Freedom Road: Kaya "Phoenix" Jones

"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

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Kaya "Phoenix" Jones

Well, it has been a dramatic few days around these parts. On Monday morning at 7:30am, Kaya Jones was hit by a car in front of our house. The story is too long to recount here, but it had something to do with screaming Catholic school girls, an elicit pile of poop, and my own fumbling hands. The end result was Kaya darting directly into the path of an on-coming Honda CRV. Fortunately, she was hit from the center of the car and thus avoided having a tire run over her. In addition, because the CRV sits a little higher than your average car and Kaya is still small, the bumper missed her, which probably saved her from having smashed bones. And, the driver slammed on his brakes as soon as she ran in front of him, so she did not travel all the way under the car and out the other end. In fact, she only made it a foot or two under the car. In essence, the car contorted Kaya and flipped her over and over as it skidded to a halt over her. She bounced right up and ran to our porch, where she left a small pool of blood, and then inside, up our stairs, into the bedroom and under our bed, leaving a disturbing trail of blood the whole way. I scooped her up and raced to the animal hospital where they immediately tranquilized her... daddy could have used a little of that, as well!

Kaya tore up her back left paw and leg quite badly. Her paw required a number of stitches to put it back together. Beyond that, though, we got extremely lucky: no broken bones, no internal damage, no head trauma, no rib displacement, etc. As someone who watched the calamity unfold, I am shocked she isn't much worse off.

Because Kaya appears to have escaped the clutches of death, we have re-christened her with a new middle name. She is now Kaya "Phoenix" Jones. Like the mythic bird, Kaya has risen from what very well might have been the ashes of death out there on J Street. Or, maybe she is just part cat and we are now on life #2... regardless, all are happy to have her home again and on the mend.

Kaya will not be conducting any interviews at this time. She has withdrawn from all upcoming doggy races and squirrel chases.

Here are the latest images... (click any image to enlarge)

OUCH!