Jeanne Theoharris, Komozi Woodard, eds.. Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. vii + 326 pp. $26.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-312-29468-7.

Reviewed by Patrick Jones

Published on H-1960s (June, 2005)

A few weeks into my "" point. I want to contest my students' ready no‐ seminar, I place a series of images on the over‐ tions of the movement as they think they know it. head projector. One shows a long, inter-racial pro‐ Over the remainder of the semester, we set of on cession of movement activists marching down a an academic adventure to develop a more compli‐ street lined with modest homes, lifting signs and cated understanding of white supremacy and singing songs. Another depicts a sneering young struggles for racial justice. white man stretching a large confederate fag. Yet Admittedly, this brief exercise is a bit cheap another portrays three angry white men, faces and gimmicky, but the visual trickery conveys an contorted in rage, holding a crudely scrawled sign important point that is not soon lost on my stu‐ with the words "white power." I ask my students dents: most of us have been taught to accept, un‐ to scan these images for clues that might unlock critically, a certain narrative of the civil rights their meaning. Of course, they have seen such movement. This narrative focuses mainly on the photos before, from Montgomery and Little Rock, South and privileges well-known leaders, non-vio‐ Birmingham and Selma, and invariably it is these lent , integration, and voting rights. place-names that come up in the conversation. So According to this telling, the story of the move‐ powerful are the popular images of the civil rights ment moves north and west only during the latter movement that it is assumed by my students that half of the 1960s in fts of riots and radicalism, dis‐ they are looking at "the South," the archetypal sention and disintegration, repression and racial face of non-violent direct action and "massive re‐ exclusivity. This shift is often portrayed as the sto‐ sistance." Many are thus shocked when I tell them ry of opposing dichotomies and as a wrong turn that these images are not from below the Mason- that ultimately accomplished little. Dixon line, but rather come from my research Over the last two decades, historians and soci‐ into race relations and civil rights insurgency in ologists have greatly complicated this popular ac‐ Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For most of them, that re‐ count by revising our understanding of the South‐ alization is jarring. And, of course, that is the H-Net Reviews ern movement. This research has begun to create innovative ways. Ula Taylor asks, "Why would a much more subtle and multifaceted picture of anyone become a member of the race relations and social change that pushes back after the assassination of ?" and con‐ the origins of the movement at least as far as cludes that the reasons were more theoretical ("a WWII, highlights the often hidden contributions new political source of black personhood and soli‐ of local people and women, reformulates Black darity") and practical (the establishment of and armed self-defense, and places south‐ businesses and schools) than religious (pp. 177, ern activism within an international context.[1] 195). Scot Brown demystifes the cultural national‐ But until recently, the focus continued to stay ism of Maulana Karenga's US Organization during on the South. When historians did train their gaze the late-1960s by giving a fuller picture of the on the movement in other areas, it was often to group's history than its well publicized clashes track the Southern movement (and its failures) to with the . He thereby illumi‐ the North or to focus on the activism of the Black nates the roots of modern Afrocentrism. Komozi Panther Party in Oakland.[2] Slowly, this is begin‐ Woodard portrays Amiri Baraka and the Black ning to change as a new wave of historians (in‐ Power "experiment" in Newark, New Jersey, as a cluding me) begins to focus concentrated atten‐ signifcant bridge between the political and cul‐ tion on freedom struggles in other regions and tural aspects of black nationalism (p. 287). Jon consider them within their own unique contexts. Rice zeros in on the community-based programs of the Illinois Black Panther Party (based on The frst fruits of these labors are now being Chicago's west side), a chapter that was, perhaps published. Freedom North, which appeared in surprisingly, dedicated to radical "inter-ethnic 2001, is now available in paperback. Edited by coalitions" and "cool to the idea of Pan-African Jeanne Theoharris and Komozi Woodard, it is a unity" (p. 41). Together, these essays demonstrate worthy introduction to, and preview of, this sig‐ that the meaning of Black Power was hotly con‐ nifcant new scholarship. As Theoharris writes in tested and more variegated than often portrayed. the introduction: They also make clear that local political, social, "Foregrounding the South has constricted and economic contexts critically shaped Black popular understandings of race and racism in the Power's sometimes complimentary and other United States during and after WWII--making it times contradictory ideologies and strategies. seem as if the South was the only part of the coun‐ Two essays in the collection concentrate on try that needed a movement, as if blacks in the school desegregation campaigns in the Northeast. rest of the country only became energized to fght Adina Back chronicles the "Harlem Nine" and after their Southern brothers and sisters did, as if their parents' eforts to challenge segregated pub‐ Southern racism was more malignant than the lic education one year after the more well-known strains found in the rest of the country, as if social events in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jeanne Theoharris activism produced substantive change only in the recasts the story of Boston's 1974 busing contro‐ South" (pp. 2-3). versy by deemphasizing working-class white re‐ Freedom North aims to correct this imbalance sistance and focusing attention on the preceding by drawing together eleven essays that push the twenty-fve-year struggle for "educational justice" boundaries of our knowledge in important new waged by local black activists (p. 144). Both essays directions. suggest that public school inequality in the urban Several of the pieces in Freedom North focus North was more formalized and deliberate than on aspects of what might be broadly defned as the oft-used term "de facto segregation" indicates, Black Power politics, but approach the subject in and that organized school desegregation eforts

2 H-Net Reviews did not trail those in the South. Moreover, by re‐ with one another, interpenetrated, and over‐ covering the contributions of Mae Mallory and lapped" (p. 95). Ruth Batson, this research compliments other re‐ As with any collection, Freedom North is a bit cent work that underscores the central role of uneven and the overall coverage is incomplete. women in movement activism. The move to achieve formal electoral political Articles by Beth Bates and Felicia Kornbluh power by during this period bridge the gap between civil rights and economic seems underrepresented. For example, the elec‐ rights. Bates explores working-class black ac‐ tions of Carl Stokes and Richard Hatcher, the na‐ tivism for equal employment opportunity in De‐ tion's frst big-city black mayors, are conspicuous‐ troit during WWII and draws interesting connec‐ ly absent from consideration. In addition, impor‐ tions between these campaigns and the all-black tant leaders, like and his P.U.S.H. On Washington Movement. Kornbluh re‐ coalition, and events, like the Poor People's Cam‐ considers the National Welfare Rights Organiza‐ paign or the various eforts by militant black stu‐ tion's attempt to organize poor black women in dents to establish Black Student Unions and Black several northern cities to gain access to credit and Studies Programs on college campuses, might consumer goods at Sears. It is clear from these es‐ have been included. Moreover, the articles are says that race and economics were linked in a overwhelmingly focused on coastal cities and structure of inequality throughout the North. To large urban areas in the Midwest to the exclusion overcome this, African Americans crafted cam‐ of more moderate-sized locales in the Northeast, paigns that went far beyond civil rights to chal‐ Midwest, Mountain West, Southwest and Pacifc lenge the economic control and resource distribu‐ Northwest, to say nothing of struggles for racial tion at the heart of segregation. justice in smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas While each of the pieces in this collection has outside the South. Finally, more might have been something to ofer, three essays stand out. Johan‐ included on the relationship between religion and na Fernandez's article on the Young Lords and civil rights activism in the North, or on the rich Puerto-Rican community organizing in New York cultural politics of these movements, particularly City during the late-sixties brings to the fore new in the areas of fashion, language, music, and liter‐ issues not often linked with civil rights, including ature. sanitation, lead poisoning, and public health. It Yet these criticisms are somewhat unfair. highlights important interconnections between Theoharris acknowledges in her introduction that African -American and Latino activism, and un‐ the point of Freedom North is not to cover all the derscores the need for more research that reaches bases but to contest old patterns of thinking and across ethnic, class, and racial lines. Angela Dil‐ encourage new pathways of research by introduc‐ lard explores the radical ideological roots of Rev. ing fresh work in the feld. To that end, the vol‐ Albert Cleage Jr.'s black Christian nationalism in ume is overwhelmingly successful and important. Detroit stretching back to the 1930s. Her article It is a beginning, not a fnal destination, a signal suggests a link between religion and Black Power shot in a new phase of historiography that prom‐ that is too often overlooked. And Robert Self con‐ ises to radically transform our understanding of veys a wonderfully complicated portrait of the race relations and civil rights insurgency in the "fuid political environment" of African-American United States. To date, three of the articles in the activism in Oakland prior to the Black Panthers, collection have appeared as full-length mono‐ where "philosophies and strategies competed graphs.[3] Other signifcant works on the move‐ ment outside the South have emerged or are

3 H-Net Reviews forthcoming, including a second, similar volume this is because the popular version of the south‐ by Theoharris and Woodard.[4] ern civil rights movement is a redemptive narra‐ As a whole, Freedom North underscores the tive of American democratic institutions recogniz‐ tremendous diversity of racial struggles in the ing and ultimately triumphing over seemingly North and West during the post-war period. It also clear injustices, namely de jure segregation and contests the popular conception of the civil rights disfranchisement. With the passage of the Civil movement. These movements emerged out of Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of unique local circumstances but also responded to, 1965, these struggles appeared to be completed and shaped, events in the South. Northern civil and the nation thus began to move "beyond race." rights campaigns were as vigorous as the strug‐ Understood this way, the story of the Southern gles of the South and the massive white resistance movement has the power to make Americans feel they elicited was in every way as virulent and vio‐ good about themselves and their nation, but it lent as in Little Rock, Oxford, Birmingham, or Sel‐ also breeds complacency by obscuring the signif‐ ma. The articles in this collection consistently cant work still to be done if we are to fulfll the challenge false dichotomies between promise of racial justice in the United States. and armed self-defense, between grassroots ac‐ Today, the urban crisis--chronic poverty, fail‐ tivism and formal politics, between inter-racial‐ ing public schools, police brutality, employment ism and racial exclusivity, between civil rights discrimination, inadequate health care, housing and economic rights, between success and failure, segregation, etc.--rages on. And while the vote is and between North and South. Furthermore, they relatively secure, meaningful political power re‐ make apparent that there was no clear evolution mains elusive for many people of color. The crimi‐ from civil rights to Black Power and that a compli‐ nal justice system is rife with racial inequalities, cated (and sometimes messy) mix of approaches and a conservative onslaught threatens many of to racial justice vied for attention in black com‐ the victories of the civil rights era. To adequately munities from WWII through the 1970s. In the confront this difcult present, we need a clear pic‐ end, these essays raise myriad questions about ture of the past so that we might better under‐ chronology, goals, tactics, strategy, and ideology stand how we got to this point and how we can and emphasize the importance of local geography develop efective strategies for the future. Free‐ to black freedom movements. Most evidently, the dom North will help readers untangle this knot. book demonstrates the need for more research to Ultimately, it is my hope that I will no longer further clarify (or complicate) this history. need to resort to visual trickery to open up my And there is a more contemporary import to students' minds to a more complicated vision of this work. The dominant metaphor of America's race relations and the civil rights movement. Per‐ racial tragedy used to be the Jim Crow South, but haps one day, freedom stories from New York, is now the urban ghettos of the North and West. Boston, Baltimore, Newark, Cleveland, Detroit, The essays in Freedom North speak forcefully to Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver, Phoenix, Los Ange‐ that experience. To be sure, race relations and civ‐ les, Seattle and elsewhere will roll of their il rights insurgency are, in many ways, consider‐ tongues as readily as Montgomery, Little Rock, Ox‐ ably more murky in urban America than in the ford, Birmingham, and Selma. We are of to a Jim Crow South, and the history of race relations good start, and Freedom North is a critical move and black freedom struggles outside the South re‐ in that direction, but much more work needs to be quire a reckoning with contemporary issues that done and so we must get to it. not all Americans are ready to entertain. In part, Notes

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[1]. Some of the seminal works during this pe‐ bridge: Harvard University Press, 2003); Brenda riod are John Egerton, Speak Now Against the Gayle Plummer, Window On Freedom: Race, Civil Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Move‐ Rights and Foreign Afairs, 1945-1988 (Chapel Hill: ment in the South (Chapel Hill: University of University of North Carolina Press, 2003). North Carolina Press, 1995); Patricia Sullivan, [2]. For example, see, James Ralph Jr., North‐ Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New ern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and Deal Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Caroli‐ the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard na Press, 1996); Aldon Morris, The Origins of the University Press, 1993). The historiography of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Free Press, Black Panther Party has thus far been dominated 1986); Doug McAdam, Political Process and the by a focus on the Oakland chapter and by person‐ Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 (Ur‐ al memoirs. See, for example, , Seize bana: University of Illinois Press, 1985); John the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil and Huey P. Newton (New York: Vintage, 1970); Rights in Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illi‐ Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New York: nois Press, 1995); Charles Payne, "I've Got the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973); Elaine Brown, Light of Freedom": The Organizing Tradition and A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story (New the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: Uni‐ York: Anchor Books, 1993); Hugh Pearson, The versity of California Press, 1996); Chana Kai Lee, Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Price of Black Power in America (New York: Addi‐ (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999); Joanne son-Wesley, 1995); David Hilliard, This Side of Glo‐ Grant, : Freedom Bound (Hoboken: Wi‐ ry (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2001). There are ley Publishers, 1998); Vicki Crawford, Women in also two recent anthologies on the Black Panther the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Party that have begun to widen the analysis: Torchbearers, 1941-1965 (Bloomington: University Charles Jones, ed., The Black Panther Party Recon‐ of Indiana Press, 1993); Bettye Collier-Thomas and sidered (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998); V.P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in Struggle: African , Liberation, Imagination and the American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Black Panther Party (New York: Routledge, 2001). Movement (New York: New York University Press, [3]. Komozi Woodard, A Nation Within A Na‐ 2001); Lynne Olson, Freedom's Daughters: The Un‐ tion: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power sung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement, Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina 1830-1970 (New York: Scribner, 2002); Barbara Press, 1999); Robert Self, American Babylon: Race Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Move‐ and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: ment (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Princeton University Press, 2003); Scot Brown, Press, 2003); , Radio Free Dixie: Fighting for Us: Maulana Karenga, the US Organi‐ Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power zation, and Black Cultural Nationalism (New (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1999); York: New York University Press, 2003). Lance Hill, The Deacons for Defense: Armed Self- Defense and the Civil Rights Movement (Chapel [4] For example, see, Martha Biondi, To Stand Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004); and Fight: The Struggle for New York City in New Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and York City (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, the Image of American Democracy (Princeton: 2003); Peter Levy, Civil War on Race Street: The Princeton University Press, 2002); Thomas Borstel‐ Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland mann, The Cold War and the Color Line: Ameri‐ (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003); can Race Relations in the Global Arena (Cam‐ Jack Dougherty, More Than One Struggle: The

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Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004); Chris Rhomberg, No There There: Race, Class and Political Community (Berkeley: Univer‐ sity of California Press, 2004); Jeanne Theoharris and Komozi Woodard, eds., Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements in America (New York: New York University Press, 2005). In the spirit of full disclosure, I should state that I have an essay in Groundwork on Fr. James Groppi and Black Power politics in Milwaukee.

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Citation: Patrick Jones. Review of Theoharris, Jeanne; Woodard, Komozi, eds. Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980. H-1960s, H-Net Reviews. June, 2005.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10590

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