The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement

by Glisson, Susan M.; Anderson, Crystal; Arnesen, Eric; Beezley, Paul R.; Cecelski, David; Curry, Constance; Driskell, Jay; Uffleman-Evans, Minoa; Giardina, Carol; Libby, David; Limbo, Ernest M.; Luckett, Robert E., Jr.; Olugbala, Shomari; Phillips, Layli; S

• ISBN13: 9780742544086
• ISBN10: 0742544087
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-11
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This engaging collection of biographies explores the greater civil rights movement in America from Reconstruction to the 1970s while emphasizing the importance of grassroots actions and individual agency in the effort to bring about national civil renewal. While focusing on the importance of individuals on the local level working towards civil rights they also explore the influence that this primarily African-American movement had on others including La Raza, the Native American Movement, feminism, and gay rights. By widening the time frame studied, these essays underscore the difficult, often unrewarded and generational nature of social change.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Human Tradition and Civil Rights	ix
Susan M. Glisson
Part I: Hope Is Born
1 Abraham Galloway: Prophet of Biracial America	3	(28)
David S. Cecelski
2 Homer Plessy: Unsuccessful Challenger to Jim Crow	31	(14)
Minoa Uffelman
3 James K. Vardaman: "A Vote for White Supremacy" and the Politics of Racism	45	(18)
Paul R. Beezley
Part II: Should We Stay or Should We Go?
4 Ida B. Wells: Higher Law and Community Justice	63	(16)
Christopher Waldrep
5 A. Philip Randolph: Labor and the New Black Politics	79	(18)
Eric Arnesen
6 Lucy Randolph Mason: "The Rest of Us"	97	(32)
Susan M. Glisson
Part III: Awakenings
7 Amzie Moore: The Biographical Roots of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi	129	(28)
Jay Driskell
8 James Lawson: The Nashville Civil Rights Movement	157	(24)
Ernest M. Limbo
9 Charles Sherrod and Martin Luther King Jr.: Mass Action and Nonviolence in Albany	181
Robert E. Luckett Jr.
Part IV: Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
10 Diane Nash: "Courage Displaces Fear, Love Transforms Hate": Civil Rights Activism and the Commitment to Nonviolence	199	(20)
Jennifer A. Stollman
11 Mae Bertha Carter: These Tiny Fingers	219	(8)
Constance Curry
12 Robert F. Williams: "Black Power" and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle	227	(28)
Timothy B. Tyson
Part V: The Borning Movement
13 Judith Brown: Freedom Fighter	255	(20)
Carol Giardina
14 José Angel Gutiérrez: La Raza Unida and Scholarship for Social Justice	275	(14)
David J. Libby
15 Leonard Peltier: A Small Part of a Much Larger Story	289	(20)
Crystal S. Anderson
16 Sylvia Rivera: Fighting in Her Heels: Stonewall, Civil Rights, and Liberation	309	(26)
Layli Phillips and Shaman Olugbala
Index	335	(12)
About the Editor and Contributors	347