The Lincoln Hills: Breaking the Barriers of Racial Injustice and Jim Crowism in Colorado

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Lincoln Hills: Breaking the Barriers of Racial Injustice and Jim Crowism in Colorado 30 National History Day in Colorado The Lincoln Hills: Breaking the Barriers of Racial Injustice and Jim Crowism in Colorado Mohamed Ibrahim Wiggins High School 2020 State Qualifier Mohamed Ibrahim is a junior at Wiggins High School. In 2019, he spent one of the best summers of his life at the Colorado Student Leaders Institute program. There, he was introduced to National History Day and later learned of the Lincoln Hills resort after a visit to the History Colorado Center. _______________________________________________________________________ “An escape to the wilderness; a shelter from the storm” Jim Crow and the “Color Line” -Dani Newsum1 In the early decades of the 20th century, Colorado was predominantly governed by white supremist In 1922, during the climax of American racial political organizations and figures, resulting in a segregation and inequity, two black entrepreneurs, chronic period of unjust policy, racial oppression, Denverites E.C. Regnier and Roger Ewalt, met to and dangerous environments for the African utilize an economic opportunity west of the American community. During the 1923 election, Mississippi River in the Rocky Mountains of Benjamin Stapleton was elected Denver Mayor Colorado. After months of construction, the Lincoln due to his strong association with the Ku Klux Hills, a summer sanctuary for African Americans Klan. “The following year, the Klan reached the during the 20th century, was established in Gilpin zenith of its power and influence in the Centennial County, providing necessary refuge and economic state.”2 It gained control of the Republican party salvation for thousands of African Americans which resulted in an unprecedented number of seeking protection, welfare, and mountain KKK affiliated elections in November. Klansmen amenities in the western United States. For 44 occupied the years, Lincoln Hills assisted in laying the governor’s foundation for increased racial equality in office, Colorado, helping spark civil rights movements, represented and breaking the barrier of the American culture of the majority Jim Crowism. In addition to its influence on civil in both rights, the mountain resort served as a safe haven houses of the for all and a spiritual center of peace and hope for legislature Black Americans during a time of intense political ,and held division and pervasive white supremacy, a substantial Klansmen parade down Larimer testament to the prevalent, color-based hierarchy statewide Street in downtown Denver in of privilege. The sanctuary guided thousands of offices.3 1926. African American families towards a life of political Cross- success, financial increase, and educational burnings and public parades with hooded figures opportunities for many. What initially began as a were a frequent sight in the early 1920s. With the hallmark of American entrepreneurship, the added injustices of color segregation and Lincoln Hills evolved into a physical representation prohibited suffrage for black men, Colorado began of the American Dream—life, liberty, and the a lasting history of hate groups that prevented pursuit of happiness—for Black Americans. cultural acceptance and diversity; however, this Consequently, the Lincoln Hills changed the did not affect the impact African Americans had in perspective of the state and built a bridge between the construction of Colorado.4 the culture of contempt and racial equality by Denver was home to a large population of increasing the cultural diversity in Colorado “colored” homeowners. From 1900-1929, the communities. Denver Republican reported that the black August 2020 | Volume 3, Issue 1 Paper Journal 31 population had almost doubled, a majority of 5. A summer colony where lots are being whom were domestic servants and/or physical sold at such a very low price that laborers seeking greater opportunities in the buyers will make money on the lots West.5 Despite these opportunities Denver even if they never use them presented, black homeowners were not allowed to themselves. buy and live where they chose—Denver was a 6. A place where our race can show to segregated city. In what is now East Denver, a the Nation a constructive piece of work, “Negro District” was established where a majority in the upbuilding of a great National of the African American population resided.6 Dani gathering place for health, recreation, Newsum, a civil rights attorney and historian of education and uplift.10 African American history, states that, “Blacks who In its beginning years, Lincoln Hills became a attempted to buy homes outside the “Negro weekend escape for thousands of African District” were often met with threats and acts of Americans across the nation. violence.”7 At the time, there were only three other resorts catering to “Black Americans in the United Early Development States, Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, The Lincoln Hills resort was situated along South Idlewood in MI, and American Beach on Amelia Border Creek between the small towns of Island in Fl,” all of which were east of the Rollinsvilles and Netherlands. E.C. Regnier and Mississippi River.11 The South lacked such resorts Roger Ewalt intended to market Lincoln Hills as a due to its totalitarian approach to racial vacation resort and summer sanctuary for middle- discrimination and the harsh realities it presented class African Americans living in Denver, other for African Americans. This national trend of black areas of Colorado, and beyond.8 During the safe havens carried on throughout the nation, 1920s, Colorado real estate was also experiencing offering a center of spiritual rejuvenation, peace, the damaging effects of discrimination. Ewalt and and most importantly, safety, which many other Regnier faced scrutiny from white landowners for areas of the nation could not provide at the time. their business proposition and experienced unjust Black mountain resorts gained immense popularity treatment when locating a suitable area for the throughout the 20th century, as the resources and Lincoln Hills. After two months of construction and advantages offered there could be found nowhere battling with the state, 470 lots were purchased, else in the United States. some for as low as $25. While a majority of plot Outside the mountain amenities of the owners were from Denver, some hailed from “New resort, the storm of racial discrimination magnified. York to California and points-in-between.”9 Pastor The KKK continued to control the Colorado G.L. Prince, a respected member of the African government through the 1920s and 1930s, which American community of Denver, addressed the further escalated hostility toward black Lincoln Hills Company in a letter providing his communities.12 A shelter from the storm provided endorsements and opinions of such a resort. momentary refuge to the “hurricane” of systematic Lincoln Hills, near Denver, where I have racism that raged beyond the beauty of the resort. purchased 4 lots and where I have visited on Although violence and political tension spilled different occasions, offers many unique across the state, the remarkable story of Lincoln advantages to our group: Hills continued. 1. A beautiful spot for camp, or cabin or fine summer home. A Vibrant Heart 2. A cool, invigorating summer climate Wink’s Lodge, also known as Wink’s Panorama, which is the finest known tonic for was at the core of the Lincoln Hills resort.13 The people who have had a hard year of six-room inn was built by Obrey “Winks” Hamlet work. and his first wife, Naomi. Hamlet spent his 3. A large tract of land containing 2 miles summer months in 1925 constructing the beautiful of trout stream, beside 4 creeks and three-story lodge with an interior wrap around fine lake stocked with trout. porch that overlooked the South Border Creek and 4. A railroad and 4 auto roads from Denver to the resort. August 2020 | Volume 3, Issue 1 32 National History Day in Colorado recreational and service organizations, like the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).”20 In 1925, Camp Nizhoni was established by the Denver Phyllis Wheatley Branch on the Lincoln Hills resort, and it became a place African American girls could call their very own.21 Nizhoni, a Navajo word for beautiful, catered to girls of all ages, ranging from 8-17 years old. The camp offered a diverse amount of activities to the attending girls. As Frances Mozetta recalls in Memories of Camp Nizhoni, “We identified and Wink’s Lodge, also known as Wink’s Panorama. collected wildflowers; went on scavenger hunts; learned to make bedrolls and blankets; and even Rocky Mountains. Completed in 1928, the lodge to cook breakfast over an outdoor fire.” Nizhoni became one of few full service resorts to cater to became a shield from the sting of segregation and African Americans.14 Winks was an accomplished racism for many campers who primarily hailed businessman in the Five-Points neighborhood of from Denver, but others were from rural regions of Denver. Along with the six rooms he rented in the Colorado, and even out of state. 22 panorama, Winks built 25 cabins on the Lincoln When the sun began to fall behind the Hills resort available to friends, families, and Rocky Mountain wall, the campers of Nizhoni customers. Hamlet added on a tavern, honeymoon would gather around the campfire and sing.23 One cabin, a tin house, and a three plex cabin.15 The of those many songs was “Nightfall on Nizhoni”: lodge became the vibrant heart of the Lincoln Hills Night on Camp Nizhoni’s Falling in its early years of success. Night on Camp Nizhoni’s Falling Wink’s Panorama hosted famous Black Nature’s Lulling All to Rest Americans during the 1930s.16 Newsum recounts And We Pray that God Will Help Us Be that “Some of the brightest lights of the Harlem That Which We Count on Best24 Renaissance—musicians, poets, novelists, For nearly 20 years, Camp Nizhoni essayists—visited the mountain retreat.
Recommended publications
  • Freedom North Studies, the Long Civil Rights Movement, and Twentieth
    JUHXXX10.1177/0096144216635149Journal of Urban HistoryReview Essay 635149review-article2016 Review Essay Journal of Urban History 2016, Vol. 42(3) 634 –640 Freedom North Studies, the © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: Long Civil Rights Movement, and sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav juh.sagepub.com Twentieth-Century Liberalism in American Cities Patrick D. Jones (2009). The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. xiii, 318 pp., maps, photos, notes, bibliography, index, $45.00 (cloth), $22.95 (paper). Phyllis Palmer (2008). Living as Equals: How Three White Communities Struggled to Make Interracial Connections during the Civil Rights Era. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. x, 299 pp., illustrations, notes, index, $69.95 (cloth), $27.95 (paper). Jerald Podair (2008). Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. xiii, 173 pp., photographs, documents, bibliographical essay, index, $32.95 (cloth). Thomas J. Sugrue (2008). Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North. New York: Random House. xiii, 720 pp., illustrations, notes, index, $35 (cloth). Reviewed by: Brian Purnell, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA DOI: 10.1177/0096144216635149 Keywords social movements, interracial, civil rights, Black Power, post-WWII “For historians and general readers interested in the civil rights movement’s past,” writes Eric Arnesen, “these are indeed the best of times. Every month, it seems, new books roll off the presses of university and trade publishing houses, while academic journals and television docu- mentaries present specialized or general interpretations to their respective audiences.” Arnesen’s comment came before the fiftieth anniversaries of major civil rights movement milestones.
    [Show full text]
  • The US Anti- Apartheid Movement and Civil Rights Memory
    BRATYANSKI, JENNIFER A., Ph.D. Mainstreaming Movements: The U.S. Anti- Apartheid Movement and Civil Rights Memory (2012) Directed by Dr. Thomas F. Jackson. 190pp. By the time of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, in 1990, television and film had brought South Africa’s history of racial injustice and human rights violations into living rooms and cinemas across the United States. New media formats such as satellite and cable television widened mobilization efforts for international opposition to apartheid. But at stake for the U.S. based anti-apartheid movement was avoiding the problems of media misrepresentation that previous transnational movements had experienced in previous decades. Movement participants and supporters needed to connect the liberation struggles in South Africa to the historical domestic struggles for racial justice. What resulted was the romanticizing of a domestic civil rights memory through the mediated images of the anti-apartheid struggle which appeared between 1968 and 1994. Ultimately, both the anti-apartheid and civil rights movements were sanitized of their radical roots, which threatened the ongoing struggles for black economic advancement in both countries. MAINSTREAMING MOVEMENTS: THE U.S. ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT AND CIVIL RIGHTS MEMEORY by Jennifer A. Bratyanski A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2012 Approved by Thomas F. Jackson Committee
    [Show full text]
  • "I AM a 1968 Memphis Sanitation MAN!": Race, Masculinity, and The
    LaborHistory, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2000 ªIAMA MAN!º: Race,Masculinity, and the 1968 MemphisSanitation Strike STEVEESTES* On March 28, 1968 Martin LutherKing, Jr. directeda march ofthousands of African-American protestersdown Beale Street,one of the major commercial thoroughfares in Memphis,Tennessee. King’ splane had landedlate that morning, and thecrowd was already onthe verge ofcon¯ ict with thepolice whenhe and other members ofthe Southern Christian LeadershipConference (SCLC) took their places at thehead of the march. The marchers weredemonstrating their supportfor 1300 striking sanitation workers,many ofwhom wore placards that proclaimed, ªIAm a Man.ºAs the throng advanceddown Beale Street,some of the younger strike support- ersripped theprotest signs off the the wooden sticks that they carried. Theseyoung men,none of whomwere sanitation workers,used the sticks to smash glass storefronts onboth sidesof the street. Looting ledto violent police retaliation. Troopers lobbed tear gas into groups ofprotesters and sprayed mace at demonstratorsunlucky enough tobe in range. High above thefray in City Hall, Mayor HenryLoeb sat in his of®ce, con®dent that thestrike wasillegal, andthat law andorder wouldbe maintained in Memphis.1 This march wasthe latest engagement in a®ght that had raged in Memphissince the daysof slaveryÐ acon¯ict over African-American freedomsand civil rights. In one sense,the ª IAm aManºslogan wornby thesanitation workersrepresented a demand for recognition oftheir dignity andhumanity. This demandcaught whiteMemphians bysurprise,because they had always prided themselvesas being ªprogressiveºon racial issues.Token integration had quietly replaced public segregation in Memphisby the mid-1960s, butin the1967 mayoral elections,segregationist candidateHenry Loeb rodea waveof white backlash against racial ªmoderationºinto of®ce.
    [Show full text]
  • Unit 13 Civil Rights Movements in the United States
    UNIT 13 CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES Structure 13.1 Introduction Aims and Objectives 13.2 Discrimination of the Disadvantaged Groups 13.2.1 African Americans 13.3 Black Civil Rights Movements 13.4 Consequences of Civil Rights Movements 13.4.1 Native Americans 13.4.2 Hispanic and Asian Americans 13.4.3 Women and Civil Rights Movements 13.4.4 Rights of Homosexuals 13.5 Democrats and Civil Rights 13.6 Republicans and Civil Rights 13.7 Summary 13.8 Terminal Questions Suggested Readings 13.1 INTRODUCTION Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on civil rights movements around the world is beyond anyone’s doubt. Non-violent resistance through non-cooperation and civil disobedience are powerful tools of the deprived over the privileged sections of the society. Gandhi’s influence is nowhere more discernible in the developed West than in the United States itself. Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader who led the non-violent civil rights movement, in the United States to empower the African Americans, was highly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Civil rights denote the rights of individuals to equal protection under the laws of the land and equal access to public amenities and services in society. Civil rights differ from civil liberties. Significantly, civil liberties involve freedom of speech and expression and other freedoms of the citizens that are protected from the possible violation by the government. Civil rights, on the other hand, refer to individual members or groups—whether racial, religious and others—who need to be treated equally by the government and even by the private parties to a certain extent.
    [Show full text]
  • The Persistent Effect of U.S. Civil Rights Protests on Political Attitudes
    The Persistent Effect of U.S. Civil Rights Protests on Political Attitudes Soumyajit Mazumder Harvard University Abstract: Protests can engender significant institutional change. Can protests also continue to shape a nation’s contemporary politics outside of more formalized channels? I argue that social movements can not only beget institutional change, but also long-run, attitudinal change. Using the case of the U.S. civil rights movement, I develop a theory in which protests can shift attitudes and these attitudes can persist. Data from over 150,000 survey respondents provide evidence consistent with the theory. Whites from counties that experienced historical civil rights protests are more likely to identify as Democrats and support affirmative action, and less likely to harbor racial resentment against blacks. These individual-level results are politically meaningful—counties that experienced civil rights protests are associated with greater Democratic Party vote shares even today. This study highlights how social movements can have persistent impacts on a nation’s politics. Replication Materials: The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this arti- cle are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: http://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WKJJ3Z. ocial movements are generally associated with pe- titude change among the target public.1 Second, historical riods of massive political and economic change. ideational change persists long after a social movement’s S These movements may spur democratization such life through a system of intergenerational transmission of as the case with the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, beliefs. Together, these theoretical premises suggest that enfranchise oppressed racial or ethnic groups as seen with social movements can shift public opinion in the long the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, or hasten run.
    [Show full text]
  • Ebony Magazine and the Civil Rights Movement
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2018 Black Business as Activism: Ebony Magazine and the Civil Rights Movement Seon Britton The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2659 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BLACK BUSINESS AS ACTIVISM EBONY MAGAZINE AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by SEON BRITTON A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 SEON BRITTON All rights reserved ii Black Business as Activism: Ebony Magazine and the Civil Rights Movement by Seon Britton This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Date Karen Miller Thesis Advisor Date Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Black Business as Activism: Ebony Magazine and the Civil Rights Movement by Seon Britton Advisor: Karen Miller In the fight for justice, equality, and true liberation, African American organizations and institutions have often acted as a voice for the African American community at large focusing on common issues and concerns. With the civil rights movement being broadcast across the world, there was no better time for African American community and civil rights organizations to take a role within the movement in combatting the oppression, racism, and discrimination of white supremacy.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Civil Rights in the United States: a Bibliography of Resources in the Erwin Library, Wayne Community College
    History of Civil Rights in the United States: A Bibliography of Resources in the Erwin Library, Wayne Community College The History of civil rights in the United States is not limited in any way to the struggle to first abolish slavery and then the iniquitous “Jim Crow” laws which became a second enslavement after the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Yet, since that struggle has been so tragically highlighted with such long turmoil and extremes of violence, it has become, ironically perhaps, the source of the country’s greatest triumph, as well as its greatest shame. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, who would have sought to guide the reunion of the warring states with a leniency and clear purpose which could possibly have prevented the bitterness that gave rise to the “Jim Crow” aberrations in the Southern communities, seems to have foreshadowed the renewed turmoil after the assassination in 1968 of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had labored so long to awaken the nation non-violently, but unwaveringly, to its need to reform its laws and attitudes toward the true union of all citizens of the United States, regardless of color. In 2014, we are only a year past the observation of two significant anniversaries in 2013: the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, re-focusing the flagging Union’s purpose on the abolition of slavery as an outcome of the Civil War, and the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • American Resilience
    American Resilience Riley Kovalcheck History Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Welky Editor’s Note: Ms. Kovalchek’s article originally appeared as a series of posts on a multi-media web blog. If you wish to view her complete project, please go to https://rileykovalcheck.wixsite.com/americanresilience To begin, I'll admit this project began as a mandatory assignment for one of my classes, Recent American History. My professor, Dr. Welky, started the semester off by asking each student to identify 1) the most important theme in American history since the 1960s or 2) the three most influential individuals in this period of American history. My initial thought was to focus on three of my biggest inspirations (and three badass men) - Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Barack Obama. To me, those three individuals personify unity, perseverance, and resilience. As I started brainstorming, a bigger picture came to mind... This theme of overwhelming resilience in the African- American community across the nation. There is no doubt that as a whole, this demographic has single-handedly been more suppressed than any other throughout the history of the United States, but yet even more resilient in the long run. So, for this project, I decided to focus on this overall theme of resilience CLA Journal 6 (2018) pp. 144-181 145 - solely among African-Americans - and in particular, the role of men in politics, women in their local communities, and the unification and organization in social movements like the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter. To highlight how revolutionary these accomplishments were, I will also discuss white resistance that was overcome in the process.
    [Show full text]
  • Section 17 Civil Rights and Social Movements in the Americas
    Section 17 Civil rights and social movements in the Americas This section focuses on the origins, nature, challenges and achievements of civil rights movements after 1945. Movements represented the attempts to achieve equality for groups that were not recognized or accepted as full members of society. The groups challenged established authority and entrenched attitudes. Native Americans and civil rights: Latin America, the United States and Canada African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement: origins, tactics and organizations; the US Supreme court and legal challenges to segregation in education; ending of the segregation in the South (1955-65) Role of Dr Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights Movement; the rise of radical African American activism (1965-8): Black Panthers; Black Muslims; Black Power and Malcolm X Role of governments in civil rights movements in the Americas Youth culture and protests of the 1960s and 1970s: characteristics and manifestation of a counterculture Feminist movements in the Americas 1. To what extent can Martin Luther King be said to have achieved his goals in the Civil Rights movement? (M12) 2. Compare and contrast the impact of the Feminist movements in two countries of the Americas after 1945. (M12) 3. Compare and contrast the tactics used by two organizations within the Civil Rights Movement to end segregation in the South between 1955 and 1965. (N12) 4. Assess the success of feminist movements in one country in the Americas. (N12) 5. Evaluate the successes and failures of the feminist movement in one country of the region during the period 1945–1979. (M13) 6. How successful were United States governmental institutions in advancing civil rights for African Americans after 1945? (M13) 7.
    [Show full text]
  • Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns Second Edition
    handbook_2014.qxp 17/06/2014 19:40 Page 1 Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns Second Edition Published by War Resisters’ International Second Edition June 2014 ISBN 978-0-903517-28-7 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/) 1 handbook_2014.qxp 17/06/2014 19:40 Page 2 2 handbook_2014.qxp 17/06/2014 19:40 Page 3 CREDITS The process of writing this Handbook was a collective effort, with people from across the world (more than 20 countries) contributing their time, skills, knowledge and resources. The first edition was translated into 10 languages. The second edition was expanded on by a range of writers and contributors. All of the content and translations are available for free online at http://wri-irg.org/pubs/NonviolenceHandbook Coordinator: Andrew Dey Editorial Committee: Javier Gárate, Subhash Kattel, Christine Schweitzer and Joanne Sheehan Editorial consultant: Mitzi Bales Layout: Contributors to both editions of the handbook include: Ahmadullah Archiwal, Eric Bachman, Roberta Bacic, Jagat Basnet, April Carter, Janet Cherry, Jungmin Choi, Howard Clark, Jake Coleman, Lavinia Crossley, Jagat Deuja, Denise Drake, Hilal Demir, Luke Finn, Abraham Gebreyesus Mehreteab, Dan Glass, Symon Hill, Ruth Hiller, Ippy, Yeo Jeewoo, Jørgen Johansen, Sian Jones, Randy Kehler, Adele Kirsten, Boro Kitanoski, Hans Lammerant, Cattis Laska, Tali Lerner, Benard Lisamadi Agona, Dieter Lünse, Brian Martin, Jason MacLeod, Shannon McManimon, Rosa Moiwend, Michael Randle, Andrew Rigby, Vicki Rovere, Chesterfield Samba, Ruben Dario Santamaria, Vivien Sharples, Martin Smedjeback, Majken Sorensen, Andreas Speck, Jill Sternberg, Roel Stynen, Miles Tanhira, Katja Tempel, Cecil Barbeito Thonon, Ferda Ûlker, Sahar Vardi, Stellan Vinthagen, Steve Whiting, Dorie Wilsnack.
    [Show full text]
  • T HI S Volume Offers a Representative
    .. iNTRODUCTION H I s volume offers a representative, desire not merely to understand the vexed bond T though by no means exhaustive, compila­ between law and racial power but to change it. tion of the growing body of legal scholarship The essays gathered here thus share an ethical known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). As we commitment to human liberation-even if we conceive it, Critical Race Theory embraces a reject conventional notions of what such a con­ movement of left scholars, most of them schol­ ception means, and though we often disagree, ars of color, situated in law schools, whose work even among ourselves, over its specific direction. challenges the ways in which race and racial This ethical aspiration finds its most obvious power are constructed and represented in concrete expression in the pursuit of engaged, American legal culture and, more generally, in even adversarial, scholarship. The writings in American society as a whole. In assembling and this collaboration may be read as contributions editing these essays, we have tried both to to what Edward Said has called "antithetical provide a sense of the intellectual genesis of this knowledge," the development of counter­ project and to map the main methodological accounts of social reality by subversive and sub­ directions that Critical Race Theory has taken altern elements of the reigning order. Critical since its inception. Toward these ends, the Race Theory-like the Critical Legal Studies essays in the first few parts are arranged roughly movement with which we are often allied-re­ in the chronological order of their publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Finding Aid to the Historymakers ® Video Oral History with Reverend James Bevel
    Finding Aid to The HistoryMakers ® Video Oral History with Reverend James Bevel Overview of the Collection Repository: The HistoryMakers®1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60616 [email protected] www.thehistorymakers.com Creator: Bevel, James L. (James Luther), 1936- Title: The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Reverend James Bevel, Dates: January 14, 2003 Bulk Dates: 2003 Physical 5 Betacame SP videocasettes (2:28:15). Description: Abstract: Civil rights activist and minister Reverend James Bevel (1936 - 2008 ) was the daring hero of 1963's Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to his activities during the Civil Rights Movement, Bevel were also an active force in interfaith dialogues, and several human and civil rights campaigns in the United States. Bevel was interviewed by The HistoryMakers® on January 14, 2003, in Chicago, Illinois. This collection is comprised of the original video footage of the interview. Identification: A2003_004 Language: The interview and records are in English. Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers® Civil rights activist Reverend James Luther Bevel was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on October 19, 1936. After a stint in the services, Bevel was called to the ministry and enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. While in the Seminary, Bevel joined the Nashville chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), then led by the Reverend James Lawson. In 1960, Bevel and other black students trained by Lawson, including John Lewis, Dianne Nash, Marion Barry, and Bernard Lafayette, organized sit-ins against segregated lunch counters. Eventually Bevel and his colleagues won a hard- fought, nonviolent victory; soon after, as chairman of the Nashville student movement, Bevel participated in Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate travel and public accommodations throughout the South.
    [Show full text]