Freedom Road: ALERT: Hundreds of Protesters Arrested at RNC in St. Paul, Including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

"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!

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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

Monday, September 01, 2008

ALERT: Hundreds of Protesters Arrested at RNC in St. Paul, Including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

In the days leading up to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, police raided the offices of progressive activist groups planning peaceful protests, including Food Not Bombs. The raids seem to be serious infringements on U.S. citizens' rights to assemble and peacefully protest. It has come to light that police have infiltrated many of these groups through spies. Today, Amy Goodman of the progressive radio program, Democracy Now! was arrested roughly as she advocated for the release of two of her colleagues who had been arrested while they reported on protests from the street. It appears that a virtual police state has been enacted in St. Paul. The early evidence seems to indicate that civil liberties are being trampled left and right, but the mainstream media does not seem to be covering it, at least not sufficiently.

Those on the scene are calling police action by local, state and federal authorities, "excessive," "unprovoked" and "illegal." Here is a print story on Goodman and two of her colleague's arrests. Check out these reports here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Footage of police using pepper spray here and teargas here.

For the record, there have been reports of small numbers of masked activists - anarchists? - engaging in violent protests, but according to several reports most of those arrested were/are not engaged in violent protest. As is always the case in these situations, it is hard to get a full grasp of what is going on there right now. Things are evolving fast. No doubt the pre-convention raids and the arrests of peaceful protesters and journalists like Goodman only fuel the more radical and violent elements.

Here is some video of Goodman's arrest:

More footage of harsh police tactics:

Please look at the resources I've linked to in this post and SPREAD THE WORD. Write to your congresspeople and tell them to help put a stop to this. Write a letter to your local newspaper protesting these actions by law enforcement. If you know of other good coverage of these events, please post the links in the comments section of this post.

Of course, the primary concern is what this says about the state of civil liberties in the U.S. The secondary concern is that the Republicans will turn this to their advantage, ramping up a "law and order" rhetoric to rile reactionary elements in the electorate. It is important that progressive media outlets and citizens like you and me become active in spreading the word and defining what is going on in our own words. If the frame gets set by police, or Republicans, that these are just a bunch of violent, radicals destroying social order, it could spell real trouble for the Democrats this fall. Mass, peaceful protest, YES! After the last 8 years, it is understandable. The other stuff, though, is very problematic, even when it is done by a small minority of the protesters...

As my friend Maura Giles-Watson wrote earlier today about the Goodman arrest, "Is this a preview of what the country will be like when the 'Homegrown Terrorism Act' passes-- journalists swept away in unmarked police vans? What/who is next?"

UPDATE: Goodman and her colleagues, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, have now been released. Goodman grills St. Paul Police Chief about arrests.

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

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Monday, September 01, 2008

ALERT: Hundreds of Protesters Arrested at RNC in St. Paul, Including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

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