Freedom Road: books

"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

I always enjoy looking through the "Best of... 2008" lists published at the end of each calendar year. Here are some links:

Books:
• Here are the NYTimes' 100 Notable Books of 2008 and what their critics selected as the Top 10 Books of the year.

• Here are the Washington Post's Best Books of 2008 and what their critics selected as the Top 10 Books of the year.

• NPR has a whole bunch of awesome books lists, from fiction to non-fiction, graphic novels, self-help books, crime novels, etc. Check them all out here!

• Liz Spikol lists several books that should not have been published!

• The editors of Seed Magazine list the top science books of 2008.

• The L.A. Times has a number of interesting picks on their lists, too.

Music:
• As always, NPR has a lot of really good year end music lists. Here is a list of ten unknown music gems from 2008. Here is a best of, jazz, kids music, African, Songs of the year, classical, top 5 jazz cds, mixtapes, top 10 albums, another top 10, listener picks, best vinyl and more jazz.

• Slate's critics countdown their favorite music of '08 and here they put out their best jazz CDs of 2008.

• Popmatters has a slew of different music-related lists that are worth looking at.

• Soul Sides has a best of 2008 old and new lists.

• Mark Anthony Neal offers up his 2008 playlist.

• Amazon.com's editors countdown the top 100 of 2008.

• Anthem Magazine has a unique list of best of music of 2008.

• Drowned By Sound's top 50 CDs of 2008.

• Mojo's top 50 CDs of 2008.

• Paste Magazine has listed the best live acts of 2008. Here and here you can find best of music lists by two of their critics, as well.

• Here, a Village Voice critic counts down his best jazz CDs of the year and here is their poll.

• Here is a Village Voice list of the worst lyrics of 2008.

• Spin's top CDs of 2008.

• Dan Sweeney's list of best CDs of 2008, plus a lot of reader lists in the comments.

• Gabriel Beltrone lists 10 global artists to check out.

• Here are Rolling Stone's top 50 CDs of 2008.

• Q's top 50 CDs of 2008.

Films:

• Rottentomatoes.com lists their best and worst films of 2008.

• Slate's Top 10 Films of '08

• The folks at the Village Voice and LA Weekly polled alternative press film critics and came up with this list of best films of '08.

• NPR's top film critic gives his top 12.

• The Best and Worst Eco-Films of 2008.

• The Progressive offers "the best progressive films/filmmakers of 2008"

• Popmatters lists the best films of 2008, the best films of 2008 you never heard of, the worst films of 2008, the worst DVDs of 2008.

• Peter Travers' best films of 2008.

• Salon lists 10 films that delighted and surprised in 2008.

Politics:

• Slate has published a compendium of the best political cartoons of 2008 as well as the "best political viral videos of 2008"

• John Nichols, over at The Nation, lists "The Most Valuable Progressives of 2008"

• The ten most laughable political moments of 2008.

• Top 10 robocalls of 2008 elections.

• Alternet lists the 10 most fabulously bad moments of the Bush administration.

• Ten biggest Obama haters of 2008.

• Alternet lists the ten political stories of 2008 that most outraged their readers.

• And here are Alternet readers' top videos of 2008.

• The Village Voice runs down the biggest scandals of the conservative blogosphere.

Other Cool Lists:
• Chief Theater critic for the NYTimes, Ben Brantley, offers a slide show and review excerpts of the best Broadway had to offer in 2008. Here is what Brantley's colleague, Charles Isherwood, lists as the best theater of the year.

• Project Censored has put out its annual top 25 censored news stories of 2008

• Slate has a nice photo essay on some of the more famous folks we lost in 2008.

• Wired Magazine's 13 most popular science stories of 2008.

• Good Magazine looks ahead to the biggest disease-eradication efforts on 2009, 8 ways people are shirking good old fashioned capitalism, 7 technologies that will change our lives more than the new iphone and 7 advances in science that will change the world in 2009!

• Not quite a list, but still very interesting, Seed takes stock of "the state of science" in 2008.

• Popular Mechanics has a list of the best gadgets in 2008.

• Harper's magazine offers a typically Harper's-ian year end review.

• Wired Magazine lists the 10 most awesome applications for the iphone in 2008.

• Doctors Without Borders lists the 10 biggest humanitarian disasters of 2008.

• Wired's 12 good gadgets for hard times.

• Jamie Frevele lists the biggest WTF moments of 2008!

• Wired offers 12 elegant examples of evolution.

• 24/7 Wall Street lists the ten companies that laid off the most workers in 2008.

• The folks at Yes! Magazine list 10 reasons for hope in 2009 (and 3 reasons to be terrified)!

• Here is the list of P.U.-litzer prizes for worst media performances.

• The best and worst fashion trends of 2008.

• The Washington Post lists the best tv of the year.

• 100 friends you should see before you die.

• CNBC's list of 2009 stock tips.

• The people at Paste Magazine have made a "meta-list" of the 10 best lists of 2008...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"Blood Done Sign My Name"

I was extremely fortunate as a graduate student to be advised by an amazing historian, Tim Tyson. Tim is a fantastic and compassionate man, a crusader for social justice, and a hell of a lot of fun. My M.A. research contributed to his first (and award-winning) book, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power. This book revolutionized the way scholars look at Black Power and armed self-defense during the civil rights era and spurred a slew of new research, including my own work on race relations and civil rights insurgency in Milwaukee. Tim is both a rigorous academic historian as well as a beautiful and poetic writer. His books are darn good reads!

Tim's second monograph, Blood Done Sign My Name, is another gripping, award-winning page-turner, part history, part autobiography. The story focuses on the 1970 murder of an African American veteran in Oxford, North Carolina, and the fallout from this injustice. Recently, the book was optioned as a movie and it has now begun shooting. Very cool!

Here is Tim talking about the book on NPR.

Here is a brief Youtube video from the set of Blood:

Keep your ear to the ground and check out Blood Done Sign My Name when it hits a theater near you. In the meantime, pick up one of Tim's books and give it a read. You won't regret it!

Freedom Road

My Book:

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

Blurbs:

The Archive:

Visitors? (since 12/10/07)

Thursday, January 01, 2009

"Best of..." 2008

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"Blood Done Sign My Name"