Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195162509
- eISBN:
- 9780199943364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.003.0028
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil ...
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This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil rights leaders and the “point men” of the communicative institutions who defined their jobs as interpreting such dramas to the civil sphere. That neither could exist without the other was a recognition, at once simple and profound, a recognition that became increasingly conscious and consequential as the black movement grew in influence and civil force.Less
This chapter focuses on the white journalists who worked for progressive newspapers and magazines. From the beginning, there was a symbiotic interaction between the social dramas staged by civil rights leaders and the “point men” of the communicative institutions who defined their jobs as interpreting such dramas to the civil sphere. That neither could exist without the other was a recognition, at once simple and profound, a recognition that became increasingly conscious and consequential as the black movement grew in influence and civil force.
Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195162509
- eISBN:
- 9780199943364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.003.0029
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral ...
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This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral violation among members of the surrounding civil sphere that led them to initiate forceful symbolic action for civic repair. It shows how this compensatory symbolic action triggered unprecedented changes in the civil sphere's regulatory institutions, creating overlapping waves of institutional and symbolic activity. However, even as we emphasize the neglected role of symbolic action and communicative institutions, placing them at the center of efforts to change the structure of civil society, we cannot forget the structures of a more coercive kind. To assert the significance of civil power is not to deny political and social forces; it is rather to place them into perspective. When social systems contain civil spheres, the sources and effects of power must be conceived in new ways. Power must be redefined.Less
This chapter explores more deeply the symbolic extension of interracial solidarity at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, investigating how its tensely wrought dramas triggered a sense of moral violation among members of the surrounding civil sphere that led them to initiate forceful symbolic action for civic repair. It shows how this compensatory symbolic action triggered unprecedented changes in the civil sphere's regulatory institutions, creating overlapping waves of institutional and symbolic activity. However, even as we emphasize the neglected role of symbolic action and communicative institutions, placing them at the center of efforts to change the structure of civil society, we cannot forget the structures of a more coercive kind. To assert the significance of civil power is not to deny political and social forces; it is rather to place them into perspective. When social systems contain civil spheres, the sources and effects of power must be conceived in new ways. Power must be redefined.
Carol A. Horton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195143485
- eISBN:
- 9780199850402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195143485.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The early Civil Rights movement radicalized the postwar liberal agenda by infusing it with much more expansive conceptions of both racial equity and social justice. While postwar liberalism remained ...
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The early Civil Rights movement radicalized the postwar liberal agenda by infusing it with much more expansive conceptions of both racial equity and social justice. While postwar liberalism remained focused on the problem of Jim Crow segregation in the South, the movement also emphasized problems of racial discrimination and segregation in the rest of the nation. At the same time, it encouraged the development of a new form of racial consciousness, particularly a more positive and empowered sense of black identity. The movement also advocated an essentially social democratic agenda, whose primary goal was to increase social and economic equity among all Americans. By the early 1960s, these commitments had created a pronounced rift between “white liberals”, who favored the more moderate politics of postwar liberalism, and the Negro movement, who supported the new form of social liberalism developed by the Civil Rights movement.Less
The early Civil Rights movement radicalized the postwar liberal agenda by infusing it with much more expansive conceptions of both racial equity and social justice. While postwar liberalism remained focused on the problem of Jim Crow segregation in the South, the movement also emphasized problems of racial discrimination and segregation in the rest of the nation. At the same time, it encouraged the development of a new form of racial consciousness, particularly a more positive and empowered sense of black identity. The movement also advocated an essentially social democratic agenda, whose primary goal was to increase social and economic equity among all Americans. By the early 1960s, these commitments had created a pronounced rift between “white liberals”, who favored the more moderate politics of postwar liberalism, and the Negro movement, who supported the new form of social liberalism developed by the Civil Rights movement.
Maxine Craig
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195152623
- eISBN:
- 9780199849345
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped ...
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This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped as a result of the interplay of actions taken at the individual and institutional levels. In chapters that detail the history of pre-Civil Rights Movement black beauty pageants, later efforts to integrate beauty contests, and the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s, the book develops a model for understanding social processes of racial change. It places changing black hair practices and standards of beauty in historical context and shows the powerful role social movements have had in reshaping the texture of everyday life. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements led a generation to question hair straightening and to establish a new standard of beauty that was summed up in the words “black is beautiful.” Through oral history interviews with Civil Rights and Black Power Movement activists and ordinary women, the book documents the meaning of these changes in black women's lives.Less
This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped as a result of the interplay of actions taken at the individual and institutional levels. In chapters that detail the history of pre-Civil Rights Movement black beauty pageants, later efforts to integrate beauty contests, and the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s, the book develops a model for understanding social processes of racial change. It places changing black hair practices and standards of beauty in historical context and shows the powerful role social movements have had in reshaping the texture of everyday life. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements led a generation to question hair straightening and to establish a new standard of beauty that was summed up in the words “black is beautiful.” Through oral history interviews with Civil Rights and Black Power Movement activists and ordinary women, the book documents the meaning of these changes in black women's lives.
Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199859948
- eISBN:
- 9780199951178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199859948.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together ...
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Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.Less
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order—from political movements to market meltdowns—is one of the enduring problems of social science. This book draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. This book proposes that social change and social order can be understood through what the book calls strategic action fields. It posits that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call “social skill,” helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition. To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, the book makes its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a “how-to” guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.
Sara Rzeszutek Haviland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166254
- eISBN:
- 9780813166735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166254.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
After his legal battles subsided, Jack and Esther worked to reestablish their family life. In so doing, they took on independent careers. Esther stopped participating in Communist Party functions and ...
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After his legal battles subsided, Jack and Esther worked to reestablish their family life. In so doing, they took on independent careers. Esther stopped participating in Communist Party functions and established Freedomways, a quarterly journal of the black freedom movement, with Shirley Graham DuBois. She became the journal’s managing editor, a position she held for twenty-five years. Jack became the editor of the Communist party newspaper The Worker. Both used their editorial positions to comment on the black freedom movement, offer encouragement to young activists, and promote dialogue between freedom movement workers from different generations and perspectives. Esther and Jack’s independent careers reflected the success of their egalitarian approach to marriage and inaugurated a new period of stability in their lives.Less
After his legal battles subsided, Jack and Esther worked to reestablish their family life. In so doing, they took on independent careers. Esther stopped participating in Communist Party functions and established Freedomways, a quarterly journal of the black freedom movement, with Shirley Graham DuBois. She became the journal’s managing editor, a position she held for twenty-five years. Jack became the editor of the Communist party newspaper The Worker. Both used their editorial positions to comment on the black freedom movement, offer encouragement to young activists, and promote dialogue between freedom movement workers from different generations and perspectives. Esther and Jack’s independent careers reflected the success of their egalitarian approach to marriage and inaugurated a new period of stability in their lives.
Carol Giardina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034560
- eISBN:
- 9780813039329
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034560.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The Civil Rights Movement, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was renowned for being a breeding ground for feminists. The chapter looks closely at the SNCC and its ...
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The Civil Rights Movement, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was renowned for being a breeding ground for feminists. The chapter looks closely at the SNCC and its influence on the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM). The positive ideas emerging out of the Civil Rights Movement were the major influencing factors of rise of the WLM. The Civil Rights Movement gave the WLM the experience of a new leadership. This chapter begins with discussing the controversial topics of black gender conventions and white gender conventions. The chapter also brings into the picture different female leaders who fought hard for women's liberation. Ella Baker, Diane Nash, and Ruby Doris Robinson get a special mention in the chapter for their leadership roles in the SNCC. Finally, the chapter talks about the transformation of women's liberation pioneers.Less
The Civil Rights Movement, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was renowned for being a breeding ground for feminists. The chapter looks closely at the SNCC and its influence on the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM). The positive ideas emerging out of the Civil Rights Movement were the major influencing factors of rise of the WLM. The Civil Rights Movement gave the WLM the experience of a new leadership. This chapter begins with discussing the controversial topics of black gender conventions and white gender conventions. The chapter also brings into the picture different female leaders who fought hard for women's liberation. Ella Baker, Diane Nash, and Ruby Doris Robinson get a special mention in the chapter for their leadership roles in the SNCC. Finally, the chapter talks about the transformation of women's liberation pioneers.
Robin D. G. Kelley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625485
- eISBN:
- 9781469625508
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625485.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This book studies the history of the “long Civil Rights movement,” and tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 1940s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for ...
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This book studies the history of the “long Civil Rights movement,” and tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 1940s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. This book reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals. After discussing the book's origins and impact in a new preface written for this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, the book reflects on what a militantly antiracist, radical movement in the heart of Dixie might teach contemporary social movements confronting rampant inequality, police violence, mass incarceration, and neoliberalism.Less
This book studies the history of the “long Civil Rights movement,” and tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 1940s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. This book reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals. After discussing the book's origins and impact in a new preface written for this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, the book reflects on what a militantly antiracist, radical movement in the heart of Dixie might teach contemporary social movements confronting rampant inequality, police violence, mass incarceration, and neoliberalism.
AnneMarie Mingo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462005
- eISBN:
- 9781626745094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462005.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Both prior to and subsequent to the emergence of black liberation-oriented theological constructions in the mid-1960s, few black women were given access to the hallowed halls of academia in the ...
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Both prior to and subsequent to the emergence of black liberation-oriented theological constructions in the mid-1960s, few black women were given access to the hallowed halls of academia in the manner of professional theologians or to prominent pulpits, yet many women worked out a lived theology of justice and freedom within the Movement as they experienced unjust practices in their encounters with white Christians. As a result of personal revelations of God, which are known through daily living, a lived theology addresses concrete and practical aspects rather than distant theories and shapes ways of ethically engaging the world. In this chapter, as one component of the construction of a lived theology of justice and freedom, the lived experiences of both individuals and communities are considered through transformative on-the-ground encounters during the Civil Rights Movement.Less
Both prior to and subsequent to the emergence of black liberation-oriented theological constructions in the mid-1960s, few black women were given access to the hallowed halls of academia in the manner of professional theologians or to prominent pulpits, yet many women worked out a lived theology of justice and freedom within the Movement as they experienced unjust practices in their encounters with white Christians. As a result of personal revelations of God, which are known through daily living, a lived theology addresses concrete and practical aspects rather than distant theories and shapes ways of ethically engaging the world. In this chapter, as one component of the construction of a lived theology of justice and freedom, the lived experiences of both individuals and communities are considered through transformative on-the-ground encounters during the Civil Rights Movement.
David Lucander
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038624
- eISBN:
- 9780252096556
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038624.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). MOWM was arguably the most effective African American protest organization during the Second World War, and ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). MOWM was arguably the most effective African American protest organization during the Second World War, and in some ways this period represented the zenith of A. Philip Randolph's power. By creating MOWM, Randolph gave local activists and organizers a platform on which they could fight against Jim Crow in innovative and sometimes powerful ways. This organization stands at a critical junction between the Roosevelt era and the years traditionally associated with the Civil Rights Movement, a chronological crossroads that makes it something of a generational interstice. Occupying this unique place in the chronology of twentieth-century campaigns by African Americans to attack Jim Crow segregation makes MOWM something of an anomaly. Its roots were firmly planted in Depression-era activism, but its branches spread through the next three decades and reached into the Civil Rights Movement.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). MOWM was arguably the most effective African American protest organization during the Second World War, and in some ways this period represented the zenith of A. Philip Randolph's power. By creating MOWM, Randolph gave local activists and organizers a platform on which they could fight against Jim Crow in innovative and sometimes powerful ways. This organization stands at a critical junction between the Roosevelt era and the years traditionally associated with the Civil Rights Movement, a chronological crossroads that makes it something of a generational interstice. Occupying this unique place in the chronology of twentieth-century campaigns by African Americans to attack Jim Crow segregation makes MOWM something of an anomaly. Its roots were firmly planted in Depression-era activism, but its branches spread through the next three decades and reached into the Civil Rights Movement.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which ...
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This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which the dramatic developments in that decade can be understood. It argues that to understand the unique atmosphere of the 1960s one also has to take account of specific events and movements. In particular, three stand out as being of pivotal significance in the political and religious radicalization and polarization during that decade, namely the US Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Second Vatican Council.Less
This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which the dramatic developments in that decade can be understood. It argues that to understand the unique atmosphere of the 1960s one also has to take account of specific events and movements. In particular, three stand out as being of pivotal significance in the political and religious radicalization and polarization during that decade, namely the US Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Second Vatican Council.
Sara Rzeszutek Haviland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166254
- eISBN:
- 9780813166735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166254.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Jack continued his activist work while he was underground, only covertly. After his 1951 indictment, he wrote for Communist Party publications under a pseudonym, critiquing the Party’s position on ...
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Jack continued his activist work while he was underground, only covertly. After his 1951 indictment, he wrote for Communist Party publications under a pseudonym, critiquing the Party’s position on race and relationship with mainstream civil rights leaders. His work underground became central in the Party’s revision of its official position on the Negro Question in 1959. Jack also used his trial in 1956 as an opportunity to defend his communism by tying it to his role in the black freedom movement, and his legal strategy illustrates connections and collaboration among lawyers, activists, and thinkers of a range of political viewpoints.Less
Jack continued his activist work while he was underground, only covertly. After his 1951 indictment, he wrote for Communist Party publications under a pseudonym, critiquing the Party’s position on race and relationship with mainstream civil rights leaders. His work underground became central in the Party’s revision of its official position on the Negro Question in 1959. Jack also used his trial in 1956 as an opportunity to defend his communism by tying it to his role in the black freedom movement, and his legal strategy illustrates connections and collaboration among lawyers, activists, and thinkers of a range of political viewpoints.
Carol A. Horton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195143485
- eISBN:
- 9780199850402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195143485.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 established a new form of right-of-center liberalism as a powerful force in the nation's political life. Although the fortunes of the conservative ...
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The election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 established a new form of right-of-center liberalism as a powerful force in the nation's political life. Although the fortunes of the conservative movement would wax and wane over the next twenty-five years, overall it experienced remarkable consolidation and growth during this time. The Civil Rights movement represented the most powerful political force dedicated to a simultaneous attack on both racial discrimination and socioeconomic inequality in the nation's history. This combination of neoconservatism and New Right organizing revitalized the larger conservative movement, which had been fighting an uphill battle for most of the preceding decades. The future of equalitarian politics in the United States is at best uncertain. Reviving it will require the development of a larger motivating vision, a set of practical policy reforms capable of attracting broad political support, and an organizational structure with the muscle to get out both the message and the vote.Less
The election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 established a new form of right-of-center liberalism as a powerful force in the nation's political life. Although the fortunes of the conservative movement would wax and wane over the next twenty-five years, overall it experienced remarkable consolidation and growth during this time. The Civil Rights movement represented the most powerful political force dedicated to a simultaneous attack on both racial discrimination and socioeconomic inequality in the nation's history. This combination of neoconservatism and New Right organizing revitalized the larger conservative movement, which had been fighting an uphill battle for most of the preceding decades. The future of equalitarian politics in the United States is at best uncertain. Reviving it will require the development of a larger motivating vision, a set of practical policy reforms capable of attracting broad political support, and an organizational structure with the muscle to get out both the message and the vote.
Melissa Schwartzberg (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479810512
- eISBN:
- 9781479837564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479810512.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Protests abound in contemporary political life, including in the United States: One-fifth of Americans reported having participated in a political protest between early 2016 and early 2018. Protest ...
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Protests abound in contemporary political life, including in the United States: One-fifth of Americans reported having participated in a political protest between early 2016 and early 2018. Protest and Dissent examines the justification, strategy, and limits of mass demonstrations and other forms of resistance, drawing, in the distinctive NOMOS fashion, from political science, philosophy, and law. Its linked chapters are informed by African American political thought, Gandhian nonviolence, the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and the dynamics of recent social movements. In the ten chapters of Protest and Dissent, the authors challenge their fellow contributors and readers to reimagine the boundaries between civil and uncivil disagreement, between political reform and radical transformation, and between democratic ends and means. The volume has three parts. The first takes up the justification of civil and uncivil disobedience; the second addresses the strategic logic of political protest; and the third analyzes the democratic implications of protest and dissent, including in comparative perspective.Less
Protests abound in contemporary political life, including in the United States: One-fifth of Americans reported having participated in a political protest between early 2016 and early 2018. Protest and Dissent examines the justification, strategy, and limits of mass demonstrations and other forms of resistance, drawing, in the distinctive NOMOS fashion, from political science, philosophy, and law. Its linked chapters are informed by African American political thought, Gandhian nonviolence, the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and the dynamics of recent social movements. In the ten chapters of Protest and Dissent, the authors challenge their fellow contributors and readers to reimagine the boundaries between civil and uncivil disagreement, between political reform and radical transformation, and between democratic ends and means. The volume has three parts. The first takes up the justification of civil and uncivil disobedience; the second addresses the strategic logic of political protest; and the third analyzes the democratic implications of protest and dissent, including in comparative perspective.
Richard Lischer
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195111323
- eISBN:
- 9780199853298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195111323.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In a 1961 article of the New York Times Magazine, Ved Mehta wrote that Gandhi and Martin Luther King shared a particular dramatist genius. Both led demonstrations as if they were theatrical ...
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In a 1961 article of the New York Times Magazine, Ved Mehta wrote that Gandhi and Martin Luther King shared a particular dramatist genius. Both led demonstrations as if they were theatrical performances, and they were remembered as “imaginative artists who knew how to use politics as their stage.” David Halberstam characterized the Civil Rights Movement as “a great televised morality play, white hats and black hats…” Mehta's and Halberstam's comments are a reminder that Martin Luther King was, in the strictest positive sense of the word, an actor. He perfected his talent in the black church, where he learned how to perform according to the public's expectations.Less
In a 1961 article of the New York Times Magazine, Ved Mehta wrote that Gandhi and Martin Luther King shared a particular dramatist genius. Both led demonstrations as if they were theatrical performances, and they were remembered as “imaginative artists who knew how to use politics as their stage.” David Halberstam characterized the Civil Rights Movement as “a great televised morality play, white hats and black hats…” Mehta's and Halberstam's comments are a reminder that Martin Luther King was, in the strictest positive sense of the word, an actor. He perfected his talent in the black church, where he learned how to perform according to the public's expectations.
Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628460391
- eISBN:
- 9781626740846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628460391.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter looks more specifically at 20th century African American history, paralleling the evolution of African American musical and artistic forms and African American social and economic ...
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This chapter looks more specifically at 20th century African American history, paralleling the evolution of African American musical and artistic forms and African American social and economic condition in the United States. The profound changes brought about by World War I and the Great Migration, new hopes and ambitions as are echoed in the lyrics and themes developed in the music, but also in changing musical forms from the blues to bebop in the 1940s. Bebop’s challenge to swing was soon absorbed by the mainstream, but the same dedication to iconoclasm and black musical roots can be heard in later musical genres from electric blues and soul to hard bop, all of which bear the marks of the African American struggle for Civil Rights.Less
This chapter looks more specifically at 20th century African American history, paralleling the evolution of African American musical and artistic forms and African American social and economic condition in the United States. The profound changes brought about by World War I and the Great Migration, new hopes and ambitions as are echoed in the lyrics and themes developed in the music, but also in changing musical forms from the blues to bebop in the 1940s. Bebop’s challenge to swing was soon absorbed by the mainstream, but the same dedication to iconoclasm and black musical roots can be heard in later musical genres from electric blues and soul to hard bop, all of which bear the marks of the African American struggle for Civil Rights.
Elaine Allen Lechtreck
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817525
- eISBN:
- 9781496817570
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817525.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
How did southern white ministers who believed that racial segregation was against God’s teachings attempt to convince people in their churches and their communities to abandon fears of integration ...
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How did southern white ministers who believed that racial segregation was against God’s teachings attempt to convince people in their churches and their communities to abandon fears of integration and overcome prejudices? This book is about important episodes in United States history, southern history, church history, and the power of faith. Southern white ministers who aligned with the Civil Rights Movement experienced harassment, vilification, jailing, beating, and psychological pain. Their sermons, efforts, and sacrifices on behalf of school integration and the Civil Rights Movement are chronicled in this book. Did their efforts help change southern society? Scholars differ in opinions. Most argue that black leaders and organizations brought an end to segregation, Others contend that the federal government speeded the process, but this book shows that southern white ministers were also influential, sometimes only locally, sometimes only personally, but counted together their actions become significant. Clinton High in Tennessee and Central High in Little Rock where ministers accompanied African American students amid angry and jeering mobs, today, are good functioning schools with interracial student bodies. The University of Mississippi, where an Episcopal vicar was knocked off a pedestal while trying to quell a bloody riot, has made great strides towards racial reconciliation. These ministers welcomed black people into their churches in spite of closed-door policies. A Baptist minister established an interracial farm that has endured for seventy-six years, a farm that birthed Habitat for Humanity. The sacrifices of these ministers showed African Americans that not all white people were enemies.Less
How did southern white ministers who believed that racial segregation was against God’s teachings attempt to convince people in their churches and their communities to abandon fears of integration and overcome prejudices? This book is about important episodes in United States history, southern history, church history, and the power of faith. Southern white ministers who aligned with the Civil Rights Movement experienced harassment, vilification, jailing, beating, and psychological pain. Their sermons, efforts, and sacrifices on behalf of school integration and the Civil Rights Movement are chronicled in this book. Did their efforts help change southern society? Scholars differ in opinions. Most argue that black leaders and organizations brought an end to segregation, Others contend that the federal government speeded the process, but this book shows that southern white ministers were also influential, sometimes only locally, sometimes only personally, but counted together their actions become significant. Clinton High in Tennessee and Central High in Little Rock where ministers accompanied African American students amid angry and jeering mobs, today, are good functioning schools with interracial student bodies. The University of Mississippi, where an Episcopal vicar was knocked off a pedestal while trying to quell a bloody riot, has made great strides towards racial reconciliation. These ministers welcomed black people into their churches in spite of closed-door policies. A Baptist minister established an interracial farm that has endured for seventy-six years, a farm that birthed Habitat for Humanity. The sacrifices of these ministers showed African Americans that not all white people were enemies.
Ray Brescia
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748110
- eISBN:
- 9781501748134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748110.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter recounts the radical change in communications technology that helped launch many organizations that abandoned the translocal organizing structure because the most modern means of ...
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This chapter recounts the radical change in communications technology that helped launch many organizations that abandoned the translocal organizing structure because the most modern means of communication available to them—the computerized mailing list—made it easy for them to do so. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement—which was built on networks of cells of grassroots groups spread out through the country and coordinated, loosely, by national organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—the new movements, for the most part, utilized the ability to engage in mass mailing to create national organizations divorced from grassroots networks. Mass mailing would then shape social movements for two generations and the next forty years. This forty-year period also saw two different phenomenon unfold: one socioeconomic and one social. There was both a dramatic increase in economic inequality as well as a decrease in generalized trust.Less
This chapter recounts the radical change in communications technology that helped launch many organizations that abandoned the translocal organizing structure because the most modern means of communication available to them—the computerized mailing list—made it easy for them to do so. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement—which was built on networks of cells of grassroots groups spread out through the country and coordinated, loosely, by national organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—the new movements, for the most part, utilized the ability to engage in mass mailing to create national organizations divorced from grassroots networks. Mass mailing would then shape social movements for two generations and the next forty years. This forty-year period also saw two different phenomenon unfold: one socioeconomic and one social. There was both a dramatic increase in economic inequality as well as a decrease in generalized trust.
Stephen Tuck
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748698936
- eISBN:
- 9781474445160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748698936.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
1968 is commonly seen as the end of the classic era of modern civil rights protest: a year when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when violence seemed endemic in urban black communities, when Black ...
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1968 is commonly seen as the end of the classic era of modern civil rights protest: a year when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when violence seemed endemic in urban black communities, when Black Power groups fractured and when candidates opposed to further civil rights legislation made giant strides at the ballot box. 1968 seemed to usher in a decade bereft of major civil rights activity, ahead of a resurgence of conservative politics. And yet a look behind the headlines tells a different story in the post-1968 years at the local level: of increasing civil rights protest, of major gains in the courts and politics and the workplace, of substantial victories by Black Power activists, and calls for new rights by African American groups hitherto unrecognised by civil rights leaders. This chapter argues that in many ways 1968 marked the beginning of a vibrant new phase of race-centred activism, rather than the end, of the modern civil rights movement.Less
1968 is commonly seen as the end of the classic era of modern civil rights protest: a year when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when violence seemed endemic in urban black communities, when Black Power groups fractured and when candidates opposed to further civil rights legislation made giant strides at the ballot box. 1968 seemed to usher in a decade bereft of major civil rights activity, ahead of a resurgence of conservative politics. And yet a look behind the headlines tells a different story in the post-1968 years at the local level: of increasing civil rights protest, of major gains in the courts and politics and the workplace, of substantial victories by Black Power activists, and calls for new rights by African American groups hitherto unrecognised by civil rights leaders. This chapter argues that in many ways 1968 marked the beginning of a vibrant new phase of race-centred activism, rather than the end, of the modern civil rights movement.
Ingrid Monson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195128253
- eISBN:
- 9780199864492
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195128253.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, ...
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An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism through the lens of the hot button racial and economic issues of the time. It illustrates how the contentious and soul-searching debates in the Civil Rights, African Independence, and Black Power movements shaped aesthetic debates and exerted a moral pressure on musicians to take action. Throughout, its arguments show how jazz musicians' quest for self-determination as artists and human beings also led to fascinating and far-reaching musical explorations and a lasting ethos of social critique and transcendence. Across a broad body of issues of cultural and political relevance, the book considers the discursive, structural, and practical aspects of life in the jazz world of the 1950s and 1960s. In domestic politics, the book explores the desegregation of the American Federation of Musicians, the politics of playing to segregated performance venues in the 1950s, the participation of jazz musicians in benefit concerts, and strategies of economic empowerment. Issues of transatlantic importance such as the effects of anticolonialism and African nationalism on the politics and aesthetics of the music are also examined, from Paul Robeson's interest in Africa, to the State Department jazz tours, to the interaction of jazz musicians such as Art Blakey and Randy Weston with African diasporic aesthetics. It explores musicians' aesthetic agency in synthesizing influential forms of musical expression from a multiplicity of stylistic and cultural influences—African American music, popular song, classical music, African diasporic aesthetics, and other world music—through examples from cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and the avant-garde. By considering the differences between aesthetic and socio-economic mobility, it presents a fresh interpretation of debates over cultural ownership, racism, reverse racism, and authenticity.Less
An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism through the lens of the hot button racial and economic issues of the time. It illustrates how the contentious and soul-searching debates in the Civil Rights, African Independence, and Black Power movements shaped aesthetic debates and exerted a moral pressure on musicians to take action. Throughout, its arguments show how jazz musicians' quest for self-determination as artists and human beings also led to fascinating and far-reaching musical explorations and a lasting ethos of social critique and transcendence. Across a broad body of issues of cultural and political relevance, the book considers the discursive, structural, and practical aspects of life in the jazz world of the 1950s and 1960s. In domestic politics, the book explores the desegregation of the American Federation of Musicians, the politics of playing to segregated performance venues in the 1950s, the participation of jazz musicians in benefit concerts, and strategies of economic empowerment. Issues of transatlantic importance such as the effects of anticolonialism and African nationalism on the politics and aesthetics of the music are also examined, from Paul Robeson's interest in Africa, to the State Department jazz tours, to the interaction of jazz musicians such as Art Blakey and Randy Weston with African diasporic aesthetics. It explores musicians' aesthetic agency in synthesizing influential forms of musical expression from a multiplicity of stylistic and cultural influences—African American music, popular song, classical music, African diasporic aesthetics, and other world music—through examples from cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and the avant-garde. By considering the differences between aesthetic and socio-economic mobility, it presents a fresh interpretation of debates over cultural ownership, racism, reverse racism, and authenticity.
