Louise Thompson Patterson : a life of struggle for justice / Keith Gilyard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilyard, Keith, 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Patterson, Louise Thompson, 1901-1999.

Patterson, Louise Thompson.

African American women political activists--Biography.

African American women political activists.

African American women social reformers--Biography.

African American women social reformers.

African American communists--Biography.

African American communists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Born in 1901, Louise Thompson Patterson was a leading and transformative figure in radical African American politics. Throughout most of the twentieth century she embodied a dedicated resistance to racial, economic, and gender exploitation. In this, the first biography of Patterson, Keith Gilyard tells her compelling story, from her childhood on the West Coast, where she suffered isolation and persecution, to her participation in the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. In the 1930s and 1940s she became central, along with Paul Robeson, to the labor movement, and later, in the 1950s, she steered proto-black-feminist activities. Patterson was also crucial to the efforts in the 1970s to free political prisoners, most notably Angela Davis. In the 1980s and 1990s she continued to work as a progressive activist and public intellectual. To read her story is to witness the courage, sacrifice, vision, and discipline of someone who spent decades working to achieve justice and liberation for all.

Contents:

Introduction

Louise Alone, 1901-1916

California community, 1917-1925

Shades of control, 1925-1928

Harlem kaleidoscope, 1928-1932

Madam Moscow, 1932

The struggle has nine lives, 1932-1934

Popular fronts, 1935-1937

Ba ba ba bop, 1937-1940

Bronzeville brigades, 1941-1949

Sojourns and sojourners, 1949-1959

A fairer public hearing, 1960-1969

Confirming commitments, 1970-1984

Still reaching, 1984-1999.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822372318

0822372312

OCLC:

1048176477