Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969
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Overview
Freedom's Sword is the first history to detail the remarkable, lasting achievements of the NAACP's first sixty years. From its pivotal role in overturning the Jim Crow laws in the South to its twenty-year court campaign that culminated with Brown v. the Board of Education, the NAACP has been at the forefront of the struggle against American racism. Gilbert Jonas, a fifty-year veteran of the organization, tracks America's political and social landscape period by period, as the NAACP grows to 400,000 members and is recognized by both blacks and whites as the leading force for social justice.
Jonas recounts the historic combined efforts of ordinary citizens and black leaders such as W.E.B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson, and Thurgood Marshall to root out white-only political primaries, separate schools, and segregated city buses. Freedom's Sword is a vivid and passionately written account of the single most influential secular organization in black America.
Synopsis
This book recounts the first sixty years of the NAACP during which it gradually grew to reach its peak in size, power and achievements as America's preeminent civil rights force.
The New York Times - Samuel G. Freedman
Jonas has undertaken a worthy cause in writing an institutional history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He maintains that the N.A.A.C.P. has been stinted in historical literature that centers on King and groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He has a point … the best pages of the book, depicting the punctilious and principled Roy Wilkins, rely greatly on firsthand observation.
Editorials
From the Publisher
‘For many Barrack Obama represents the fulfilment of the ideal we call the American Dream and indeed the embodiment of the work of the NAACP … This first hand insider view gives a comprehensive account of the personalities and politics of the movement and the relationship between organisation and the leadership … Freedom’s Sword is an important book and deserves a place in our libraries both for its detail on the NAACP and for our understanding of the civil rights movement.’ – SATH History Teaching ReviewSamuel G. Freedman
Jonas has undertaken a worthy cause in writing an institutional history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He maintains that the N.A.A.C.P. has been stinted in historical literature that centers on King and groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He has a point … the best pages of the book, depicting the punctilious and principled Roy Wilkins, rely greatly on firsthand observation.— The New York Times