In his seminal article "Freedom Then, Freedom Now," renowned civil rights historian Steven F. Lawson described his vision for the future study of the civil rights movement. Lawson called for a deeper examination of the social, economic, and political factors that influenced the movement's development and growth. He urged his fellow scholars to connect the "local with the national, the political with the social," and to investigate the ideological origins of the civil rights movement, its internal dynamics, the role of women, and the significance of gender and sexuality.
In Freedom Rights: New Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement, editors Danielle L. McGuire and John Dittmer follow Lawson's example, bringing together the best new scholarship on the modern civil rights movement. The work expands our understanding of the movement by engaging issues of local and national politics, gender and race relations, family, community, and sexuality. The volume addresses cultural, legal, and social developments and also investigates the roots of the movement. Each essay highlights important moments in the history of the struggle, from the impact of the Young Women's Christian Association on integration to the use of the arts as a form of activism. Freedom Rights not only answers Lawson's call for a more dynamic, interactive history of the civil rights movement, but it also helps redefine the field.
Danielle L. McGuire, assistant professor at Wayne State University, is the author of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Race and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. She lives in Detroit, Michigan. John Dittmer, professor emeritus at DePauw University, is the author of The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care. He lives in Fillmore, Indiana.
Table of Contents
Dedications vii
Introduction Danielle L. McGuire 1
Long Origins of the Short Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 Steven F. Lawson 9
Hollywood, the NAACP, and the Cultural Politics of the Early Civil Rights Movement Justin T. Lorts 39
The Young Women's Christian Association's Multiracial Activism in the Immediate Postwar Era Abigail Sara Lewis 71
James and Esther Cooper Jackson, Communism, and the 1950s Black Freedom Movement Sara Rzeszutek Haviland 111
Till They Come Back Home: Transregional Families and the Politicization of the Till Generation Krystal D. Frazier 137
The Johns Committee, Sex, and Civil Rights in Florida, 1963-1965 Stacy Braukman 163
Joan Little and the Triumph of Testimony Danielle L. McGuire 191
Gender, Jazz, and Justice in Cold War Freedom Movements Jacqueline Castledine 223
EEOC Politics and Limits on Reagan's Civil Rights Legacy Emily Zuckerman 247
Race and Partisanship in Criminal Disfranchisement Laws Pippa Holloway 277
"The Community Don't Know What's Good for Them": Local Politics in the Alabama Black Belt during the Post-Civil Rights Era George Derek Musgrove Hasan Kwame Jeffries 305
"I Want My Country Back, I Want My Dream Back": Barack Obama and the Appeal of Postracial Fictions Brian Ward 329
