Purchase
The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North
Random House
November 2008
On Sale: November 4, 2008
720 pages
ISBN: 0679643036
EAN: 9780679643036
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
The struggle for racial equality in the North has been a
footnote in most books about civil rights in America. Now
this monumental new work from one of the most brilliant
historians of his generation sets the record straight.
Sweet Land of Liberty is an epic, revelatory account of the
abiding quest for justice in states from Illinois to New
York, and of how the intense northern struggle differed
from and was inspired by the fight down South. Thomas Sugrue’s panoramic view sweeps from the 1920s to the
present–more than eighty of the most decisive years in
American history. He uncovers the forgotten stories of
battles to open up lunch counters, beaches, and movie
theaters in the North; the untold history of struggles
against Jim Crow schools in northern towns; the dramatic
story of racial conflict in northern cities and suburbs;
and the long and tangled histories of integration and black
power. Appearing throughout these tumultuous tales of bigotry and
resistance are the people who propelled progress, such as
Anna Arnold Hedgeman, a dedicated churchwoman who in the
1930s became both a member of New York’s black elite and an
increasingly radical activist; A. Philip Randolph, who as
America teetered on the brink of World War II dared to
threaten FDR with a march on Washington to protest
discrimination–and got the Fair Employment Practices
Committee (“the second Emancipation Proclamation”) as a
result; Morris Milgram, a white activist who built the
Concord Park housing development, the interracial answer to
white Levittown; and Herman Ferguson, a mild-mannered New
York teacher whose protest of a Queens construction site
led him to become a key player in the militant Malcolm X’s
movement. Filled with unforgettable characters and riveting
incidents, and making use of information and accounts both
public and private, such as the writings of obscure African
American journalists and the records of civil rights and
black power groups, Sweet Land of Liberty creates an
indelible history. Thomas Sugrue has written a narrative
bound to become the standard source on this essential
subject.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy