Defying Dixie
The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950
Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:WW Norton & Co
Published:10th Aug '09
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The civil rights movement that looms over the 1950s and 1960s was the tip of an iceberg, the legal and political remnant of a broad, raucous, deeply American movement for social justice that flourished from the 1920s through the 1940s. This rich history of that early movement introduces us to a contentious mix of home-grown radicals, labor activists, newspaper editors, black workers, and intellectuals who employed every strategy imaginable to take Dixie down. In a dramatic narrative Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore deftly shows how the movement unfolded against national and global developments, gaining focus and finally arriving at a narrow but effective legal strategy for securing desegregation and political rights.
"Painstakingly researched and vividly told, Defying Dixie is, by any standard, a formidable achievement. Gilmore forces us to rethink the history of the civil rights movement and the people, often unheralded at the margins, who made it." -- Los Angeles Times
"Rich…powerful and profound." -- New York Times
"A monumental work…for those desiring a sweeping yet detailed and informed account of the radical side of our early civil rights movement, Defying Dixie will prove extremely enlightening." -- Charlotte Observer
"Emotionally poignant…[Gilmore] universalizes the impulses and actions that define the struggle for racial equality in America." -- News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
"Gilmore's fluid prose brings to life these passionate yet forgotten battles." -- Memphis Commercial Appeal
"[Employing] a gift for vivid description, [Gilmore] introduces scores of dedicated, colorful and sometimes eccentric dreamers and agitators." -- New York Times Book Review
ISBN: 9780393335323
Dimensions: 211mm x 142mm x 33mm
Weight: 841g
690 pages