Keeping the Faith: Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-1970 / Edition 1

by Abel A. Bartley

Overview

An examination of the political and economic power of a large African American community in a segregated southern city; this study attacks the myth that blacks were passive victims of the southern Jim Crow system and reveals instead that in Jacksonville, Florida, blacks used political and economic pressure to improve their situation and force politicians to make moderate adjustments in the Jim Crow system. Bartley tells the compelling story of how African Americans first gained, then lost, then regained political representation in Jacksonville. Between the end of the Civil War and the consolidation of city and county government in 1967, the political struggle was buffeted by the ongoing effort to build an economically viable African American economy in the virulently racist South. It was the institutional complexity of the African American community that ultimately made the protest efforts viable.

Black leaders relied on the institutions created during Reconstruction to buttress their social agitation. Black churches, schools, fraternal organizations, and businesses underpinned the civil rights activities of community leaders by supplying the people and the evidence of abuse that inflamed the passions of ordinary people. The sixty-year struggle to break down the door blocking political power serves as an intriguing backdrop to community development efforts. Jacksonville's African American community never accepted their second-class status. From the beginning of their subjugation, they fought to remedy the situation by continuing to vote and run for offices while they developed their economic and social institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313310355
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2000
Series:	Contributions in American History , #184
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	738,199
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1260L (what's this?)

About the Author

ABEL A. BARTLEY is professor of African American and Urban History at the University of Akron./e He is a specialist on southern African American political activism, and he has authored several articles on urban and African American historical topics.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
When Days Were Dark: Jacksonville's African-American Community From the Civil War through 1945
The First African-American Strides Towards Political Power
The African-American Community: The Dynamics of Machine Politics in the Modern Age
Haydon Burbans and the African-American Community: The Dynamics of Machine Politics in the Modern Age
Reading, Writing, and Racism: The Fight to Desegregate the Duval County School System
The 1960 and 1964 Jacksonville Riots: The Difficult Years
Our Time Has Come: The Impact of African-America Voting on the 1967 Local Elections
Jacksonville Duval and County Consolidation: A Trick or Treat
Race Still Matters: A Look at the Bold New City of the South
Bibliography
Index