Freedom Road: UPDATE: 1 in 5 White Americans Still Oppose Black-White Interracial Marriage, Though Overall Trend is Toward Acceptance

"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

Thursday, May 29, 2008

UPDATE: 1 in 5 White Americans Still Oppose Black-White Interracial Marriage, Though Overall Trend is Toward Acceptance

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry in honor of Mildred and Richard Loving, the Virginia couple whose court case led to the 1967 Supreme Court decision barring prohibitions on interracial marriage. A recent Gallup Poll on the subject illustrates how far we've come, but also underscores the remaining challenges:

• Among all Americans, 77% approve inter-racial marriage between black and white people, while 17% oppose it. In 1958, only 4% of Americans approved of such relationships, so you can see the sea change on this issue. 1983 marked the first time less than half of all Americans opposed interracial marriages.

• Among whites, 75% approve of interracial marriage between black and white people, while 19% oppose it. 1 in 5 is still a fairly large number of people opposing interracial romance between whites and blacks, so this is where we need to continue the struggle.

• Among African Americans, 85% approve of interracial marriage between black and white people, while 10% oppose it, or about 1 in 10. In all categories, African Americans show greater acceptance of interracial marriage.

• Not surprisingly, younger people are more accepting of interracial marriage between black and white people than older people:

• Interestingly, about 75% of all black-white interracial marriages feature a black man and a white woman. Only about one-quarter of those marriages include a white man and black woman. In part, this helps explain higher rates of opposition to interracial marriage among black women.

It would be interesting to compare these numbers with data on other combinations of inter-racial relationships (white-Latino; white-Asian; Asian-black; black Latino; etc.). Is the acceptance in these categories the same or significantly different than the data on black-white relationships? Why or why not? Also, inter-racial relationships are also a bit tricky in that many people say they don't have a problem with dating "across the color line," but they would not or have not done it themselves. So, does this indicate an underlying resistance that might not show up in the numbers? And, with all racial polling, we have to take the results with a grain of salt. White people, in particular, like to tell pollers what they think they want to here, regardless of what they actually might think.

Nevertheless, overall, positive data on this issue...

Any thoughts?

4 comments:

AnonymousMay 29, 2008 at 4:29 PM
luv this blog... but multiracially speaking: absolutely disgusted this would b a topic in usa during this age.

here we r 2008... so many of us old school multiracial ppl alive (since time began, needless 2 say) but still, we have 2 listen 2 ppl criticize-n-analyze our parent factor.

freakin get on w/ it USA, stop talking about yesterday + pay attention 2 cuz we r already here. it aint about black-n-white no more... we have moved on 2 "multi-racial" -- meaning way more than 2 blood-line ancestory.

so seriously- instead of talking behind our back USA, ask us multiracial folk what we think. cuz it aint about yall. and segregationist totalitarian @$$h0l3$ can kiss our multiracial @$$.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Patrick JonesMay 30, 2008 at 8:17 AM
Here! Here! Thanks for the post, Anon...
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 15, 2010 at 10:15 PM
What about white and asians. I thought same 75% of white and asian interracial marriages involves white male and asian female patterns, that is the polar opposite of this matter while only one-fourth of it involves asian male and white female interracial marriages. What about black and asians? 5 times amount of black man marry asian wives than vice versa.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 16, 2010 at 4:24 PM
When about a 75% it looks like 74%. black/white gender gap is not fully 3.00:1 yet. Now should be about 2.81:1 ratio, still if the site means 26% of the black-white involves white males and black females.
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)

Thursday, May 29, 2008

UPDATE: 1 in 5 White Americans Still Oppose Black-White Interracial Marriage, Though Overall Trend is Toward Acceptance

4 comments: