African American Studies

Follow

• 

  Entangled by White Supremacy: Reform in World War I-era South Carolina

  This book analyzes World War I-era South Carolina, a state whose white minority maintained political power by rigidly enforcing white supremacy over an African American majority. Considering the aspirations and actions of both black and white reformers, the book looks at the influence of a multifaceted ideology of white supremacy that became a barrier to the region's progress. Detailing African American resistance to white supremacy long before the Civil Rights era, the book illuminates the critical nature of South Carolina to the civil rights movement.

• 

  Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, Kentucky, 1945-1980

  Situated on the banks of the Ohio River, Louisville, Kentucky, represents a cultural and geographical intersection of North and South. Throughout its history, Louisville has simultaneously displayed northern and southern characteristics in its race relations. In their struggles against racial injustice in the mid-twentieth century, activists in Louisville crossed racial, economic, and political dividing lines to form a wide array of alliances not seen in other cities of its size. This book provides the first comprehensive look at the distinctive elements of Louisville's civil rights movement. The book frames the analysis by defining a border as a space where historical ...Read More

• 

  Bluejackets and Contrabands: African Americans and the Union Navy

  One of the lesser-known stories of the Civil War is the role played by escaped slaves in the Union blockade along the Atlantic coast. From the beginning of the war, many African American refugees sought avenues of escape to the North. Due to their sheer numbers, those who reached Union forces presented a problem for the military. The problem was partially resolved by the First Confiscation Act of 1861, which permitted the seizure of property used in support of the South's war effort, including slaves. Eventually regarded as contraband of war, the runaways became known as contrabands. This book examines ...Read More

• 

  Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader

  Without question, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of the civil rights revolution that reshaped the social and political landscape of the United States. Although many biographers and historians have examined Dr. King's activism, few have recognized the pivotal role that the people of Montgomery, Alabama, played in preparing him for leadership. King arrived in Montgomery as a virtually unknown doctoral student, but his activities there—from organizing the Montgomery bus boycott to building relationships with local activists such as Rufus Lewis, E. D. Nixon, and Virginia Durr—established him as the movement's most visible leader. This book illustrates how ...Read More

• 

  Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975

  Between the 1920s and the 1970s, American economic culture began to emphasize the value of consumption over production. At the same time, the rise of new mass media such as radio and television facilitated the advertising and sales of consumer goods on an unprecedented scale. This book analyzes an often overlooked facet of twentieth-century consumer society as it explores the political, social, and racial implications of the business devoted to producing and marketing beauty products for African American women. It examines African American beauty culture as a significant component of twentieth-century consumerism and links both subjects to the complex racial ...Read More

• 

  For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865

  Whether as slaves or freedmen, the political and social status of African Americans has always been tied to their ability to participate in the nation’s economy. Freedom in the post–Civil War years did not guarantee equality, and African Americans from emancipation to the present have faced the seemingly insurmountable task of erasing pervasive public belief in the inferiority of their race.

  For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865 describes the African American struggle to obtain equal rights in the workplace and organized labor’s response to their demands. Award-winning historian Robert H. Zieger asserts that the promise ...Read More

• 

  On Jordan's Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley

  This comprehensive history examines communities on the northern and southern shores of the Ohio River that developed as a consequence of the Civil War. Darrel E. Bigham describes how these communities were shaped by the presence or absence of slavery and how the abolition of slavery and the rise of free labor became the rule of law on both banks. Focusing on this critical period of vast social, economic, and political change, Bigham demonstrates that African Americans on both sides of the river made remarkable advances in spite of being offered little with which to make a meaningful new start. ...Read More

• 

  Democracy Rising: South Carolina and the Fight for Black Equality since 1865

  Considered by many historians to be the birthplace of the Confederacy, South Carolina experienced one of the longest and most turbulent Reconstruction periods of all the southern states. After the Civil War, white supremacist leadership in the state fiercely resisted the efforts of freed slaves to secure full citizenship rights and to remake society based upon an expansive vision of freedom forged in slavery and the crucible of war. Despite numerous obstacles, African Americans achieved remarkable social and political advances in the ten years following the war, including the establishment of the state’s first publicly-funded school system and health care ...Read More

• 

  Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle

  Over the past thirty years, Steven F. Lawson has established himself as one of the nation’s leading historians of the black struggle for equality. Civil Rights Crossroads is an important collection of Lawson’s writings about the civil rights movement that is essential reading for anyone concerned about the past, present, and future of race relations in America. Lawson examines the movement from a variety of perspectives—local and national, political and social—to offer penetrating insights into the civil rights movement and its influence on contemporary society.

  Civil Rights Crossroads also illuminates the role of a broad array of civil rights activists, ...Read More

• 

  Community Memories: A Glimpse of African American Life in Frankfort, Kentucky

  Community Memories is a fascinating look into life recalled by African Americans who consider Frankfort their home. Featuring unique oral history recollections and over two hundred candid personal photographs collected from community residents, the book provides an enlightening expression of the black experience in Kentucky’s capital. The memories focus on the elusive concept of community—that which binds together individuals in the living of everyday life. A satisfying blend of public history and local accounts, Community Memories explores the neighborhood, familial, religious, occupational, social, and educational components of the daily community experience of twentieth-century African Americans in Frankfort.

  Published by the ...Read More