Freedom Road: Presidential Music

"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, August 21, 2007

Presidential Music

If you had to pick your Democratic presidential candidate by the music they play at their events, who are you going with:

- Clinton's official campaign theme song is Celine Dion's “You and I (Were Meant to Fly)," which was originally used as a 2004 ad for Air Canada.... She also has used BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" and "Right Here, Right Now" by whoever did that one in the 90s...

- Edwards likes to play John Mellencamp's "This is Our Country," which was originally released as a Ford ad campaign theme song at the same time it came out on JM's CD.

- Kucinich uses an instrumental version of "America the Beautiful." God love the Boy Wonder. He is my folks' representative in Congress and he stands for many very good things, but dag, could he be any less hip?

- Chris Dodd apparently does have a little soul in him. He likes to play, "Get Ready" by the Temptations.

- Joe Biden has used John Fogerty's "Centerfield." Isn't that about a guy who's sitting on the bench but itching to play... Charlie Brown, anyone? Strange choice.

- Bill Richardson has played, "Lean On Me" and "Baby I Love Your Way," performed by Fuerza Juvenil. OK. OK. Not bad. I'd like to hear that version of BILYW...

- Mike Gravel uses John Lennon's "Power to the People." If he weren't so wierd and if this weren't a little too obvious, I'd like this call...

- When we saw Obama recently, they played Ben Harper's tune "Better Way." The sound of the song harkens back to The Beatles, "Tomorrow never Knows," with an Indian-type groove... It is kind of a swirling, rising, plaintive, meditative, prayer, mantra, plea, with righteous lyrics. I've also read that Obama uses Aretha Franklin's "Think!" Moreover, he has been quoted, "I'm old school, so generally, I'm more of a jazz guy, a Miles Davis, a John Coltrane guy, more of a Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder kind of guy. But having said that, I'm current enough that on my iPod I've got a little bit of Jay-Z. I've got a little Beyonce."

Here's the order for me, based on the music. It's really no contest in my ear:
Obama
Dodd
Gravel
Richardson
Kucinich
Edwards
Biden
Clinton

What's your preference? And, if you could choose the theme song for any of the candidates, what would you select?

2 comments:

tjmertzAugust 22, 2007 at 1:12 PM
I go with Mike Gravel, then Dodd.

I'm still waiting for a candidate to use the Chi-Lites (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People.

TJ
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Patrick JonesAugust 22, 2007 at 10:29 PM
... or, similarly, the O'Jays, "Give the People What They Want."

And, given all the silliness about Obama's identity, how about Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough For You?"
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Freedom Road

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

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Presidential Music

2 comments: