Broken brotherhood : the rise and fall of the National Afro-American Council / Benjamin R. Justesen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Justesen, Benjamin R., 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National Afro-American Council--History.

National Afro-American Council.

African Americans--Civil rights--History.

African Americans.

Civil rights movements--United States--History.

Civil rights movements.

African Americans--History--1877-1964.

Racism--United States--History.

Racism.

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (282 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Broken Brotherhood: " "The Rise and Fall of the National Afro-American Council" gives a comprehensive account of the National Afro-American Council, the first truly nationwide U.S. civil rights organization, which existed from 1898 to 1908. Based on exhaustive research, the volume chronicles the Council s achievements and its annual meetings and provides portraits of its key leaders. Led by four of the most notable African American leaders of the time journalist T. Thomas Fortune, Bishop Alexander Walters, educator Booker T. Washington, and Congressman George Henry White the Council persevered for a decade despite structural flaws and external pressures that eventually led to its demise in 1908. Author Benjamin R. Justesen provides historical context for the Council s development during an era of unprecedented growth in African American organizations. Justesen establishes the National Afro-American Council as the earliest national arena for discussions of critical social and political issues affecting African Americans and the single most important united voice lobbying for protection of the nation s largest minority. In a period marked by racial segregation, widespread disfranchisement, and lynching violence, the nonpartisan council helped establish two more enduring successor organizations, providing core leadership for both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League. "Broken Brotherhood" traces the history of the Council and the complicated relationships among key leaders from its creation in Rochester in 1898 to its last gathering in Baltimore in 1907, drawing on both private correspondence and contemporary journalism to create a balanced historical portrait. Enhanced by thirteen illustrations, the volume also provides intriguing details about the ten national gatherings, describes the Council s unsuccessful attempt to challenge disfranchisement before the U.S. Supreme Court, and sheds light on the gradual breakdown of Republican solidarity among African American leaders in the first decade of the twentieth century. "

Contents:

Cover

Book Title

Copyright

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Resurrecting the League

2. The Black Judases

3. All Eyes on McKinley

4. Playing at Presidential Politics

Gallery

5. Nowhere Else to Turn

6. Fortune at the Helm

7. Dueling Portraits

8. Enduring the Interregnum

9. Walters Redux

10. Competing with Niagara

11. Farewell to the Wizard

Epilogue

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Author Bio

Back Cover.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-249) and index.

ISBN:

9781299454743

1299454747

9780809386970

0809386976

9781435663626

1435663624

OCLC:

246690389