Freedom Road: Documentary: "No End In Sight"

"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

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Documentary: "No End In Sight"

Check out the trailor for the new documentary, "No End In Sight."

"The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts... NO END SIGHT alternates between U.S. policy decisions and Iraqi consequences, systematically dissecting the Bush Administration’s decisions. The consequences of those decisions now include 3,000 American deaths and 20,000 American wounded, Iraq on the brink of civil war, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the strengthening of Iran, the weakening of the U.S. military, and economic costs of over $2 trillion. It marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad’s Green Zone to understand for themselves what has become the disintegration of Iraq."

Official Website of "No End In Sight"

3 comments:

theMatchFactoryJuly 31, 2007 at 12:29 PM
OnPoint spends an hour talking with the director, Charles Ferguson.
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Patrick JonesJuly 31, 2007 at 1:32 PM
cool. makes it look even more interesting... I guess the question is this: do these movies help us move closer to ending this war, or are they an exercise in confirming what we already know? And, does it matter?
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theMatchFactoryAugust 1, 2007 at 8:48 AM
Here's another: War Made Easy

And some thoughts on it: The Film That Could End the War

An answer to your question: I would say yes. And that they do matter. I agree with these films acting as an organizing tool, a call to action, as a rallying cry.

Now perhaps I'm giving too much credit to 2 hours of documentary, but a well-executed, informative and moving piece of film not only helps keep the facts connected in a more easily understood way, it helps keep the dialogue going. It helps that feeling, that yes, we are talking about these huge issues and yes we are moving toward understanding the context in which these complex cases exist.

Combined with other forms of media, as we citizens try to stay as informed as possible in such a cluttered, confusing market place of corporate messaging, these kinds of films do, a lot of times, supplement what we already know, but also bring together the fragments in a way that can make the most sense, galvanizing our own thinking as we seek to understand issues more deeply. And with that understanding we can be more comfortable discussing such issues, coming from a knowledge base when things seem extremely overwhelming.

Keep people thinking, involved & talking. And keep people united. I definitely see these films playing a crucial role in these aims.

With citizens thinking & involved, talking & united on the War in Iraq, we can keep working towards ending it. And in the times when being for peace instead of war in the build-up to the invasion was so unpopular, it's nice to be reassured that other people are sharing your thoughts.
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"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Documentary: "No End In Sight"

3 comments: