Freedom Road

"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, June 03, 2008

It's Official! Barack Obama Makes History!!

(thanks to the New Nebraska Network for these last three graphics)

Two Good Things About the Obama Revolution...

I have long said that as much as I like Obama as my candidate for President, I don't view him, or any other president, as the end all be all for social change. Of course, the presidency is a crucial seat of power; unlike some other progressive/lefties, I think it matters. But, I think what will determine whether Obama is a good or great president is the degree to which the rest of the citizenry organizes and presses that institution, along with others (most notably the legislature), to make good on the promise for change. In this way, WE all play the crucial role in determining our collective future. Politics does not end and begin with a national election every four years. Politics happens every day.

To this end, I like the following two ideas:

• Obama's Summer Organizing Camp for Your Adults. The point of this camp is to give younger people some organizing training, just like Obama himself received when he became a community organizer in Chicago.

• Ideas from the Grassroots: Oh Boy Obama! "is the unofficial campaign think-tank. Created by Obama supporters for the purpose of giving the Obama grassroots a platform to submit and vote on ideas to better the 2008 primary and general election campaign of Barack Obama. All supporters are welcome to contribute."

Both of these efforts aim at getting citizens more actively involved in politics. They emanate from the idea that WE are the source of power and ideas, ultimately. WE have a responsibility as overseers of our democracy. WE must act to make change happen...

What will YOU do to ensure greater democracy in the U.S.? What will YOU do to help make our society more humane and just?

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Roots live!

We saw The Roots last night just over the river in Iowa. As usual, it was super-hot. They were channeling Funkadelic for much of the evening...

... oh, yeah. Today is my birthday:

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Herbie Hancock - "Hang Up Your Hang-Ups" (live - 1979)

Power to the People: The Clinton Machine is Finished

The Democratic Party Rules Committee has seated the Michigan and Florida delegations and awarded them half-votes, thereby effectively ending Hillary Clinton's increasingly desperate and, at times, bizzare-o quest for the nomination. Ladies and gentlemen, shortly after June 3, Barack Obama will officially cross the delegate threshold and become the Democratic Party's official nominee. The Clinton Machine, which has ruled the party for a generation is now officially dead. Craig Crawford of the Congressional Quarterly writes:

Make no mistake about it. The decision rendered today by the Democratic National Committee's rules panel showed that Barack Obama has displaced Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as boss of the party.

It is done. We are at the threshold of a new era in the party and in our nation's history. And that has only just begun...