ann Robinson, organized a one-day bus boycott.

The protest, intended to last twenty-four hours, became a yearlong struggle for dignity and justice. It broke the back of the Montgomery city bus lines and bankrupted the company.

We see how and why Rosa Parks, instead of becoming a leader of the movement she helped to start, was turned into a symbol of virtuous black womanhood, sainted and celebrated for her quiet dignity, prim demeanor, and middle-class propriety—her radicalism all but erased. And we see as well how thousands of black women whose courage and fortitude helped to transform America were reduced to the footnotes of history.

A controversial, moving, and courageous book; narrative history at its best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An Amazing Insight into Civil Rights
Most Americans have only the slightest notions about what was really behind the 1960's civil rights movement.Even though I was a baby boomer who was raised in Detroit, (certainly a racially mixed city), I had no concept of the real motivations behind the great social changes which actually began in the 1950's.
Dr Danielle McGuireis a member of The Organization of American Historians Distinguished Leadership Program.Serving as an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan focuses her research and writing interests on the role of African American Women in the civil rights movement.She explores this era in her captivating book, At the Dark End of the Street, which describes the events leading up to this crucial period
"Sex is the principal around which the whole structure of segregation is organized".As the opening quotation in her book , McGuire immediately confronts us with her primary theme. In the book McGuire describes the sexual terror and violence suffered by African American women and how significant a part they played in the civil rights movement. More importantly she explores the sexual exploitation of southern African American women, by southern white men.The author devotes a substantial portion of the book to the important role black women played in not only starting the movement, but also by providing organization, fund raising and support without which the movement could never have been successful. With these women serving as central to the work, McGuire also provides a tremendous amount of information concerning the civil rights movement itself.
Furthermore the author explains how difficult a task it was for this exploitation to be challenged in the courts by African American women.McGuire identifies this exploitation as the primary factor behind the struggle between whites and African Americans since slavery.Despite segregationist cries against a "mixed breed society" and defense of the white women's honor, McGuire feels that the real civil rights issues centered aroundthe ability of southern white men to have free sexual access to the African American community. She cites countless examples through her narrative clearly demonstrating the validity of her ideas.
McGuire uses the stories of the sexual violence not only to shock the reader but also to educate the reader as to the experience of being a Black female victim of sexual violence in the 1950's. Ranging from 1940 through 1975, At the Dark End of the Street traces the history of several black women, all victims of sexual violence, who were important to the civil rights movement. These women include, but are not limited to: Recy Taylor, Gertrude Perkins, Flossie Hardman, Annette Butler, Betty Jean Owen, Fannie Lou Hammer and Joan Little. A group of 7 white men raped Recy Taylor in 1944: Two white policemen raped Gertrude Perkinsin 1949, A young white maleraped Flossie Hardman after she had babysat for his family in 1951; Four white males took 16 yr old Annette Butler from her home and raped her: Four white men kidnapped Betty Jean Owens from a car, took her to an isolated spot and raped her in 1959; A doctor performed a forced hysterectomy on Fannie Lou Hammer, during a procedure to remove a small cyst in1961: A sheriffs deputy molested and raped Joan Little in her jail cell in 1974. Maguire also demonstrates how these women and their cases, prior to the 1956 bus boycott, played such an integral role in creating a foundation for the bus boycott.The bus boycott was more than just a struggle for a seat on the bus, it was the pinnacle of a struggle for the dignity of black women throughout the south.
Recy Taylor, the first victim describedin the bookwas twenty four at the time of the crime.She was walking down a country road, in Abbeville Alabama, with friends when a car carrying seven white males stopped on the road. The men confronted Recy with the story that she had been accused of knifing someone earlier in the day. Although both she and her companions denied her involvement since they had been together that day, the white men persuaded Taylor that she needed to come with them.One of the men said, "If she's not the one, we will bring her right back".The men took Taylor to a nearby pecan grove where six of them raped her. The men then drove Recy Taylor to the main highway and dropped her off with no concern for her welfare or for the fact that she might complain to the authorities
McGuire's telling certainly illustrates that these men had absolutely no fear in kidnapping and raping Recy Taylor. They did not hide their faces nor try to conceal the vehicle they were in. Nor was Taylor blindfold during the abduction and subsequent rape. She could clearly identify her assailants. In fact, some of her assailants were actually her neighbors. The pure arrogance of the act demonstrated the men's confidence that the southern judicial system would not prosecute them for acts of violence against African American women. Despite the two grand juries that were formed to investigate the case, none of these men would ever be prosecuted for the crime. What is most remarkable about the case is the courage and fortitude which Recy Taylor demonstrated in telling her family, the police and a jury about the horrendous crime which had taken place. She was a very brave woman to expose her shame on such a public stage.
On March 27, 1949 Gertrude Perkins was walking home from a party in Montgomery Alabama when she was arrested by two white police officers.Smelling beer on her breath, the two officers ordered her to get in their squad car as they accused her of public drunkenness.When she refused they forced Perkins into the backseat. The officers then drove to a railroad embankment and proceeded to rape her several times at gunpoint. When they finished, the officers took Perkins back to where they found her and dumped her in the middle of town.Once more, these events describe an incident where the assailants did nothing to hide who they were and where they were from. The fact that they were local white policemen who knew the legal system, further demonstrates that southern white males knew absolutely nothing would happen to a white male who raped a black female. The local authorities did nothing to pursue the case. After several organizing efforts and pressure on a national level a grand jury was formed to investigate the case. The grand jury found no grounds for prosecuting the officer in question.
In 1951, Sam E Green, a white grocery store owner in Montgomery Alabama, who employed fifteen year old Flossie Hardman as a babysitter, drove her home at the end of the evening.Instead of taking her home, he pulled to the side of a quiet road and raped her. This crime was especially brutal considering the girl was an adolescent. Obviously, even the threat of statutory rape was not enough to discourage Green from attacking Hardman. After a considerable amount of protest by the African American community, Green was brought to trial. An all white jury found him innocent after deliberating for only five minutes. The outcome in this case absolutely enraged the black community. Despite the fact that there was overwhelming evidence that she had been raped, the defendant was released without so much as a slap on the hands. These cases served to provide further tinder to the flame of discontent which was building in the black community.
On Mother's Day, May 13, 1956, four white males went looking for"some colored women" . The .men took weapons including, a sawed off shotgun, and approached an African American man who was preparing for work. The men ordered the African American man to take them to the house where there were some black women inside. They were lead to the house of a sixteen year old African American girl, Annette Butler. She was sleeping in bed with her mother.The teenager was pulled out of bed while the men pointed a shotgun at her mother who they threatened to kill. The men forced the girl into their car and drove to a local swamp.After raping her, the white males left her at the scene. Once again the arrogance of southern white men was described by the author.Not only did these men involve the victim, but also a total stranger who could tie them to the victim and the victim's mother. Although justice was partially served when the four men were given long term sentences, their total disregard for the law demonstrates southern white male confidence that they would not suffer any punishment. What is particularly notable about this case is that it took place in Mississippi. This was the first instance where a white male was given a strong jail sentence for the rape of a black woman.
In addition to doing an excellent job detailing the cases of sexual violence, McGuire goes one step further when she describes the difficulty experienced by these women and their families in attempting to go to the authorities for each of the victims.Not only had the victims felt the trauma associated with the crime, they now had to face an even bigger obstacle. Victims would have to make public their humiliation. More importantly, they would have to face the perpetrators responsible for these crimes. Victims were subjected todeath threats, house bombings and abuse in their own towns. Although they all had a support base, many African Americans felt that the proactive stance was dangerous to their community and would only fostered more discontent between the African American and white communities.Most white and many black ministers believed in taking a passive role in these matters and segregation as a while. They felt that things were changing and through the passage of time these injustices would be corrected.McGuire clearly shows the bravery and fortitude of these women and their willingness to take a stand against the southern white supremacist legal system.McGuire firmly believes that the stand taken by these women against violence was critical in the breaking down segregation in the south. Leon A. Lowery, who was head of the Florida state NAACP said after the case that it would help "Negroes more in the long run" by setting a precedent for equal justice in future rape case.
The book spends a good deal of time describing some of the other very important women in the early days of civil rights. Rosa Perkins, Joann Robinson, and Georgia Gilmore were examples of women who played a major rule in the early days of the civil rights movement.Their actions and support during the Montgomery Bus Boycott were critical to the success of the boycott.
McGuire is a passionate author who wastes no time in bringing her message to her audience. The opening quotation of her book is "Sex is the principle around which the whole structure of segregation is organized."This statement succinctly describes McGuire's ideas regarding segregation. Just the title, At the Dark End of The Street conveys the message that what is contained within the book is dark and terrifying.McGuire has a very special skill in not only conveying interesting stories of each victim, but in telling stories for which she has sympathy and compassion.McGuire develops each story so that we not only see the victim but we see that each of these women are heroines demonstrating tremendous courage in the face of a southern judicial system which has ignored them for two hundred years.The bravery that these women demonstrated became an integral part of the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1960's.

Wow, this is a fantastic read
This book is a remarkably powerful account of a story which is central to american history. You will be glad you bought this book.

Be sure to add this book to your "To Read" list....
McGuire's book is enlightening and provocative and a masterful story of the courage of the women that came forward to expose the assaults they endured and were subjected to; further how they fueled the Civil Rights Movement.In addition, it exposes the never before written about activist activities of Rosa Parks long before she participated in the Montgomery Bus boycott.

Sometimes, a book comes along that not only is well written, but is an important part of American History that all of us should be aware of and not forget.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down.
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power

Inspiring, and a great read!
For years, I have read mostly fiction because, at the end of a day of working and chores and such, I usually want to read something that is lovely and that rolls along, frankly, without much effort.I want to visit another world and peer into other lives.At best, I want to be inspired.At worst, I want to be entertained and to not be annoyed by poorly written prose.Through the years, because I want my reading to inform my perception of the real world, I have gravitated more and more toward fiction that is written in order to illuminate a particular time or an actual human struggle.
Although Danielle McGuire's At the Dark End of the Street is a solidly researched history book (with an attendant fat section of fascinating endnotes) it met all of my requirements, and impressed me enough that I am taking the time to recommend it to you.It is beautifully written and zips along, lining up stories that lead naturally one to the other.Each evening, as with a good novel, I was anxious to get back to the book to see what was happening to its protagonists.This book deals with a harsh and real world, but peoples that world with women who inspire through their willingness to make their tragedies public, and to tell truth to power even though that power could reload and hurt them, and those they loved, again and again. I hope that McGuire's book will be read widely, because it will challenge the Great Man narratives that predominate in our public telling of the civil rights movement and help us to recognize the potential that ordinary people, speaking bravely and honestly, can have to change the course of history. But perhaps my favorite aspect of this brutal but uplifting history is that it illuminates the power of testimony as a personal and social and political act.

Intelligent, Intoxicating and Groundbreaking
For me, books like this don't come around very often. I'm somewhat of an esteemed expert in this area of history and culture and I'm always impressed when I read something that truly adds to our body of history and establishes a viewpoint that creates or changes the dialogue on a subject. This is a book that shines a very brilliant light on a segment of the civil rights movement that hasn't been properly examined before and its a stunning, rich, and fascinating read. I was moved in just about every way that a person can be; and I can only hope that it finds its way into every home, heart and mind out there regardless of color or gender. It needs to be read. It needs to be heard. It needs to be felt. ... Read more

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Covers three decades of history in these eyewitness accounts, from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Miami riots of the 1980s. Most of the "voices" are unknown - the ordinary citizens of America - but the work also includes contributions by individuals such as Jesse Jackson and Stokely Carmichael. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

did this one
an excellent textbook and real-to-life accounts to some of black people history in the Amerikkkas

Everyone should read this book
If you haven't read "Voices of Freedom" you are missing out on a great read and some important history.Although most people know about the civil rights movement, this books goes beneath that and gets the stories from the people that were actually there, living in it everyday.I learned so much from this book than what was taught in school's history classes.It's extremely powerful to hear the emotions and stories from the people who's lives were affected by this movement.I highly recommend this book to everyone and will be sure my son reads it when he is older.

Relatively balanced and readable history
As the title of the review states, this is a fairly readable and balanced history of the civil rights movement. I give it four stars because I feel a few sections became unnecessarily long and drawn out. This was assigned reading for a political science class I took, but I don't regret reading it. Some of the stories are more attention-grabbing than others, but all are worthy of our time.

This is Our American History
VOICES OF FREEDOM:AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FROM THE 1950S THROUGH THE 1980s shows readers the steps that were taken to achieve equal rights for African Americans and all American citizens.All of the important actors, activists, politicians, and average individuals who attempted and succeeded to change a society that had been blinded for hundreds years, are mentioned and heard who helped many American citizens to gain the respect they rightfully deserved as citizens and human beings of the United States of America, and not ambiguous written clauses of the US Constitution referring to property.

Henry Hampton and Steven Fayer along with Sarah Flynn compile a host of significant people of the civil rights era of the 1950s to 1980s.With their testimonials and eyewitness accounts they share their collective memories of the past to clarify misconceptions and misinterpretations that involved the activism that existed to spearhead the civil rights movement.They also revealed the disjointedness and lack of effort to keep the momentum going and the bureaucratic ramblings hat slowed and deadlocked the movement during the late 1960s.Key figures and activists are mentioned, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and his many cohorts who led the way toward a peaceful and non-violent movement as did the Black Panthers who were portrayed as militants, and who's history has been misconstrued with controversy.Indeed, both movements shared a common goal, which was to achieve freedom and equality.

The book begins with one of the major incidents that jump started the civil rights movement in the 1950s, the Emmett Till incidence in 1955.Other monumental events proceed, such as the discussion and explanation of Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, the Little Rock Crisis, the March on Washington in 1963 and a list of other significant events.The book ends with issue of Affirmative Action that occurred in Atlanta from 1973-1980.Thoughts come to mind while reading about these events -- some things change, and some things never stop being an issue.

The Civil Rights Movement has not gone away.Every decade in American history has had a movement led by average citizens who wanted to make a change.But books such as VOICES OF FREEDOM helps readers identify the movers and shakers of American society who helped bring the truth of freedom and democracy, which are embedded in the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution of the United States, as a reality.Possibly now may be a good time to revisit these voices of freedom.

Great piece of oral history
Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer have collected a small sampling of civil rights oral history that has yet to be duplicated in a modern book on the era.They have included all of the key figures involved in the movement, Dr. King and Malcolm X, along with Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis and Andrew Young.What they have also done is give readers the non-famous persons perspective on the various events surrounding the movement. This has been invaluable to me in my research and a truly enjoyable read.It should be a must read for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Accessible history and a "good read"
Although well-researched and scholarly, this history of the predominantly black Seattle Central District is enjoyable and accessible for the non-historian due to Dr. Taylor's engaging writing style. The book touches on broader topics than the title might indicate, for example, inter-minority relationships between the Asian- and African-American communities. I found his treatment of the opposing views on school busing, w/in the black community, to be an example of how one can approach respectfully discussing differing--even sharply differing-- points of view. There are extensive footnotes for those who would like to go on to read his sources. This book is a "good read."

Important book
The review that follows says it all, but I want to add that this is THE book for African American history in the Seattle area. I found it moving and thought-provoking. Anyone serious about understanding issues of diversity in the Pacific Northwest should begin with this book.

great overview
Though Seattle's experience may be somewhat different from other parts of the country, the issues were still (and are still) complex. This book not only puts it all in context, but leaves you hungry for more. It's an opportunity to discover unsung heroes, mourn blaring injustices, and refresh the belief that we can still learn from the past in order to forge a better future. As a native of Seattle who spent 8 years living in Georgia, I especially appreciated the breadth of information. Reading Taylor's book inspired me to read Horace Cayton's autobiography and follow up on some of the other sources Taylor drew on. Well written, dynamic, and comprehensive. ... Read more

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While a decade of national prosperity has largely left African Americans behind, this book takes a look at the causes of black economic oppression and offers challenging steps to overcome this problem. Rather than relying on a victim's mentality, this book addresses the reasons why African Americans earn over $530 billion, yet spend less than 3 percent with black-owned business. Also discussed are black churches and organizations and their failure to be economic leaders in their communities. ... Read more

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Saving Black America: Economic Civil Rights
I was please with the product. It was timely delivered, and it was in good condition.
JC.

Not only identifies problems, it also offers solutions
In Saving Black America: An Economic Plan For Civil Rights, consultant, educator, and civil rights leader John Odom addresses the very real issues of poverty and finance that directly affect millions of African-Americans today. Focusing in turns on the dilemma of whether Civil Rights organizations can accept donations from predominantly white foundations and remain focused on liberation strategies, why and how one third of African-Americans today live below the poverty line and what should be done about it, and much more. An absolute must-read for every American civil rights activist, Saving Black America not only identifies problems, it also offers solutions and blueprints to put in action for a better tomorrow. ... Read more

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This book describes the substantive state of the law with regard to lesbian and gay rights. It begins with some background information to put the modern fight for lesbian and gay rights in its proper historical context, then categorizes lesbian and gay rights claims into three areas-individual rights in private contexts, individual rights in public contexts, and couple or family rights thought of as private but pushing into the public sphere-that add up to a single principle: the right to be human in a modern society.

Arguing against the popular misconception that the Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement began with Stonewall in 1969, Patricia Cain shows that the first gay rights organization in the United States was formed in 1924 in Chicago. From the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles and the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco, to the formation of the Society for Individual Rights (SIR) in 1964, the book examines the ways that these early organizations, although different from today's gay rights groups, served as important contributions to the modern fight for lesbian and gay legal rights. The author looks at how the most important cases of the 1950s and '60s-the political battles over keeping gay and lesbian bars open and the fight by government employees to keep their jobs during the governmental purge of suspected homosexuals along with suspected communists during the McCarthy era-have helped to shape the state of the law today.

By exploring the background, key cases, and important issues yet to be resolved, Lesbian and Gay Rights translates the legal claims and arguments into accessible language and concepts which will be of interest not only to lawyers and law students, but also to persons not trained in the law.Amazon.com Review
An excellent resource to consider alongside the recent political histories of the gay rights movement (such as John Malone's 21st Century Gay and John d'Emilio, William Turner, and Urvashi Vaid's Creating Change), this authoritative history and critique offers a detailed examination of the legal advances made in gay civil rights in America over the past 70 years, the strategies used in court, and the alliances and shifts in public policy and opinion that have strengthened these advances. Equal attention, however, is given to Bowers v. Hardwick, Padula, and other disappointments, the better to help prepare civil rights attorneys for future battles in court. In her introduction, Patricia A. Cain tracks the meanings of the rainbow as a gay symbol, referring to Judy Grahn's research and of course to the Judy Garland song, but also quoting Gilbert Baker, the San Francisco creator of the rainbow flag, who admired the diversity of the gay community. "I mean to capture all these meanings in my title Rainbow Rights," explains Cain:

I am looking for legal arguments that are transformative, that can bring us to that place over the rainbow where even bluebirds fly, and I am not the least bit interested in legal arguments that are not capable, in the end, of bringing us all there--black, white, brown, every color, male, female, able-bodied or not, rich or poor, English-speaking or not, gay, nongay, bisexual, and transgendered.

Customer Reviews (1)

A book that explains the law to nonlawyers.
This book is written for nonlawyers as well as lawyers. It is particularly good at explaining key legal concepts to the nonlawyer reader. The comparisons made between of various civil rights movements (e.g., race, sex, sexual orientation) are both interesting and helpful. ... Read more

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When slavery ended in the United States, white America's opinion that blacks were second class citizens did not.For more than a century afterwards African Americans struggled to obtain basic rights and change resistant attitudes in a nation that promised freedom and equality for all. (20020901) ... Read more

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Examining the Mexican American struggle for equal education during the 1960s and 1970s in the Southwest in general and in a California community in particular, Donato challenges conventional wisdom that Mexican Americans were passive victims, accepting their educational fates. He looks at how Mexican American parents confronted the relative tranquility of school governance, how educators responded to increasing numbers of Mexican Americans in schools, how school officials viewed problems faced by Mexican American children, and why educators chose specific remedies. Finally, he examines how federal, state, and local educational policies corresponded with the desires of the Mexican American community. ... Read more

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The other strugglefor equal schools: Mexican American during
this book is a book for one to read and share with groups allowing them to understand our culture and the importence of indentity to one-self. ... Read more

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A multifaceted study of a little known aspect of the Civil Rights Movement
Much has been said and written about how television raised the veil on Jim Crow - for example, the fact that stark images of police brutality against African Americans were broadcast into homes around the nation. But before television, Americans connected with the world via radio, and Jim Crow lacked the power to segregate what came over the airwaves.

Ward explores the myriad ways network and local radio were used to advance the cause of Civil Rights and racial uplift, from obvious uses such as announcements of protests and rallies, to more subtle image enhancing programs such as "homemaker shows" (which might have served double duty by helping to create the collective female consciousness so crucial to themovement.)

Ward neither presents nor defends a monolithic image of black vs white radio owners, producers, on-air personalities or even consumers. Throughout the book, in various towns and sometimes even at the same station, we meet some professionals of both races dedicated to the cause, and others dedicated to the bottom line. We meet listeners who are tuning in for news of the struggle and others who just want to be entertained. Sometimes they got both at the same time.

It's rare to find a book which is both exhaustively researched AND enjoyable to read. I can obviously recommend it to anyone interested in African American Studies but I go a step further and recommend it to "old time radio" buffs as well. As one with an interest in both areas, I feel like I got 2 books for the price of one! ... Read more

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· What real progress have we made to meaningfully reformAmerica's schools?

· Is the racial make-up of today's schools, as Paul Streetargues, in a state of de facto apartheid?· How do we begin to realize the equality that Brown v.Board of Education envisioned?

With an eye to the historical development of segregatededucation, Street examines the current state of schoolfunding, disparities in teacher quality, student-teacherratios, and more. Critical of "No Child Left Behind" andthe school vouchers initiative, Street proposes no easyanswers for creating equal educational opportunities forevery American child. Instead, he offers both theoreticalconcepts and practical solutions for fulfilling thepromise of integrated and equitable schools for all. ... Read more

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Much Better Stuff Out There on This Issue
As someone who has read a lot on the topics of inequities in educational opportunity and segregation by class and race in our schools, I don't think this book, written by a former Chicago Urban League official, contributed much useful to the literature.It is written primarily from a sociological point of view which, while it offers some useful insights, represents ground covered often elsewhere and more effectively.(For pathbreaking sociological analysis of educational opportunity, James Coleman's 1966 Equality of Educational Opportunity report has not been topped; William Julius Wilson has also done outstanding work on opportunity structures writing from this tradition).Jonathan Kozol, writing from primarily a journalistic point of view in Savage Inequalities, covered similar ground in an emotionally and humanly compelling way.

Street's analysis is unenlightening and at times sloppy, often and inexcusably, for example, conflating references to social class and race-based inequities.The secondary sources cited are relatively few, narrow, and generally weak, with few primary sources or original research.Street ends up undeclared on whether school integration is on balance a good idea, supports funding equity as necessary but not sufficient to achieve equality of educational opportunity, and is tepidly supportive of reducing residential segregation without proposing means to do that.He strikes this reader as generally stuck in a 1960s time warp rhetorically (the US war in Vietnam, which for reader reference I believe was a mistake, was "racist" and "neocolonial" in his view, assertions likely to alienate some readers who might otherwise be more open to his thinking and arguments; "capitalism" is castigated as if it were a single phenomenon taking identical form everywhere).

If you want to read well-argued and sourced cases for school integration that come to terms with the experiences of earlier decades, read Richard Kahlenberg's All Together Now or Gerald Grant's Hope and Despair in the American City.If you want the latest and best research on where the US stands on school segregation today, and why it matters, check out the work of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.Ron Suskind's A Hope in the Unseen gives life and human texture to the sociological abstractions in powerfully portraying the experience of an African American boy growing up in a highly segregated southeast Washington, DC neighborhood.Amy Stuart Wells' personal retrospective Both Sides Now, on her experiences attending racially integrated schools in the St. Louis area, is insightful and well worth reading, as is all of her work that I have come across.Common Ground, by the late J. Anthony Lukas on the Boston busing experience in the 1970s, is masterful as a starting point for assessing the more recent US historical experience with efforts to reduce racial school segregation.Susan Eaton's The Children in Room E4 overlaps in purpose and scope with most of the above-cited sources. ... Read more

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A compelling and readable narrative history, How Long? How Long? presents both a rethinking of social movement theory and a controversial thesis: that chroniclers have egregiously neglected the most important leaders of the Civil Rights movement, African-American women, in favor of higher-profile African-American men and white women. Author Belinda Robnett argues that the diversity of experiences of the African-American women organizers has been underemphasized in favor of monolithic treatments of their femaleness and blackness.

Drawing heavily on interviews with actual participants in the American Civil Rights movement, this work retells the movement as seen through the eyes and spoken through the voices of African-American women participants. It is the first book to provide an analysis of race, class, gender, and culture as substructures that shaped the organization and outcome of the movement. Robnett examines the differences among women participants in the movement and offers the first cohesive analysis of the gendered relations and interactions among its black activists, thus demonstrating that femaleness and blackness cannot be viewed as sufficient signifiers for movement experience and individual identity. Finally, this book makes a significant contribution to social movement theory by providing a crucial understanding of the continuity and complexity of social movements, clarifying the need for different layers of leadership that come to satisfy different movement needs.

An engaging narrative history as well as a major contribution to social movement and feminist theory, How Long? How Long? will appeal to students and scholars of social activism, women's studies, American history, and African-American studies, and to general readers interested in the perennially fascinating story of the American Civil Rights movement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Forgetting the CORE
Belinda Robnett comes to an area of history and historical sociology where literally tons of evidence require consideration before generalizations can be drawn.She writes a compelling if not convincing narrative of the plight of women in SNCC and SCLC, two organizations which were dominated by men and utilized a careful and covert policy that excluded women from formal leadership positions. She is dead-on about these groups and, much to her credit, tells it like it was.However, Professor Robnett falls down badly on her generalizations that the movement for civil rights was uniform in its treatment of women.The Congress of Racial Equality, the third member of the big civil rights organizations was not, at least until its 1968 take-over by Roy Innis, a sexist organization, as the esteemed Dr. Robnett would allow her readers to believe. CORE always had significant, if not powerful, female leadership, practiced a gender equality that is today an example for any social organization, and cannot be characterized as one dominated or even swayed by male-exclusive policies. Robnett tried to deny her "oversight" in the pages of the American Journal of Sociology (May 1998)after she was cited, by myself, for failing to credit CORE. She does not correct herself in HOW LONG, HOW LONG, published later that year.This is a major problem with Robnett's book and her article in the American Journal of Sociology (May 1997) over the same topic. That journal allowed a published rebuttal and a number of prominent scholars have also raised objections. My question is this, how long, how long until Belinda Robnett corrects or retracts her erroneous published statements about CORE??? ... Read more

Product Description
When four black college students refused to leave the whites-only lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's on February 1, 1960, they set off a wave of similar protests among black college students across the South. Memphis native D'Army Bailey, the freshman class president at Southern University--the largest predominantly black college in the nation--soon joined with his classmates in their own battle against segregation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In The Education of a Black Radical, Bailey details his experiences on the front lines of the black student movement of the early 1960s, providing a rare firsthand account of the early days of America's civil rights struggle and a shining example of one man's struggle to uphold the courageous principles of liberty, justice, and equality.

A natural leader, Bailey delivered fiery speeches at civil rights rallies, railed against school officials' capitulation to segregation, joined a sit-in at the Greyhound bus station, and picketed against discriminatory hiring practices at numerous Baton Rouge businesses. On December 15, 1961, he marched at the head of two thousand Southern University students seven miles from campus to downtown Baton Rouge to support fellow students jailed for picketing. Baton Rouge police dispersed the peaceful crowd with dogs and tear gas and arrested many participants. After Bailey led a class boycott to protest the administration's efforts to quell the lingering unrest on campus, Southern University summarily expelled him.

After his ejection, Bailey continued his academic journey north to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where liberal white students had established a scholarship for civil rights activists. Bailey sustained and expanded his activism in the North, and he provides invaluable eyewitness accounts of many major events from the civil rights era, including the protests in Washington D.C.'s financial district during the summer of 1963 and the gripping violence and arrests in Baltimore later that year. He sheds new light on the 1963 March on Washington by exploring the political forces that seized the march and changed its direction.

Labeled "subversive" and a "black nationalist militant" by the FBI, Bailey crossed paths with many visionary activists. In riveting detail, Bailey recalls several days he spent hosting Malcolm X as a guest speaker at Clark, hanging out with Abbie Hoffman in the early days of the Worsester Student Movement, and personal interactions with other civil rights icons, including the Reverend Will D. Campbell, Anne Braden, James Meredith, Tom Hayden, and future congressmen Barney Frank, John Lewis, and Allard Lowenstein.

D'Army Bailey gives voice to a generation of student foot soldiers in the civil rights movement. Moving, powerful, and intensely personal, The Education of a Black Radical offers an inspirational tale of hope and a courageous stand for social change. Moreover, it introduces an invigorating role model for a new generation of activists taking up the racial challenges of the twenty-first century.

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Customer Reviews (4)

A Story for Children and Grandchildren
With The Education of a Black Radical: A Southern Civil Rights Activist's Journey, 1959-1964 D'Army Bailey, a lawyer and retired judge in Memphis, Tennessee, provides a gripping account of his memories of the early 1960s. His story, a "history of the movement from the perspective of a single foot soldier" is a narrative that will invite our children and grandchildren to join in the struggle to build a better world.

A work of practical inspiration
A gripping memoir, it captures the passion and the real dangers that marked the early stages of the civil rights movement.Bailey set out to show how ordinary people, acting on fundamental beliefs of right and wrong, transformed themselves into extraordinary actors and their time into an extraordinary time.As one whose life as an activist was shaped by D'Army Bailey's leadership, I find that he succeeded in making this book an instrument to lead the next generation into history - a history of ordinary people rising to the challenge of transforming their world.

Black Radical- The revolution for Freedom in America
I have read this book, three times and I am impressed with the style of revolutionary writing. Its rich and exquisite. Every scholar who has worth the brain should read it and learn how the USA found freedom..

A treasure for your library. A history of the past, a future of getting together as a people. A struggle for love and oneness
I recommend this book highly. I am very touched about the resiliance of our country in our strive for equal rights. Our history is full of paoin, struggle and joy. All well described by this man. he seems passionate in his quest for the freedom of human beings and their association without limits and restrictions. The south was then now and now is now and the journey is still in progress. Your children should study the works of all people like MLK and Bailey. This is a five star book ... Read more

Product Description
In 1966 Peter Jan Honigsberg--a young, idealistic law student--arrived in the South to help provide legal representation for civil rights workers. Although based in New Orleans, most of his work was in the city of Bogalusa and in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Bogalusa was the heart of the Louisiana movement and the home of one of the most formidable but little-known black organizations in the country--the Deacons for Defense and Justice, the first modern-day African American organization to carry weapons and to respond with force against the Ku Klux Klan. This riveting memoir, one of only a handful of first-person full-length accounts of the civil rights movement, is both a stirring coming-of-age story and a thrilling chronicle of a remarkable era in United States history.
Honigsberg's engaging narrative conveys the emotions and personal dangers activists faced. He describes how the Deacons worked with the Bogalusa Voters League to boycott the white-owned businesses in the downtown area and to integrate the local schools, restaurants, parks, and paper mill.
Unlike many law students, Honigsberg not only worked on legal issues; he participated directly in marches and demonstrations. His narrative includes lively firsthand accounts of his attempt--with a group of black and white demonstrators--to integrate a beach on Lake Pontchartrain, his experience marching through hostile Ku Klux Klan territory under the eye of the National Guard, and his witnessing a prominent civil rights leader lift his car's trunk to display a cache of carbines and grenades to a station attendant who refused to fill the tank with gas. This memoir provides a unique glimpse into the civil rights movement and the people who were forever changed by its struggle for human dignity and its vision of racial justice and equality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating
The memoir Crossing Border Street by Honigsberg is an excellent look into the life and times of a man committed to civil rights.Coming from NYU Law School, Honigsberg did more than legal matters, he got involved in marches and demonstrations, risking his life on several occasions.The memoir also includes interactions with the Deacons for Defense, which were the originators of the Black Panthers.Few people have ever heard of the Deacons, or of civil rights marches outside of MLK.This is a fascinating book, and I can't recommend enough! ... Read more

Product Description

Led by the Office of Economic Opportunity, Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty reflected the president's belief that, just as the civil rights movement and federal law tore down legalized segregation, progressive government and grassroots activism could eradicate poverty in the United States. Yet few have attempted to evaluate the relationship between the OEO and the freedom struggles of the 1960s. Focusing on the unique situation presented by Texas, Freedom Is Not Enough examines how the War on Poverty manifested itselfin a state marked by racial division and diversity--and by endemic poverty.

Though the War on Poverty did not eradicate destitution in the United States, the history of the effort provides a unique window to examine the politics of race and social justice in the 1960s.William S. Clayson traces the rise and fall of postwar liberalism in the Lone Star State against a backdrop of dissent among Chicano militants and black nationalists who rejected Johnson's brand of liberalism. The conservative backlash that followed is another result of the dramatic political shifts revealed in the history of the OEO, completing this study of a unique facet in Texas's historical identity.

Product Description
Analyzing the extensive data gathered by The Public Influences of African American Churches Project, which surveyed nearly two thousand churches across the country, Long March Ahead assesses the public policy activism of black churches since the Civil Rights movement. Social scientists and clergy consider the churches’ work on a range of policy matters over the past four decades: affirmative action, welfare reform, health care, women’s rights, education, and anti-apartheid activism. Some essays consider advocacy trends broadly, while others focus on specific cases, such as the role of African American churches in defeating the "One Florida" plan to end affirmative action in college admissions and state contracting or the partnership forged between police and inner-city black ministers to reduce crime in Boston during the 1990s.

Long March Ahead emphasizes the need for black churches to complement the excellent work they do in implementing policies set by others by getting more involved in influencing public policy themselves. These essays reveal where African American churches have directed most of their policy work—toward issues of racial justice and economic development—while pointing out that churches have been than less proactive in the policy arena in general. The contributors explore the efficacy of different means of public policy advocacy and service delivery, including faith-based initiatives. At the same time, they draw attention to trends which have constrained political involvement by African American churches: the increased professionalization of policy advocacy and lobbying; the underdevelopment of church organizational structures devoted to policy work; and tensions between religious imperatives and political activism. Long March Ahead is an important look at the political role of African American churches after the great policy achievements of the Civil Rights era.

Contributors
Cathy J. Cohen
Megan McLaughlin
Columba Aham Nnorum
Michael Leo Owens
Desiree Pedescleaux
Barbara D. Savage
R. Drew Smith
Emilie Townes
Christopher Winship ... Read more