Freedom Road: Mini-Debate: Is MLK/Obama Symbolism Strained?

"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

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mini-Debate: Is MLK/Obama Symbolism Strained?

Recently, the NYTimes has begun posting mini-video discussions to their website. Currently, they feature a mini-debate between John McWhorter and Glen Lourey over the comparisons being tossed around regularly between Barack Obama's campaign and Martin Luther King's historic role in the African American freedom movement. It runs about 4 minutes. Check it out:

What do you think?

5 comments:

tjmertzJuly 26, 2008 at 12:57 PM
I like some of what Loury has written on this election cycle, but I'm not sure what he wants in this case.

He seems bugged that nobody asked him or there was no formal decision-making process that gave Obama the mantle as heir to the legacy of King and others.

There is no real way for that to happen and Loury knows this

I thought of both Kerry and McCain and their claims to the mantle as representing Viet Nam vets. In both cases they have a good case to make. In both cases there will be no final resolution because the meaning of the mantle remains in conflict.

I think that the same is true of Obama and the civil rights movements. He has a claim, a good case to make. Bot the legacy is also contested and he is not the only claimant.

McWhorter says time and a historical perspective are needed to judge. I think time will cement the opinions of some, but I don't think the contested legacies of the movements will ever be entirely settled.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Patrick JonesJuly 28, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Well put, TJ. Thanks for commenting.

There is also a Movement versus formal politics dynamic to this debate. Some Movement folks no doubt bristle at the idea of an institutional politician embodying the "legacy" of the Movement. Others, of course, see the fact that we even have an African American guy as the candidate for a major party, particularly the Democratic Party with its history as the party of segregation in the South, as an indication of some of the progress our society has made over the last 40 years on race. And, for sure, some worry that the success of Obama might obscure the very real strides our society still needs to take to overcome the historic and contemporary dynamics of racial injustice.

So, I agree that this is a contested legacy and won't be settled any time soon.
ReplyDelete
Replies
tjmertzJuly 28, 2008 at 3:18 PM
I'm not sure about the movement vs. politics thing. I don't recall people having that problem with the first generation of big city African American mayors. or even other officials whose elections were clearly an extension of the movements.

I think "obscure the very real strides our society still needs to take to overcome the historic and contemporary dynamics of racial injustice" understates the worries of some. Only time will tell if these worries are legit, but Obama's success has sent to the message to some that there are no contemporary injustices that need overcoming or that only "post-racial" thinking is needed and an awareness of the powerful role race continues to play in the recreation of inequality is counter-productive.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Patrick JonesJuly 29, 2008 at 10:51 AM
There are DEFINITELY Movement folks, grassroots activist folks, who are leary of putting too much stock in an institutional politician as an agent of serious "change." For me, I think we have to work on all fronts... formal and informal politics, etc.

And, of course there are those, particularly those on the Right, like Ward Connerely or Sean Hannity, who are pushing the idea that Obama's success proves our society has overcome whatever vestiges of racial injustice that there were. This is clearly a danger lurking in Obama's success. One of the measures of his presidency, should he win, will be the degree to which he is willing to use his power to apeak about those issues and address the very real inequalities in our society, not just on race, but also in terms of class, gender, sexuality, etc.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Patrick JonesJuly 29, 2008 at 10:55 AM
One more thought: I think where some people have it wrong is when they put too much stock in Obama's ability to do it all, viewing him as some sort of political panacea. He ain't. He is one piece in a HUGE puzzle. Important, of course, but not the whole picture.

If we view him like that, we will not make the strides we need to on the issues we care most about. So, yes, we work with Obama from a progressive standpoint, pushing him and proddding him to be true to our values and interests, but we also continue our grassroots fights ("movement building"), as well as our efforts to elect other more progressive pols at the local, state and federal level.

I know you know this, TJ, but thought it should be out there...
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)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mini-Debate: Is MLK/Obama Symbolism Strained?

5 comments: