Freedom Road: Yo, John! It's Time to Sh*t or Get Off the Pot...

"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.

Buy it here!

Spread the word...

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

Monday, February 18, 2008

Yo, John! It's Time to Sh*t or Get Off the Pot...

The John Edwards endorsement watch has gotten ridiculous, with each major candidate "sneaking" off to kiss the ring of the third place finisher. I lost a lot of respect for Edwards, given all his bluster about being a fighter and given his withering attacks on Hillary Clinton as the candidate of the "status quo," when he decided to wait out the election to see which way the winds might blow before making an endorsement. I suspect, more than anything else, Edwards is angling for a spot - ANY SPOT - in a Clinton OR Obama administration. If true, this undercuts his whole persona as a crusader for key progressive values and makes him out to be just like every other scheming, ambitious politician. He claimed to be different...

To me, Edwards and Gore are very similar political figures: lots of pious bluster, but very little real backbone. Al Gore clearly loves his celebrity status as moral conscience of the nation on the environment; he has literally grown fat off of that celebrity persona. Yet, Gore has undermined that position by being unwilling to try to affect policy for real change. I understand why he might not want to run for office himself, but I think, given his moralizing and apocalyptic rhetoric, that he has an obligation to use his clout to try to put people in office that WILL affect policy on climate change. Ultimately, policy change is central to any broader and substantive environmental change.

So, John and Al, how about growing a backbone and taking a stand. Yes, that stand might mean some political risks, but that is how it works.

Put your money where your mouth is. It is time to sh*t or get off the pot...

What do YOU think about John Edwards and Al Gore? If Edwards does jump in with an endorsement, what - if any - impact do you think it will have on the race at this point? Might it tip the balance to Hillary or Barack? Might it sway a significant number of working-class white or lefty voters to whoever he chooses? Or, has he waited too long and have most of his people already reshuffled to a new candidate?

2 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 18, 2008 at 4:18 PM
Edwards is likely just seeing which of the two candidates he can get the most out of… VP nomination again, Cabinet Post, or a lifetime supply of hair products… The last one though would probably violate a whole host Campaign Finance laws…. though that has never bothered a Clinton before.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Patrick JonesFebruary 18, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Yeah, this just kinda feels like a maneuver. Does he really need to know anything further about Clinton or Obama to make an endorsement? No. He was on the trail for a year volleying back and forth with them. He knows them inside and out. If he isn't going to make an endorsement, why play all this public footsy? And, if you are going to make an endorsement, why not do it already? Geesh. Will it really make that big of a deal at this point? It seems to me the longer he waits. the less meaningful his endorsement. Haven;t most Edwards folks made up their minds at this point? It's been a few weeks since Edwards jumped out...
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Freedom Road

My Book:

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

Blurbs:

The Archive:

Visitors? (since 12/10/07)

Monday, February 18, 2008

Yo, John! It's Time to Sh*t or Get Off the Pot...

2 comments: