| Democracy Rising: South Carolina and the Fight for Black Equality Since 1865 Contributor(s): Lau, Peter F. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813123933 ISBN-13: 9780813123936 Publisher: University Press of Kentucky OUR PRICE: $33.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2006 Annotation: ?With this articulate, intelligent, and engrossing book, Peter Lau vividly recreates the long, hard struggle for civil rights in one of the epicenters of white supremacy.??Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age A comprehensive history of the African American fight for racial equality from the standpoint of the civil rights movement in South Carolina, Democracy Rising examines the struggle from the end of the Civil War through the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s. In an effort to broaden our understanding of civil rights and democracy in America, Peter F. Lau describes how conflicts born of the state's history of racial exclusion and discrimination continue to shape the social problems and promises of our time. At the center of the book is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lau focuses on the interplay between the national organization and its local affiliates, demonstrating the impact each had on the other in shaping the outcome of grassroots social and political change. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) |
| Dewey: 323.119 |
| LCCN: 2005031051 |
| Series: Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century |
| Physical Information: 1.16" H x 6.34" W x 8.92" (1.39 lbs) 360 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - South Atlantic - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. - Geographic Orientation - South Carolina - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Considered by many historians to be the birthplace of the Confederacy, South Carolina experienced one of the longest and most turbulent Reconstruction periods of all the southern states. After the Civil War, white supremacist leadership in the state fiercely resisted the efforts of freed slaves to secure full citizenship rights and to remake society based upon an expansive vision of freedom forged in slavery and the crucible of war. Despite numerous obstacles, African Americans achieved remarkable social and political advances in the ten years following the war, including the establishment of the state's first publicly-funded school system and health care for the poor. Through their efforts, the state's political process and social fabric became more democratic. Peter F. Lau traces the civil rights movement in South Carolina from Reconstruction through the early twenty-first century. He stresses that the movement was shaped by local, national, and international circumstances in which individuals worked to redefine and expand the meaning and practice of democracy beyond the borders of their own state. Contrary to recent scholars who separate civil rights claims from general calls for economic justice, Lau asserts that African American demands for civil rights have been inseparable from broader demands for a redistribution of social and economic power. Using the tension between rights possession and rights application as his organizing theme, Lau fundamentally revises our understanding of the civil rights movement in America. In addition to considering South Carolina's pivotal role in the national civil rights movement, Lau offers a comprehensive analysis of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during the height of its power and influence, from 1910 through the years following Brown v. Board of Education (1954). During this time, the NAACP worked to ensure the rights guaranteed to African Americans by the 14th and 15th amendments and facilitated the emergence of a broad-based movement that included many of the nation's rural and most marginalized people. By examining events that occurred in South Carolina and the impact of the activities of the NAACP, Democracy Rising upends traditional interpretations of the civil rights movement in America. In their place, Lau offers an innovative way to understand the struggle for black equality by tracing the movement of people, institutions, and ideas across boundaries of region, nation, and identity. Ultimately, the book illustrates how conflicts caused by the state's history of racial exclusion and discrimination continue to shape modern society. |