Freedom Road: MLK Day, 2009

"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

Here is a smattering of worthwhile articles, essays and other stuff in honor of Martin Luther King Day 2009:

• First, a song of honor, Mahalia Jackson singing "Precious Lord Take My Hand"...

• The BBC has unearthed footage of Dr. King discussing the prospect of the "first black president." Well worth a look...

• United for a Fair Economy has published an important report, "State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression"

• NPR aired "a musical tour of MLK's Home."

• Slate has a slideshow of fantastic images of King and the Movement, more generally.

• Amazingly, the Meridian Star in Mississippi published an editorial apology for that newspaper's complicity in white supremacy during the Movement era.

• Michael Eric Dyson has penned a piece explaining "how the prophet (MLK) paved the way for the politician (Obama)."

• Michael Honey argues that Obama must fulfill King's dream of economic justice, human dignity and peace.

• The Washington Post has a nice piece on the Caldwell Family's "long civil rights journey" from the specter of slavery to the unbounded possibility of the Obama era.

• The post has a few other good pieces, as well: "President-Elect Sees His Race as An Opportunity"; "High Hopes for Obama in Mississippi Delta"; an opinion piece by MLK III; Michael Eric Dyson on the roots of King's words in Afro-Christianity

• Danny Schecter asks, "Will the Obama Generation Merge With the Protest Culture of MLK or Strike Its Own Path?"

• ABC News has a piece on civil rights activists' reflections on Obama's ascendance.

• A South Carolina newspaper reflects on the generations view the racial divide.

• The Washington Post has published some polling data on America's racial perceptions.

• One California teacher asks whether Obama's victory means we need to change our racial reading list.

• Finally, make your own Shephard Fairey-inspired image here.

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

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MLK Day, 2009

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