Freedom Road: The Clinton Dirty Trick Machine

"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

Between 1958 and 1970, a distinctive movement for racial justice emerged from unique circumstances in Milwaukee. A series of local leaders inspired growing numbers of people to participate in campaigns against employment and housing discrimination, segregated public schools, the membership of public officials in discriminatory organizations, welfare cuts, and police brutality.

The Milwaukee movement culminated in the dramatic—and sometimes violent—1967 open housing campaign. A white Catholic priest, James Groppi, led the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos in a militant struggle that lasted for 200 consecutive nights and provoked the ire of thousands of white residents. After working-class mobs attacked demonstrators, some called Milwaukee “the Selma of the North.” Others believed the housing campaign represented the last stand for a nonviolent, interracial, church-based movement.

Patrick Jones tells a powerful and dramatic story that is important for its insights into civil rights history: the debate over nonviolence and armed self-defense, the meaning of Black Power, the relationship between local and national movements, and the dynamic between southern and northern activism. Jones offers a valuable contribution to movement history in the urban North that also adds a vital piece to the national story.

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Blurbs:

Think you know the full story of the civil rights era? Patrick Jones's masterful study of the movement in Milwaukee will make you think again. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The Selma of the North provides a devastating rebuttal of many of the conventional narratives of the civil rights movement. Here a vibrant nonviolent movement in the de-industrializing Midwest grows into a Black Power movement led by urban youth and a white Catholic priest who use confrontational direct action to lay bare the fissures of racial inequality in the 'liberal' North.
--Jeanne Theoharis, Brooklyn College, editor of Freedom North and Groundwork

A well-researched, well-written, and important history. Based on a rich array of sources, this book enhances our understanding of civil rights activism in the postwar urban North and establishes a useful foundation for the comparison of similar developments elsewhere in the country.
--Joe William Trotter, Jr., Carnegie Mellon University, author of Black Milwaukee

This book fills a serious gap in the literature of the civil rights revolution, joining studies on other cities in laying the groundwork on race and civil rights in the postwar urban North. Jones tells a good story, capturing events that might otherwise be lost to history.
--Arnold R. Hirsch, University of New Orleans, author of Making the Second Ghetto

The Selma of the North is an insightful and invigorating addition to the growing literature on black freedom struggles outside of the South. Jones's important and informative account writes Milwaukee back into the narrative of the civil rights-Black Power era and in the process expands our understanding of postwar America.
--Peniel E. Joseph, Brandeis University, author of Waiting Till the Midnight Hour

The Selma of the North is a riveting new story of the civil rights movement in America, a tale on par with Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery in its power and importance. Jones's magisterial research and magnetic prose illuminate the untold story of the battle for the urban north in the 1960s, a battle that shows how race has always been the Achilles heel of white progressives. This story transcends easy dichotomies of black and white, North and South, radical and reformist. How did a group called 'the Commandos' define nonviolence? How did a white Catholic priest become a 'Black Power' leader? If this is not a saga for the age of Obama, I don't know what is.
--Timothy B. Tyson, Duke University, author of Radio Free Dixie and Blood Done Sign My Name

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Clinton Dirty Trick Machine

What'd I tell you... The smear is in effect. Yesterday, Billy Shaheen, confidante and Clinton campaign co-chair in NH, publicly attacked Obama about his well-known, already been there done that past drug use. The term "henchman" comes to mind:
Shaheen Smears Obama for Clintons

Here's what Thomas Edsall wrote on the subject:
Edsall on the Sheehan Smear

And now this morning Dark Prince of the Right, Robert Novak, who broke the story about the secret Clinton smear of Obama a week or so ago, now details the broader behind-the-scenes smear campaign that has been on-going for quite a while now, apparently. Again, the point is not the specific issue raised but rather to create the overall impression of doubt about Obama:
Novak on the Clinton Smear Campaign

Is this the kind of politics you want? As I wrote previously, this reveals a more essential truth about the Clintons than anything we've seen on the stump or in debates.

If you are reading this, I hope you will spread the word about how slimy the Clintons have turned as their desperate grasp for more power falters. I hope you will write directly to the Clinton campaign and tell them you will not vote for her BECAUSE of these dirty tricks. I hope you will write your local paper denouncing these politics of personal destruction.

Gross.

2 comments:

AnonymousDecember 13, 2007 at 7:17 PM
It looks like Billy Shaheen resigned today:

Clinton adviser steps down after drug use comments
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Patrick JonesDecember 13, 2007 at 9:16 PM
Right, although I think Chris Mathews had it right (for once) when he stated tonight that this is the way it goes in D.C. and everyone knows it: Clintons have Shaheen say what they don;t want to say publicly. When the heat gets turned up by opponents, the offender steps down, apologizes and says Clinton had nothing to do with it. Yet, the bad stuff is already out there and the damage done. Next, in a few months, the Clintons hire him back in another capacity when the media glare dies down.

There is absolutely no way this was a lone wolf action. Shaheen is in on regular campaign calls and he is crucial to the Clinton campaign in NH. This is all play-acting. The smear happened.

I think both campaigns feel like this is a winner for them. For Clinton, the derogatory stuff is out there in the ether sucking perfectly good oxygen that might otherwise be used on issues. For Obama, it is good because it appears to affirm what many already know/believe about the Clintons: they play dirty and slimy. He can also slam back, if he wants, with it now being justified.

We shall see the ultimate outcome in a few weeks when the actual voting starts.
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Freedom Road

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"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Clinton Dirty Trick Machine

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