Freedom Road: posters

"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 12, 2008

Power to the Poster!

My good pal (and brilliant graphic designer), Justin Kemerling, is a co-creator of a really great public political poster project over at The Match Factory. The project is called "Power to the Poster." The idea is to encourage people to create interesting, challenging and provocative political posters, post them to the web, and allow anyone to download, print and post these pieces of political art in their communities. Here is how Justin and his co-conspirators describe it at the site:

A graphic design democracy project.

There is a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective.

And, of course, there is the clutter-ridden madness of a constant control room information flow.

Power To The Poster is the former taken to dismantling the latter.

This website is for people to use a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time. These 11x17, B/W posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere to download, print and post. Here's how:

• Download a Poster in 11 x 17 PDF format from our downloads page.

• Open your Poster in a PDF viewer program on your computer. One such program is Adobe's Acrobat. Totally free.

• Print your Poster on any printer capable of printing at 11 x 17 inches. If you don't have a printer you can print it at just about any copy center. Also, if you can, you should always print your posters on some serious FSC recycled, chlorine free paper.

• Take your new Poster print to a high traffic area. Maybe its at your work, maybe a wall in your neighborhood, maybe a coffeehouse, maybe its your refrigerator. (Respect people's property, of course).

• Post it and watch heads turn.

• Repeat.

Here are some more great and FREE designs (click any image to enlarge):

Now, go download, print and post...

... and TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THIS GREAT PROJECT!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The Project for the Old American Century

As I've written several times before, I really like "political art," also known as propaganda. Good political art requires a certain kind of skill. Of course, it is usually heavy-handed, but when done well, it can also be very interesting and provocative.

I was reminded recently of this really good progressive propaganda website called The Project for the Old American Century. Here is their "Statement of Principals." In essence, the group is a reaction to the radical rightwing Project for a New American Century, which formulated the policy foundation for all the lunacy of the Bush years. The folks at The Project for the Old American Century are pissed about all this and are doing something creative about it.

The Project for the Old American Century has a fine collection of propaganda posters patterned on old war posters, advertisements, labor iconography and other government propaganda. They also have other resources at their website, like pamphlets, charts, documents, articles, and more, so I hope you'll click the link above and check it out further over there. In the meantime...

Here are a few of the posters that are critical of the Bush administration and their policies: