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With an African American in the White House, there is no better time for assessing the progress the United States has made in protecting the rights of all its citizens. The Cultural Rights Movement: Fulfilling the Promise of Civil Rights for African Americans offers such an assessment, with an in-depth look at the Obama administration's proposed initiatives as they relate to the African American community and a survey of civil rights issues that need to be reexamined in light of Obama's election.

The Cultural Rights Movement is a well-researched, powerfully written analysis of why a substantial number of blacks have yet to get their piece of the American dream. Coverage includes discriminatory lending practices; unfair Congressional redistricting; disparities in physician care and health outcomes; the low number of black students, faculty members and coaches in mainstream universities; the phenomenal high rate of blacks being arrested, convicted and incarcerated; the continual growth of black underemployment and poverty; and the near-total neglect of the reparations issue.

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Drawing from a broad range of articles, speeches, pamphlets, sermons, debates, laws, and resolutions, this documentary collection focuses on support for the rights of Japanese and Chinese immigrants and their descendants in the United States. The book traces a 130-year period, culminating with the governmental redress for survivors of the Japanese evacuation and internment of World War II. Illustrating the scope and types of American dissent against anti-Asian thought, the volume highlights expressions from the clergy, the labor movement, the abolitionists, and figures such as Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, John Stuart Mill, and Carey McWilliams. Citing material never before published, it demonstrates Black support for Asian rights and the consistency of the IWW's solidarity with Chinese and Japanese-American workers. It is also the first work to treat seriously clergymen's efforts against anti-Asian discrimination. ... Read more

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In 1957 Ghana became one of the first sub-Saharan African nations to gain independence from colonial rule. Over the next decade, hundreds of African Americans--including Martin Luther King Jr., George Padmore, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Pauli Murray, and Muhammed Ali--visited or settled in Ghana. Kevin K. Gaines explains what attracted these expatriates to Ghana and how their new community was shaped by the convergence of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the decolonization of Africa.

Posing a direct challenge to U.S. hegemony, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's president, promoted a vision of African liberation, continental unity, and West Indian federation. Although the number of African American expatriates in Ghana was small, in espousing a transnational American citizenship defined by solidarities with African peoples, these activists waged along with their allies in the United States a fundamental, if largely forgotten, struggle over the meaning and content of the formal American citizenship conferred on African Americans by civil rights reform legislation. ... Read more

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"An unusually challenging illumination of our still veryunfinished history of equal protection of the laws. No classroom,library, or legislature at any level should be without it, and nearlyeveryone will want to argue with parts of it."

--Nat Hentoff, author of Living the Bill of Rights and Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee

"Civil Rights Since 1787 is one of those rare documentary collectionsthat rewrites history. Birnbaum and Taylor not only take a long andwide view of the movement, but they persuasively re-define civilrights to encompass many criticle struggles for social justice. Thisbook is indispensable."

--Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class

"This is a particularly valuable collection, an excellent reader on the struggle for racial equality."

--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

Contrary to simple textbook tales, the civil rights movement did notarise spontaneously in 1954 with the landmark Brown v. Board ofEducation decision. The black struggle for civil rights can be tracedback to the arrival of the first Africans, and to their work in theplantations, manufacturies, and homes of the Americas. Civil rightswas thus born as labor history.

Civil Rights Since 1787 tells the story of that struggle in its fullcontext, dividing the struggle into six major periods, from slavery toReconstruction, from segregation to the Second Reconstruction, andfrom the current backlash to the future prospects for a ThirdReconstruction. The "prize" that the movement has sought has oftenbeen reduced to a quest for the vote in the South. But all involved inthe struggle have always known that the prize is much more than thevote, that the goal is economic as well as political. Further, indistinction from other work, Civil Rights Since 1787 establishes thelinks between racial repression and the repression of labor and theleft, and emphasizes the North as a region of civil rights struggle.

Featuring the voices and philosophies of orators, activists, andpoliticians, this anthology emphasizes the role of those ignored byhistory, as well as the part that education and religion have playedin the movement. Civil Rights Since 1787 serves up an informative mixof primary documents and secondary analysis and includes the work ofsuch figures as Ella Baker, Mary Frances Berry, Clayborne Carson,Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Eric Foner, Herb Gutman, FannieLou Hamer, A. Leon Higginbotham, Darlene Clark Hine, Jesse Jackson,Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Manning Marable, Nell Painter, FrancesFox Piven and Richard Cloward, A. Philip Randolph, Mary ChurchTerrell, and Howard Zinn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Dr. Clarence Taylor and Dr. Birnbaum gathered excellent information.
If you really want to know what the Civil Rights Movement accomplished, you should read this novel that has annotations and reference pages.The book quotes Reconstruction and Civil Rights experts.
The book details how blacks were able to manage schools,the limit and broadness of the tobacco trade, the labor movement and how the African-American struggle assisted this movement.
The book gives statistics that purport the glass ceiling.It is an informative text that should be read by people who want to appreciate and comprehend the history of struggles for equality.

i haven't read this book but.......
this guy is my professor this semester, i figured a little sucking up wouldn't hurt.on a more serious note, i have to admit that mr. taylor (smart-ass comments aside) is fully versed on a number of historical themes, it is truly admirable.he seems to be a strict individual but not to the point of being unyielding.i trust that his book will be an engaging read.

A powerful, informative, insightful, source-based history.
Civil Rights Since 1787 is a reader on the black struggle since 1787 thatprovides a powerful collection of articles which rewrites history, chartingan earlier struggle for civil rights than most titles would present andusing primary documents and secondary analysis to spice the presentation.Works by DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Manning Marable and more areoutstanding presentations. ... Read more

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A powerful and inspiring record of one of the mostsignificant periods in America's history, which presents the fullhistoric scope of the hard-fought battle for civil rights.

From the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which legalsegregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional, to theNashville sit-ins organized by the Student Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee, and from the Freedom Rides to the March on Washington, tothe subsequent passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965-and coveringeverything in between-My Soul Is a Witness is the first comprehensivechronology of the civil rights era in America.

This unique chronology extends the examination of civil rightsactivities beyond the South to include the North, Midwest, and FarWest.Although Martin Luther King, Jr., was a towering figure duringthe era, the authors shift the focus to the thousands of people,places, and events that encompassed the Civil Rights movement. Eachentry is based on information found in articles and reports publishedin three newspaper and periodical sources: The New York Times, JetMagazine, and the Southern School News. Supplementing the basicchronology are longer features that explore larger topics in moredepth and highlight issues well-known at the time but unknown today byscholars and the general public. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

FABULOUS CHRONOLOGY
Everything you've heard but forgotten put in proper sequence and total truthful facts.This is the best chronology of the whole civil rights movement that I've ever seen.It puts all of it in proper sequence andperspective of the times.This is a must read for anyone that believes infreedom for all...get it, and read it twice...the index is super...it's alibrary keeper.And buy one for your friends! ... Read more

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In this volume, Sean Dennis Cashman surveys the history of civil rights in twentieth century America. The book charts the principal course of civil rights against the dramatic backdrop of two world wars, the Great Depression, the affluent society of the postwar world, the cultural and social agitation of the 1960s, and the emergence of the new conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s.

Cashman describes the profound upheaval that African- Americans experienced as they moved from the outright racism of the South through the Great Migration northward from 1915, and sets the contribution of African-American leaders within their historical context:Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, A. Philip Randolph, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and many others. The work also describes the shift in emphasis in the movement from legal cases brought before the courts to mass protest movements and, later, the change in direction from civil rights to Black Power and, later, Pan-Africanism.
Far more than just a history of civil rights leaders, this book explains how the achievements of African-American writers, artists, singers, and athletes contributed to a wider understanding of the humanity and culture of black Americans. Cashman details, among others, the achievements of the Harlem Renaissance, the films of Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, and the works of Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. Written in an engaging style, the text is accompanied by a wealth of illustrations, some well known, others in print for the first time. ... Read more

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This book examines the representation of blackness on television at the height of the southern civil rights movement and again in the aftermath of the Reagan-Bush years. In the process, it looks carefully at how television's ideological projects with respect to race have supported or conflicted with the industry's incentive to maximize profits or consolidate power.

Sasha Torres examines the complex relations between the television industry and the civil rights movement as a knot of overlapping interests. She argues that television coverage of the civil rights movement during 1955-1965 encouraged viewers to identify with black protestors and against white police, including such infamous villains as Birmingham's Bull Connor and Selma's Jim Clark. Torres then argues that television of the 1990s encouraged viewers to identify with police against putatively criminal blacks, even in its dramatizations of police brutality.

Torres's pioneering analysis makes distinctive contributions to its fields. It challenges television scholars to consider the historical centrality of race to the constitution of the medium's genres, visual conventions, and industrial structures. And it displaces the analytical focus on stereotypes that has hamstrung assessments of television's depiction of African Americans, concentrating instead on the ways in which African Americans and their political collectives have actively shaped that depiction to advance civil rights causes. This book also challenges African American studies to pay closer and better attention to television's ongoing role in the organization and disorganization of U.S. racial politics. ... Read more

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A comprehensive study of African-American politics since the civil rights era argues that the black movement has been coopted by mainstream institutions, due to the political traditions of blacks themselves and the decay of the black community. Simultaneous. UP. ... Read more

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Combining archival research in Chinese language sources with oral history interviews, Ranqiu Yu examines the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA), an organization that originated in 1933 to help Chinese laundry workers break their isolation in American society. Yu brings to life the men who labored in New York laundries, depicting their meager existence, their struggles against discrimination and exploitation, and their dreams of returning to China. The persistent efforts of the CHLA succeeded in changing the workers' status in American society and improving the image of the Chinese among the American public.

Yu is especially concerned with the political activities of the CHLA, which was founded in reaction to proposed New York City legislation that would have put the Chinese laundries out of business. When the conservative Chinese social organization could not help the launderers, they broke with tradition and created their own organization. Not only did the CHLA defeat the legislative requirements that would have closed them down, but their "people's diplomacy" won American support for China during its war with Japan. The CHLA staged a campaign in the 1930s and 40s which took as its slogan, "To Save China, To Save Ourselves." Focusing on this campaign, Yu also examines the complex relationship between the democratically oriented CHLA and the Chinese American left in the 1930s. ... Read more

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Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador explores the rising influence of race in foreign relations as it examines the contributions of this African American activist, politician, and diplomat to U.S. foreign policy. Young used his positions as a member of the United States House of Representatives (1973D77), U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations (1977D79), and mayor of Atlanta during the 1980s to further the cause of race in diplomatic affairs and to bring an emphasis to United States relations with Africa. One of the few books that focuses on the influence of race in U.S. foreign policy, Andrew Young is informative reading for those interested in diplomatic history and African American history. ... Read more

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This text reinterprets a misunderstood epoch of the Asian American experience_the Asian American movement (AAM). The authors address the AAM's dramatic impact on the direction of Asian American political and social activity beginning in the 1960s, particularly in terms of neighborhood redevelopment, civil rights, international solidarity, and the Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns. They argue that the movement became the vehicle to bring Asian American communities into the mainstream of civil life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An asset to Asian American research and history
The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism is a pivotal work in Asian American research.Liu, Geron and Lai explore the multiple aspects of the Asian American Movement and the history surrounding it.They open up a new world of information for any student, scholar or researcher.For anyone who is interested in diving into or learning more about Asian America, this book is a must!

Awesome!
Long awaited book on the Asian American Movement.

Important background of the moment we are in with Asian American activism. Explains the legacy and origins of important campaigns (Vincent Chin, internment reparations) and institutions in the community from health centers and service organizations to grassroots groups. For anybody who wants to figure out how to do good in the world and create a movement for change, especially in the Asian American community. ... Read more

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The History of the Modern Black Church
Professor Pinn in "The Black Church in the Post-Civil Rights Era" provides a snapshot focused on the historical background, vibrant worship, and social action of the Black Church. He begins his scholarly study with a historical examination of themes in Black Church History. He then addresses beliefs and worship in Black Church History.

Having laid this historical and theological foundation, Pinn next addresses core themes in contemporary practice. As he says, "the history of the Black Church is complex and multilayered, and develops in response to a blending of sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and religious factors . . ." Thus his examination of contemporary practices is anything but naïve and shallow. Instead, he addresses head on complex issues such as economics, health, sexuality, sexism, and church ministry. Pinn then concludes with a hopeful section on future considerations.

For an examination of the Black Church in more recent times, this is one of the best historical surveys. For an examination of the Black Church from its inception until Emancipation, readers could look to:
Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering. ... Read more

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A lively, compact narrative, concentrating on the years between the Brown decision and the Fair Housing Act. "Most impressive....Salmond manages a surprising amount of detail in such a small space....A powerful education that deserves a wide audience."--Publishers Weekly." American Ways SeriesAmazon.com Review
Trying to tell a richly detailed version of the turbulent andtriumphant history of the civil rights movement in under 200 pages isa risky thing, but John A. Salmond, a professor of American history atLa Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, has produced a text thatspeaks equally to the college student and educator. Citing the originsof the civil rights movement in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's NewDeal policies of the 1930s, Salmond highlights the sit-ins, politicalorganizations, riots, and the often brutal response of the UnitedStates government. He chronicles both the well-known and anonymousplayers on the stage of Afro-American liberation, from the role ofcivil rights lawyers Charles H. Houston and future Supreme CourtJustice Thurgood Marshall in the historic Supreme Court case ofBrown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, thatended official segregation in America, to the act of defiance by RosaParks that led to the Montgomery bus boycott and brought Martin LutherKing Jr. to prominence, as well as the assassinations of King andblack nationalist leader Malcolm X.

With clear prose refreshingly free of racial and social cliches,Salmond correctly states that, contrary to those who saw the civilrights movement as an agitation spurred on by outside forces,"the civil rights revolution had its roots deep in the Americanexperience, in the egalitarian notions of Thomas Jefferson [and] theEmancipation Proclamation.... It is a mistake to think that Southernblacks meekly accepted the imposition of a caste system. They foughtagainst it from the beginning." --Eugene Holley, Jr. ... Read more

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Reacquaint yourself with the Civil Rights Movement....
This is a well written book which is a great read for someone who already has knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement. I selected this book in search of a text, perhaps supplementary, for a class that I teach. Irealized a few pages into it that it would not be appropriate for a classor person without prior knowledge of the Movement. I did find that itreminded me of topics that are important to cover with my class.JohnSalmond has done a great job of hitting the "high points". At 163pages, it was the perfect refresher course for this teacher! I recommendthis book to anyone who has thought about, or lived during the Movement,and wants to be reminded of its impact and relavance. My Mind Set onFreedom is a great addition to libraries that pertain to U.S. History. Itis a moving account: a real page turner. ... Read more

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In this remarkable memoir, Tung Pok Chin casts light on the largely hidden experience of those Chinese who immigrated to this country with false documents during the Exclusion era. Although scholars have pieced together their history, first-person accounts are rare and fragmented; many of the so-called "Paper Sons" lived out their lives in silent fear of discovery. Chin's story speaks for the many Chinese who worked in urban laundries and restaurants, but it also introduces an unusually articulate man's perspective on becoming a Chinese American.

Chin's story begins in the early 1930s, when he followed the example of his father and countless other Chinese who bought documents that falsely identified them as children of Chinese Americans. Arriving in Boston and later moving to New York City, he worked and lived in laundries. Chin was determined to fit into American life and dedicated himself to learning English. But he also became an active member of key organizations—a church, the Chinese Hand Laundrymen's Alliance, and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association—that anchored him in the community. A self-reflective and expressive man, Chin wrote poetry commenting on life in China and the hardships of being an immigrant in the United States. His work was regularly published in the China Daily News and brought him to the attention of the FBI, then intent on ferreting out communists and illegal immigrants. His vigorous narrative speaks to the day-to-day anxieties of living as a Paper Son as well as the more universal immigrant experiences of raising a family in modest circumstances and bridging cultures.

Historian K. Scott Wong introduces Chin's memoir, discussing the limitations on immigration from China and what is known about Exclusion-era Chinese American communities. Set in historical context, Tung Pok Chin's unique story offers an engaging account of a twentieth-century Paper Son. ... Read more

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African American Childhoods seeks to fill a vacuum in the study of African American children.Rather than a comprehensive historical trestment, it is a collection of esays addressing selected resounding themes in Americain history while asking how major events, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Civil War, Great Depression, and modern Civil Rights Movement, impacted or chanegd the lives of African Americn Children.Recovering the voices or experiences of these children, we observe nuances in their lives based on their legal status, class standing, and social development.
... Read more

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Must Read
Anyone with an interest in Asian American history, politics, and culture needs to read this book.A courageous effort to synthesize and contextualize the Asian American experience.

academically rigorous, and perhaps not an intro text?
With so many negative reviews of this book, I feel the need to give some context.

About the difficulty of the language: first, those reading this text should note that you will be entering mid-stream into an academic conversation already taking place between marxism, poststructuralism, feminism and Asian American cultural politics (among other strands of thought). Academic language at its best helps us conceptualize in new ways, and like any language, we need to learn it.

Second, as readers we should also be careful to not project what might be our own anti-intellectualism onto the texts we read. There are reasons why this book is a classic Asian American Studies text. Stick with it, and familiarize yourself with the different theoretical frameworks that are woven into it. There are many theoretical and practical insights to be gained from Lowe's work that are relevant to thinking about Asian American cultural politics.

Pain.
When my favorite professor assigned "Immigrant Acts" for an Independent Study on race, immigration and labor, he said, rather dryly, "I'll just throw that in there to see if it pisses you off."

I've read plenty of bad academic writing, but Lowe astounded me anew. "Turgid," "bloated," "ponderous," and "pompous" are adjectives that came to mind as I attempted to claw meaning from her prose. It's that bleeding awful.

Certainly clearer, more graceful, and far less alienating ways to convey these ideas exist (and no, they aren't dumbed-down). Why, oh why, do some academics *insist* on torturing their readers like this? The self-consciously opaque language does nothing to add substance or authority to Lowe's argument. If anything, it weakens it; there are only so many times the reader can exclaim, "Oh, so *that's* what she meant! Why didn't she just say it?" before weary contempt kicks in.

Had my professor not insisted I read it, I would have ditched "Immigrant Acts" without regret. He was right--this book *did* piss me off, but in the wrong way. It wasn't the ideas or the argument that provoked me; it was the utter lack of regard for the reader.

I did find Lowe's arguments intriguing once I managed to translate them, and I particularly liked Chapter 4, which critiques official productions of multiculturalism. Yet I'm still not entirely sure the work required was worth it. I also suspect there are finer points that I missed altogether, but since Lowe can't be bothered to present them clearly, I don't care to go back and try to find them.

So gnarled with big words and long sentences...
I had to read this for my Theories of Race course at Mills College, and after the class collectively ranted against this structural disaster, I am sure the professor won't use it again. Lowe knows of what she speaks, but can you decipher it? We couldn't. And, it is unfortunate, as she is obviously a leader in her field. I resent scholars making things overly difficult, as it alienates the reader - and boy, did Lowe do a fabulous job with that! I suggest reading Ron Takaki if you want a good, very rewarding look at ethnicity in America. He rocks! Lowe rocks...somewhere, but not here. (meow!)

from a former Lisa Lowe student
Personally, I feel that Professor Lowe is very insightful about theory, the Asian American experience, colonialism, identity politics, cultural criticism. etc. I learned a lot from her as a student and after reading this book, I continue to learn from her.I think Immigrant Actsdeserves a 5 star rating for academic merit.

BUT, it has been 5 years since I taken one of her courses and I have forgotten how jargon filled her language can be. After being away from academia, reading this book was a daunting task. As much as I respect this text, I feel that it is unfortunate that Professor Lowe cannot relate to a general audience.She is definitely (intentionally or unintentionally)catering to fellow scholars.She has a lot to say and offer her reading public.Its too bad that most people can not understand her.I give only one star for writing style and being reader friendly.Sorry, Professor Lowe. ... Read more

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The end of 'World War II and the enactment of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 marked the beginning of a new Asian immigration. The new Asian immigrants—among them higher proportions of women and middle-class professionals, managers, and entrepreneurs—have been profoundly affected and influenced by the restructuring of the global economy, particularly in Pacific Rim industries. This volume focuses on Los Angeles as a critical "world city" in the developing global economy and also as the center of new Asian immigration. Included are discussions of the settlement patterns of various groups of Asians in relation to the social, economic, and political developments in Asia and the United States. At a local level, the contributors examine the garment and health care industries in Los Angeles to explore the role of new Asian immigrants in the city's economy and politics. ... Read more