Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement "Another Side of the Story"

by Lieberman, Robbie; Lang, Clarence

• ISBN13: 9780230113749
• ISBN10: 0230113745
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The original essays in this book highlight the destructive impact of McCarthyism on the African American Freedom Movement. Recovering little-known stories of black radical activism, they challenge the idea that the Cold War was, on balance, beneficial to the movement. The book emphasizes what was lost when anticommunism forced the movement to submerge broader issues of economic justice, labor rights, feminism, and peace. The authors illustrate the often neglected or understated human costs of the Red Scare, focusing on local and individual stories that offer insight into larger national and international trends.

Author Biography

Robbie Lieberman is Professor of History at Southern Illinois University and the editor of Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research. Her publications include “My Song Is My Weapon:” People’s Songs, American Communism and the Politics of Culture 1930-1950, which won the Deems-Taylor Award from ASCAP; The Strangest Dream: Communism, Anticommunism and the U.S. Peace Movement 1945-1963; and Prairie Power: Voices of 1960s Midwestern Student Protest.

Clarence Lang is Associate Professor of African American Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He is the author of Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics and Black Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, 1936-75.

Table of Contents

"Another Side of the Story": African American Intellectuals Speak Out for Peace and Freedom during the Early Cold War Years--Robbie Lieberman * Quieting the Chorus: Progressive Women's Race and Peace Politics in Postwar New York--Jacqueline Castledine * The March of Young Southern Black Women: Esther Cooper Jackson, Black Left Feminism, and the Personal and Political Costs of Cold War Repression--Erik McDuffie * Correspondence: Journalism, Anticommunism and Marxism in 1950s Detroit--Rachel Peterson * Freedom Train Derailed: The National Negro Labor Council and the Nadir of Black Radicalism 1950-1956--Clarence Lang * Challenges to Solidarity: The Mexican American Fight for Social and Economic Justice 1946-1963--Zaragosa Vargas