We ain't what we ought to be : the Black freedom struggle, from emancipation to Obama / Stephen Tuck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tuck, Stephen G. N., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Civil rights--History.

African Americans.

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (529 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Summary:

In this exciting revisionist history, Stephen Tuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President Obama's inauguration. As it moves from popular culture to high politics, from the Deep South to New England, the West Coast, and abroad, Tuck weaves gripping stories of ordinary black people-as well as celebrated figures-into the sweep of racial protest and social change. The drama unfolds from an armed march of longshoremen in post-Civil War Baltimore to Booker T. Washington's founding of Tuskegee Institute; from the race riots following Jack Johnson's "fight of the century" to Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus; and from the rise of hip hop to the journey of a black Louisiana grandmother to plead with the Tokyo directors of a multinational company to stop the dumping of toxic waste near her home. We Ain't What We Ought To Be rejects the traditional narrative that identifies the Southern non-violent civil rights movement as the focal point of the black freedom struggle. Instead, it explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders. As Tuck shows, strategies were ultimately contingent on the power of activists to protest amidst shifting economic and political circumstances in the U.S. and abroad. This book captures an extraordinary journey that speaks to all Americans-both past and future.

Contents:

The freedom war, 1861-1865

Freedom is not enough, 1865-1877

Resisting the juggernaut of White supremacy, 1878-1906

Black leaders reckon with Jim Crow, 1893-1916

Great War and Great Migration, 1917-1924

Renaissance in Harlem, dark ages elsewhere, 1924-1941

World War II and its aftermath, 1941-1948

Three steps forward, two steps back, 1949-1959

The Civil Rights movement, 1960-1965

Black power and grassroots protest, 1966-1978

Reagan, rap, and resistance, 1979-2000.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674257900

0674257901

OCLC:

1252050790