
An Unseen Light
Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee
The University Press of Kentucky
Published on 4. January 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
422 pages
978-0-8131-5317-9 (ISBN)
Description
During the second half of the 19th-century, Memphis, Tennessee, had the largest metropolitan population of African Americans in the mid-South region and served as a political hub for civic organizations and grassroots movements. On April 4, 1968, the city found itself at the epicenter of the civil rights movement when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. Nevertheless, despite the many significant events that took place in the city and its citizens' many contributions to the black freedom struggle, Memphis has been largely overlooked by historians of the civil rights movement.
In An Unseen Light, eminent and rising scholars offer a multidisciplinary examination of Memphis's role in African American history during the twentieth century. Together, they investigate episodes such as the 1940 'Reign of Terror' when black Memphians experienced a prolonged campaign of harassment, mass arrests, and violence at the hands of police. They also examine topics including the relationship between the labor and civil rights movements, the fight for economic advancement in black communities, and the impact of music on the city's culture. Covering subjects as diverse as politics, sports, music, activism, and religion, An Unseen Light illuminates Memphis's place in the long history of the struggle for African American freedom.
In An Unseen Light, eminent and rising scholars offer a multidisciplinary examination of Memphis's role in African American history during the twentieth century. Together, they investigate episodes such as the 1940 'Reign of Terror' when black Memphians experienced a prolonged campaign of harassment, mass arrests, and violence at the hands of police. They also examine topics including the relationship between the labor and civil rights movements, the fight for economic advancement in black communities, and the impact of music on the city's culture. Covering subjects as diverse as politics, sports, music, activism, and religion, An Unseen Light illuminates Memphis's place in the long history of the struggle for African American freedom.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Lexington
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
15 b/w photos
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8131-5317-9 (9780813153179)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Aram Goudsouzian is professor and chair of the department of history at the University of Memphis. His books include Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon, King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution, and Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. Charles W. McKinney Jr. is the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies and associate professor of history at Rhodes College. An expert on the history of grassroots struggles for civil rights, he is the author of Greater Freedom: The Evolution of Elizabeth Gritter is assistant professor of history at Indiana University Southeast.
Content
Introduction
'In the Hands of the Lord'
'The Saving of Black America's Body and White America's Soul'
Equal Power
''There Will Be No Discriminiation
Taylor-Made
''We'll Have No Race Trouble Here
Power and Protection
Black Memphians and New Frontiers
'Since I Was a Citizen, I Had the Right to Attend the LIbrary'
'You Pay One Hell of a Price to Be Black
If the March Cannot Be Here, Then Where?
Nonviolence, Black Power, and the Surveillance State in Memphis's War on Poverty
Beyond 1968
Beauty and the Black Student Revolt
After Stax
Black Workers Matter
Coda
'In the Hands of the Lord'
'The Saving of Black America's Body and White America's Soul'
Equal Power
''There Will Be No Discriminiation
Taylor-Made
''We'll Have No Race Trouble Here
Power and Protection
Black Memphians and New Frontiers
'Since I Was a Citizen, I Had the Right to Attend the LIbrary'
'You Pay One Hell of a Price to Be Black
If the March Cannot Be Here, Then Where?
Nonviolence, Black Power, and the Surveillance State in Memphis's War on Poverty
Beyond 1968
Beauty and the Black Student Revolt
After Stax
Black Workers Matter
Coda