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Overview
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. He concludes that a deep-seated culture of corruption compromises the ability of public officials to tackle intransigent problems of urban poverty and inadequate schools.About the Author:
Adam Fairclough is the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of History and Culture of the United States at Leiden University
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In studying Louisiana, Fairclough's previous works (Martin Luther King, Jr.) focused only on the post-1955 civil rights movement. Here, he observes that black protest from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s formed a significant movement in its own right. Thus, this sweeping study, which covers much of Louisiana, subtly delves into a rich history. Fairclough establishes Louisiana's distinctive creole heritage and describes the NAACP's first effort to equalize black and white teachers' pay in the 1930s. Bars to voting, education and public accommodations began to fall in the 1940s, but the state resisted the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, even attacking the NAACP. Fairclough recounts the violence of court-ordered New Orleans school integration, describes CORE's entry into the state and, intriguingly, shows how mid-1960s activism in benighted Bogalusa, La., bridged the passage to black militancy. The book nominally ends in 1972, when, the author observes, both blacks and whites had lost faith in school integration, at least as it had been introduced. Since then, he argues, the rise of David Duke and resistance to him suggest the reality of both white racism and black political power. An interesting, if specialized, account. (Apr.)Library Journal
British scholar Fairclough examines the history of the Civil Rights movement in Louisiana from 1915, when the New Orleans branch of the NAACP was founded, through the start of the first administration of Governor Edwin Edwards in 1972. He has written the most comprehensive account yet of the movement in Louisiana and perhaps in any Southern state. Especially valuable is the discussion of the movement during the decades before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision overturning racial segregation in public schools-a period that many scholars have neglected. Fairclough also explores the cultural diversity that differentiates Louisiana from other deep Southern states and provides a cogent analysis of the impact of that diversity on the Civil Rights struggle in the state. The work's value is reduced only slightly by a number of minor inaccuracies. Recommended for academic libraries.-Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, LafayetteBooknews
Historians and the media, in their fascination with the action- oriented, youth-dominated 1960s, have never appreciated the full variety, depth, and durability of black protest, says the author, a British scholar of modern American history. His exhaustive study of the civil rights movement in Louisiana highlights five decades of struggle for justice in this politically intriguing and ethnically diverse state, from the founding of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP to the beginning of Edwin Edwards' first term as governor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
March 31, 1999
Publisher
Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1995.
Pages
664
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780820321189