Hailed as one of the best treatments of the civil rights movement, Race and Democracy is also one of the most comprehensive and detailed studies of the movement at the state level. This far-reaching and dramatic narrative ranges in time from the founding of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP in 1915 to the beginning of Edwin Edwards’s first term as governor in 1972. In his new preface Adam Fairclough brings the narrative up to date, demonstrating the persistence of racial inequalities and the continuing importance of race as a factor in politics. When Hurricane Katrina exposed the race issue in a new context, Fairclough argues, political leaders mishandled the disaster. A deep-seated culture of corruption, he concludes, compromises the ability of public officials to tackle intransigent problems of urban poverty and inadequate schools.
Fairclough takes readers to the grass roots of the movement as it was defiantly advanced and resisted in scores of places like New Orleans shipyards, the voter registrar’s office in Opelousas, and the Little Union Baptist Church in Shreveport. He traces the social networks that sustained black activism, such as Masonic lodges and teachers’ associations, and he also analyzes white responses to the movement as expressed through political factions, trade unions, business lobbies, the Catholic Church, White Citizens Councils, and the Ku Klux Klan.
ADAM FAIRCLOUGH is the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of History and Culture of the United States at Leiden University. His books include Martin Luther King Jr., To Redeem the Soul of America, Race and Democracy, and The Star Creek Papers (all Georgia).
ADAM FAIRCLOUGH is the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of History and Culture of the United States at Leiden University. His books include Martin Luther King Jr., To Redeem the Soul of America, Race and Democracy, and The Star Creek Papers (all Georgia).
Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition xi Preface to the First Edition xxxiii Acknowledgments xlv Abbreviations xlix Creole Louisiana 1 Race and Power in the Long Era 21 The Labor Movement, the Left, and the Transformation of the NAACP 46 Tremors of War 74 Brutality and Ballots, 1946-1956 106 Race and Red-Baiting 135 The Impact of Brown 164 Counterattack 196 The New Orleans Schools Crisis 234 Nonviolent Direct Action, 1960-1962 265 The Movement, 1963-1964 297 North to Bogalusa 344 Making Rights Real 381 The Promise and the Reality of School Integration 429 Struggle without End 463 Notes 479 Bibliography 557 Index 585
