Civil Rights since 1787: A Reader - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814782159 ISBN 13: 9780814782156

Publisher: New York University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Contrary to simple textbook tales, the Civil Rights movement did not arise spontaneously in 1954 with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. The struggle for civil rights can be traced back to the arrival of the first Africans. This text tells the story of its struggle in its full context, dividing the struggle into six major periods: slavery to reconstruction; segregation to the second reconstruction; from the current backlash to the future prospects for a third reconstruction. The anthology emphasizes the role of those ignored by history, as well as the part that education and religion have played in the movement.

About this title

Review

"An unusually challenging illumination of our still very unfinished history of equal protection of the laws. No classroom, library, or legislature at any level should be without it, and nearly everyone will want to argue with parts of it." -Nat Hentoff, author of Living the Bill of Rights and Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee "Jonathan Birnbaum and Clarence Taylor have plumbed historical documents to produce a study that has both truth and urgency. . . . You could not do better than this book." -Jewish Currents "As a reference book, Civil Rights Since 1787 serves as an outstanding source. The book gives a lucid account of the history of institutional slavery and racism in America that is all too often perplexing when presented by educational texts." -Chicago Streetwise "Civil Rights Since 1787 is one of those rare documentary collections that rewrites history. Birnbaum and Taylor not only take a long and wide view of the movement, but they persuasively re-define civil rights to encompass many criticle struggles for social justice. This book is indispensable." -Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class "This is a particularly valuable collection, an excellent reader on the struggle for racial equality." -Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

About the Author

Jonathan Birnbaum is the editor, with Bertell Ollman, of The United States Constitution: 200 Years of Anti-Federalist, Abolitionist, Feminist, Muckraking, Progressive, and Especially Socialist Criticism (also available from NYU Press). His work has appeared in The Guardian, New Politics, Socialism & Democracy, New Political Science, and other publications. He lives in Illinois. Clarence Taylor is Professor Emeritus of History at Baruch College, CUNY, and author of The Black Churches of Brooklyn, Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools, Black Religious Intellectuals: The Fight for Equality from Jim Crow to the 21st Century, and, most recently, Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights and the New York City Teachers Union.

Edition details

• Publisher: New York University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814782159
• ISBN 13: 9780814782156
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 936
• Editor: Birnbaum Jonathan, Taylor Clarence