
The Georgia of the North
Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey
Hettie V. Williams(Author)
Rutgers University Press
Published on 12. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
220 pages
978-1-9788-1939-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Georgia of the North is a historical narrative about Black women and the long civil rights movement in New Jersey from the Great Migration to 1954. Specifically, the critical role played by Black women in forging interracial, cross-class, and cross-gender alliances at the local and national level and their role in securing the passage of progressive civil rights legislation in the Garden State is at the core of this book. This narrative is largely defined by a central question: How and why did New Jersey's Black leaders, community members, and women in particular, affect major civil rights legislation, legal equality, and integration a decade before the Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas decision? In this analysis, the history of the early Black freedom struggle in New Jersey is predicated on the argument that the Civil Rights Movement began in New Jersey, and that Black women were central actors in this struggle.
Reviews / Votes
"Williams accurately and masterfully centers local Black women intellectuals in New Jersey as the vanguard of the long Civil Rights movement. In doing so she pushes beyond a Southern based narrative and urges us all to acknowledge and applaud these women's long underappreciated hard work."- Cherisse Jones-Branch (author of Crossing the Line: Women's Interracial Activism in South Carolina during and after World W) "Williams's well-constructed study of five influential Black women in mid-twentieth century New Jersey will add much to understanding of the roles of African American women and Civil Rights. The Georgia of the North is a significant contribution to Black women's intellectual history and New Jersey history." - Graham Russell Gao Hodges (author of Black New Jersey, 1664 to the Present Day (Rutgers University Press))
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Brunswick NJ
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
1 color & 20 B-W illustrations, & 6 tables
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
336 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9788-1939-9 (9781978819399)
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
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2024
1st Edition
Rutgers University Press
€96.99
Available for download
Person
HETTIE V. WILLIAMS is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She is the former president of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) and has authored and edited six books and several essays, articles, and book chapters.
Content
CoverSeries EditorsTitle PageCopyrightDedicationContentsList of Illustrations and TablesList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1. "Bury Me in a Free Land": The Great Migration and the Rise of the Black Population in the Garden State2. "Still I'll Rise": Black Community Institutions and the Rise of the Black Professional Class in New Jersey3. "A Young Colored Girl's Haven from Prejudice": The Montclair YWCA and the Black Women's Club Movement in New Jersey4. "The Urgency of the Hour Was with Us": Anna Arnold Hedgeman and the Civil Rights Movement in the North5. "Now Is the Time to Plan for Your Future": Sara Spencer Washington's Boardwalk Empire and the Black Freedom Struggle in Atlantic City6. "Between These Two Extremes": Marion Thompson Wright and the Civil Rights Movement in New JerseyAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author