Freedom Road: ☮ UNL NFP Leads Game Day "Die-In"

"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

Sunday, September 16, 2007

☮ UNL NFP Leads Game Day "Die-In"

The UNL chapter of Nebraskans for Peace lead a "die-in" today on campus before the nationally televised USC-UNL football game. The idea behind the protest was to take the peace movement to people who are outside of the "choir" and to confront them with the question, "What will you DO to end the occupation?" About 30 people, including some members of the Lincoln Coalition for Peace, put their bodies on the ground in symbolic protest of the ongoing Iraq war. The response from the sea of red and white passers-by was often indifferent, but of those that gave a response, I would say that more than half were positive and supportive and only a few were hostile or angry. At one point an older gentleman engaged two of the protesters and later a young vet angrily jawed at the group. In both cases, the demonstrators talked back in calm and deliberate tones and, I think, won the day. Both the older man and the younger military guy softened their views (retreated, in fact) by the end of the exchange. Special credit should be given to Nic Swiercek, a first year graduate student in the History Department, who deftly defused the angry military guy. It was a good event and all of the participants should feel very positive about it!

Here is what the Daily Nebraskan had to say about the "die-in":
Daily Nebraskan on "die-in"

Here are a bunch of photos (click any photo to enlarge):

2 comments:

AnonymousSeptember 18, 2007 at 7:54 AM
I was at the game and want to write how much I admire these young people for standing up courageously for their (and all of our) rights! It is heartening to see some action on campus after so long. Great job UNL NFP!
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AnonymousSeptember 28, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Bravo to all who conducted the die-in. A husker football game is not an easy crowd but you are to be applauded for your work. It gave me goosebumps and helped me remember when season ticket holders Ann Coyne and Don Tilley unfurled the "U.S. Out of El Salvador - Hi ABC" banner in 1985 and marched the perimeter INSIDE the stadium! (before all the new security - this was possible) Great traditions NFP!
And great messaging as well - asking critical questions!
Suzy
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"The Selma of the North": Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

☮ UNL NFP Leads Game Day "Die-In"

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