Freedom Road: opportunity

"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

Friday, June 06, 2008

"Kill This Petition": Omaha World Herald Slams Anti-Affirmative Action Petition

Omaha World Herald - June 5, 2008

"Kill this petition"
Radio ad is odious; Connerly petition effort deserves defeat.

The approach outside an Omaha drugstore seemed simple enough. It started with two questions:

"Excuse me, sir, are you a registered voter?"

"Yes."

"Would you sign a petition to eliminate all gender and race discrimination in Nebraska?"

Wow.

The approach was from a paid petition-gatherer for the "American Civil Rights Institute," a California organization seeking to eliminate affirmative action in states across the country.

Certainly, the notion of eliminating "all gender and race discrimination in Nebraska" is quite desirable. But that is not at all what this effort is about.

The petition seeks to amend Nebraska's Constitution so that it prohibits all consideration of race, ethnicity and gender in hiring, scholarship or contracting decisions made by public agencies, including the University of Nebraska system.

That means it would be forbidden to provide scholarships to benefit African-American students. Or women. It also means it would be prohibited to promote the growth of minority-owned or female-owned businesses through the awarding of contracts for that purpose.

Such prohibitions would be bad for Nebraska and bad for the university system.

The petition-getherers now have resorted to a radio commercial that features controversial rhetoric from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (of Barack Obama fame) and refers to the "bitter rhetoric" of State Sen. Ernie Chambers.

Whether or not you agree with the positions of Sen. Chambers (the only African-American member of the Nebraska Legislature), the focal point of debate should be policy, not the Omaha senator. And Wright, a Chicagoan, has no relevance at all to this Nebraska debate.

How ironic that the ad, which calls for Nebraskans to "reject the politics of race and hate," itself shamelessly stokes racial resentment. Meanwhile, the outsiders who have made high-dollar contributions to the promotional campaign can blithely walk away, having done their best to work Nebraskans into a frenzy along racial lines.

If ever there was a petition effort that disgraced itself with its own words, this is it. The radio ad doesn't merely take the low road. It takes the lowest road.

What is happening is that California businessman Ward Connerly is attempting to foist his will on the people of Nebraska with a race-fixated drive to change our constitution.

With the unveiling of this remarkably ugly ad, one would hope the scales would fall from Nebraskans' eyes about the nature of the outside interests involved in the circulation campaign. These outsiders have now made clear to which lengths they're willing to go in whipping up racial tension and anger.

The radio ad is vile, and the petition drive is wrong. It doesn't "eliminate" discrimination; it enables discrimination. The Nebraska Legislature saw through this and rejected putting this on the ballot via the legislative process.

Don't buy into this garbage. Don't sign the petition. It's bad for Nebraska.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Deceptive Tactics Continue in Anti-Affirmative Action Effort

The following entry is a reprint of an entry by Kyle Michaelis over at the New Nebraska Network blog...

This just in from a NNN reader in Columbus. It shouldn't come as any surprise that Nebraskans are seeing some very suspicious and outright deceptive tactics being used to gather enough signatures to place a constitutional amendment to end affirmative action on the November ballot:

Thought you might want to hear about petition gatherers tactics in the Columbus area.
I went to Wal-mart this morning (not my first choice of retailers but there isn't a whole lot to choose from here) and noticed a table set up outside one of the doors. The table had two small signs saying:

"SIGN UP TODAY"
"Are you concerned about jobs?"

Then it had some smaller print that I couldn't read as I rushed past the table knowing what this person was trying to pull on the customers. When I came out of the store, I heard the pitch:
"Are you concerned about jobs in Nebraska? Sign up today to eliminate gender and race as a factor in hiring decisions."

The scruffy, homeless looking, mid-twenty year old was only making this pitch to white, middle-aged men.

In this instance, the petition gatherers appear to have completely obscured the fact that this amendment would only affect hiring decisions by the state and by those contracting with the state. Of course, there's a very good chance they didn't understand that distinction for themselves. Such matters are of little concern when they're just trying to make a buck and some misleading language playing on Nebraskans' economic fears can help them to that effect.

I'd assume this "scruffy, homeless-looking" gentlemen was one of the out-of-state, paid petition-gatherers those orchestrating this effort were so excited about bringing to Nebraska after it was reported they'd failed with similar efforts in Oklahoma and Missouri. If this story is any indication, it seems they've also brought with them the same types of deception and fraud employed in those other states.

It's up to us to remain vigilant and strong if such tactics are to meet with a similar fate, failing in Nebraska as well.

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