Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle
Laurie B. GreenOverview
African American freedom is often defined in terms of emancipation and civil rights legislation, but it did not arrive with the stroke of a pen or the rap of a gavel.
Synopsis
Exploring the notion of African American 'freedom' in postwar Memphis, Green demonstrates that the civil rights movement was battling an ongoing 'plantation mentality' based on race, gender, and power that permeated southern culture long before--and even after--the groundbreaking legislation of the mid-1960s. She points to the Memphis sanitation workers strike as a clarion example of how the movement fought for a black freedom that consisted of not only constitutional rights but also social and human rights.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Well researched and well documented. . . . Richly grounded in oral interviews. . . .Recommend[ed] to those interested in working class histories, the history of the Civil Rights movements, and Black women's history."-American Studies
"Grounds evolving definitions of 'freedom' in the everyday experiences of African-Americans as well as in organized campaigns for civil rights progress."
-Social History
"A long chronology is only one of the book's strengths. Its major contribution to movement historiography is its analysis of connections between various spheres of black protest."
-Journal of American History
"[Green's] use of richly textured oral history interviews allows the voices of working-class African Americans to ring clearly as they counteracted and circumvented Memphis' racist environment during and after World War II. . . . A necessary contribution to our ever-changing understandings of the black freedom movement."
-Journal of American Ethnic History
"A deeply researched, comprehensive account of the many levels of struggle and modes of thought that African Americans in the Deep South employed to break the system of Jim Crow. . . . [A] powerful work of people's scholarship. . . . Provides a welcome, fresh look and brilliantly documents that varied terrain of the African American battle for personhood and dignity."
-Journal of Southern History
"A fresh look at the Memphis freedom struggle. . . . The result is a well-documented study."
-Oral History Review