Freedom Road: Hillary's Xerox Moment

"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

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Hillary's Xerox Moment

Much hay has been made about Hillary Clinton's zinger-line in the Austin debate calling Obama's rhetoric a "xerox copy." It has been widely noted that the crowd roundly booed Clinton for this attack, but the more interesting and important dynamic has not been reported on as extensively: that wasn't Hillary's line. Clearly a speechwriter came up with it. Isn't it kind of weird to slam a guy for "plagiarism" with a line that is so clearly scripted it isn't even funny? See the irony here?

I'll also note the very ugly turn the Clinton campaign has taken since supposeduly playing nice the other night. Let me make it clear: that was all a part of the strategy. Show "nice Hillary" on the nationally televised debate, but keep on smearing and slamming, keep on with the negativity, the misrepresentation and the innuendo on the campaign trail. It is the Jekyll and Hyde approach. She essentially challenged Obama to a schoolyard fight in Ohio earlier today. It is very ugly and not very presidential. It is clearly the result of the desperate situation the campaign finds itself in, but it is no less unsavory. Shame on you, Mrs. Clinton.

And there is some bizarre psychological projection going on. Hillary charges Obama's campaign with Rovian tactics. Meanwhile, it has been her campaign that has engaged in the slimy stuff. These people really are lunatics...

As far as I am concerned, I hope Obama comes out with both barrels blazing in Ohio on Tuesday night. I had hopes that she might go quietly into the night, or at least have some class, but now her campaign needs to be put out of its misery before she takes the whole party with her. I will shed no tears on the day she is finally forced to eat that huge humble pie that is hurling her way...

2 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 24, 2008 at 1:36 AM
The biggest hypocrisy of all is that she totally xeroxed her final line in that debate from John Edwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHAUDSA2qXE

-JL
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Patrick JonesFebruary 24, 2008 at 8:16 AM
Yeah, and another section was pulled from a previous Bill speech...

C'mon. This is a non-starter/desperation issue. All politicians borrow lines, have teams of speechwriters, etc.

If I was Obama, I would simply say, "Yeah, Duval Patrick and I are both a part of a new generation of black leadership. We share a vision and we share many experiences as younger black candidates for office in the U.S. We share the good things and we share the struggles that come with that reality. We talk about those experiences, we support each other, and we share strategy. It is as simple as that. I make no apologies because there is nothing to apologize for. This is simply another in what is now a long string of negative misrepresentations from my opponent who, it is now clear, is increasingly desperate because she has run an inept campaign, spending nearly $4M on a campaign advisor who has been wrong at every turn, $93,000 at a deli in western Iowa, and on and on. If Hillary cannot manage her own campaign - the largest executive/managerial job she has had to date - how can we expect that she will manage the country?"

Thank you and good night. We will see you at the inaugural ball in early '09...
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Freedom Road

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

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

Hillary's Xerox Moment

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