But for Birmingham
The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
Birmingham served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and important moments in the history of the civil rights struggle. In this vivid narrative account, Glenn Eskew traces the evolution of nonviolent protest in the city, focusing particularly on the sometimes problematic intersection of the local and national movements.
Eskew describes the changing face of Birmingham's civil rights campaign, from the politics of accommodation practiced by the city's black bourgeoisie in the 1950s to local pastor Fred L. Shuttlesworth's groundbreaking use of nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1963, the national movement, in the person of Martin Luther King Jr., turned to Birmingham. The national uproar that followed on Police Commissioner Bull Connor's use of dogs and fire hoses against the demonstrators provided the impetus behind passage of the watershed Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Paradoxically, though, the larger victory won in the streets of Birmingham did little for many of the city's black citizens, argues Eskew. The cancellation of protest marches before any clear-cut gains had been made left Shuttlesworth feeling betrayed even as King claimed a personal victory. While African Americans were admitted to the leadership of the city, the way power was exercised--and for whom--remained fundamentally unchanged.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The mass demonstrations in Birmingham in the spring of 1963 are often cited as the turning point in that city's struggle for racial desegregation and a watershed for the national civil rights movement. Georgetown State Univ. assistant professor of history Eskew agrees, but goes on to present a provocative revisionist study of civil rights in Birmingham that challenges a number of myths of the movement. With a historian's thoroughness and detailed notes, Eskew argues persuasively that Birmingham's black community was deeply splintered in the early 1960s and remains so today. Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC, brought in at the invitation of local activists led by Fred Shuttlesworth, were unable to provide the adrenaline boost needed to revive a flagging campaign and unite the various disparate black elements, according to Eskew. He contrasts the agendas of the local and national movements to highlight the disunity within, and to emphasize how King compromised the 1963 campaign. "As a member of the traditional Negro leadership class, King accommodated empty biracial negotiations that granted him prestige." He also argues that King's compromise actually transferred local authority to the elite black classes who opposed the sit-ins and demonstrations from the start, and as a result "he movement had gained access for a few while never challenging the structure of the system." Not a broadside or expose, but a well-documented, objective analysis, this volume deserves a prominent place in any library of the civil rights movement.
