Freedom Road: Bill Maher's "Religulous"

"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, August 21, 2008

Bill Maher's "Religulous"

Bill Maher has made a documentary film on religion, "Religulous." The film is directed by "Borat" helmsman, Larry Charles. This one is bound to offend a slew of people. The film also has a blasphemy parody site, www.disbeliefnet.com

Here is the film's trailer:

Here is an interview with Maher on Larry King:

Uhhhhh... any thoughts about this?

2 comments:

AnonymousAugust 21, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Well, it has a terrible title.

It's the comedy-doc answer to Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."

It's going to be quite controversial because, from what I've read, it makes the argument that Muslims are more prone to violence.

Bill Maher's haughty personality will repel many viewers. It will fail in convincing any believers to admit their tenets are ridiculous. There doesn't seem much point to this movie even being made...
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Patrick JonesAugust 21, 2008 at 10:49 PM
I'm with you most of the way, Jared. Maher is often quite arrogant; he's no Borat. I can't imagine that this film is going to lead to much fruitful dialog, or transformation. Many devout Christians, Muslims, etc. will simply feel attacked and offended. Those who might snicker at it, already probably disdain religion. There doesn't appear to be much in between; there rarely is in Maher's shtick. There might, in fact, be a good documentary to be done about the various manifestations of Christianity in the U.S., a film that plays with the numerous contradictions in the faith and highlights the crass commercialism that has pervaded it and sometimes just the plain hilarity of it, a film that even ultimately has a critique at the core if it (think Jesus Camp, Dogma, or Saved!)... but this just doesn't seem to be that. But, it is impossible to know, completely, without seeing it.
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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, August 21, 2008

Bill Maher's "Religulous"

2 comments: