Redefining The Color Line: Black Activsm In Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-197 (New Perspectives on the History of the South (Paperback)) - Softcover

University Press Of Florida

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813029236 ISBN 13: 9780813029238

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 2002

Synopsis

One of the most significant events in the struggle for black civil rights in America was the integration in 1957 of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation was unconstitutional. The South's campaign of massive resistance against this ruling culminated in a showdown at Little Rock's Central High School, where President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect nine black students as they entered the school. Although numerous studies have analyzed the Little Rock school crisis from a variety of perspectives, one striking omission in existing accounts is the role played by local black activists who were at the very center of events. This is the first book to contextualize the events in Little Rock within the unfolding struggle for black rights at local, state, regional, and national levels between 1940 and 1970.

About this title

Review

The author has redefined the well-known story of the Little Rock crisis as a product of long-term developments among black citizens in Arkansas. - David Chappell, University of Arkansas

From the Publisher

Winner of the 2003 J G Ragsdale Book Award, this book draws upon oral history interviews and new material garnered from activists' privately-owned collections, as well as extensive documentation from local, state, regional, and national public archives. It charts new territory in the study of the 1957 Little Rock school crisis and forces a reevaluation of that familiar event and its place in the history of the civil rights struggle.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813029236
• ISBN 13: 9780813029238
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256