To Render Invisible: Jim Crow and Public Life in New South Jacksonville - Hardcover

Cassanello, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813044197 ISBN 13: 9780813044194

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 2013

Synopsis

What defines a city’s public space? Who designates such areas, who determines their uses, and who gets to use them? Today’s “Occupy” movement has brought widespread attention to these issues, but Robert Cassanello demonstrates that such questions have been part of urban life for more than a century.

Rough-and-tumble nineteenth-century Jacksonville serves as a springboard to his exploration of social transformation in Florida and the South. When free black men in the city first began to vote, conservative lawmakers pushed blacks from white public spaces in order to make blacks voiceless―invisible―in the public square and thus making the public sphere a white domain. The response was a black counter public that at times flourished clandestinely and at other times challenged racism in the public sphere.

Fortified by the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Jürgen Habermas, this is the first book to focus on the tumultuous emergence of the African American working class in Jacksonville between Reconstruction and the 1920s. Cassanello brings to light many of the reasons Jacksonville, like Birmingham, Alabama, and other cities throughout the South, continues to struggle with its contentious racial past.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Cassanello is assistant professor of history at the University of Central Florida, USA. He is coeditor of Florida's Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration.

From the Back Cover

"Covering a compelling local history, deeply imbricated with state and national events, "To Render Invisible" brings together dramatic stories of continuity and change, of gender and race, and of respectability and resistance in a brisk narrative lucidly informed by social theory."--David Roediger, author of "The Wages of Whiteness" "Carefully develops an original argument drawing from several theoretical perspectives to make the claim that African Americans in Jacksonville were able to continue to struggle for justice and 'public space' even after a wave of white supremacy engulfed the city as well as the state."--Paul Ortiz, author of "Emancipation Betrayed" "Well written, clearly and logically organized, and built upon a foundation of deep research in primary sources, including newspapers, Freemen's bureau records, official documents and personal papers."--Louis Kyriakoudes, author of "The Social Origins of the Urban South" What defines a city's public space? Who designates such areas, who determines their uses, and who gets to use them? Robert Cassanello uses rough-and-tumble nineteenth-century Jacksonville as both backdrop and springboard to explore social transformation in Florida and the South. When free black men in the city were first given the right to vote, conservative lawmakers made concerted efforts to drive them out of white public spaces. They attempted to make the public sphere a white domain by rendering blacks voiceless--invisible--in the public square. In response, a black counterpublic developed, flourishing clandestinely at times and openly challenging racism in the public sphere at others.
Fortified by the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Jurgen Habermas, "To Render Invisible" is the first book to focus on the tumultuous emergence of African American public life in Jacksonville between Reconstruction and the 1920s. Robert Cassanello brings to light many of the reasons Jacksonville, like Birmingham, Alabama, and other cities throughout the South, continues to struggle with its contentious racial past. Robert Cassanello is associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida. He is coeditor of "Florida's Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration."

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813044197
• ISBN 13: 9780813044194
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192