A Conspiratorial Life

A Conspiratorial Life

Author: Edward H. Miller

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2023-04-19

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0226826503

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The first full-scale biography of Robert Welch, who founded the John Birch Society and planted some of modern conservatism’s most insidious seeds. Though you may not know his name, Robert Welch (1899-1985)—founder of the John Birch Society—is easily one of the most significant architects of our current political moment. In A Conspiratorial Life, the first full-scale biography of Welch, Edward H. Miller delves deep into the life of an overlooked figure whose ideas nevertheless reshaped the American right. A child prodigy who entered college at age 12, Welch became an unlikely candy magnate, founding the company that created Sugar Daddies, Junior Mints, and other famed confections. In 1958, he funneled his wealth into establishing the organization that would define his legacy and change the face of American politics: the John Birch Society. Though the group’s paranoiac right-wing nativism was dismissed by conservative thinkers like William F. Buckley, its ideas gradually moved from the far-right fringe into the mainstream. By exploring the development of Welch’s political worldview, A Conspiratorial Life shows how the John Birch Society’s rabid libertarianism—and its highly effective grassroots networking—became a profound, yet often ignored or derided influence on the modern Republican Party. Miller convincingly connects the accusatory conservatism of the midcentury John Birch Society to the inflammatory rhetoric of the Tea Party, the Trump administration, Q, and more. As this book makes clear, whether or not you know his name or what he accomplished, it’s hard to deny that we’re living in Robert Welch’s America.


Simple Justice

Simple Justice

Author: Richard Kluger

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-08-24

Total Pages: 882

ISBN-13: 030754608X

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Simple Justice is the definitive history of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education and the epic struggle for racial equality in this country. Combining intensive research with original interviews with surviving participants, Richard Kluger provides the fullest possible view of the human and legal drama in the years before 1954, the cumulative assaults on the white power structure that defended segregation, and the step-by-step establishment of a team of inspired black lawyers that could successfully challenge the law. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision that ended legal segregation, Kluger has updated his work with a new final chapter covering events and issues that have arisen since the book was first published, including developments in civil rights and recent cases involving affirmative action, which rose directly out of Brown v. Board of Education.


A Ride to Remember

A Ride to Remember

Author: Sharon Langley

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2020-01-07

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 1683356233

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The true story of how a 1963 ride on a carousel in Maryland made a powerful Civil Rights statement. A Ride to Remember tells how a community came together—both black and white—to make a change. When Sharon Langley was born in the early 1960s, many amusement parks were segregated, and African-American families were not allowed entry. This book reveals how in the summer of 1963, due to demonstrations and public protests, the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland became desegregated and opened to all for the first time. Co-author Sharon Langley was the first African-American child to ride the carousel. This was on the same day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Langley’s ride to remember demonstrated the possibilities of King’s dream. This book includes photos of Sharon on the carousel, authors’ notes, a timeline, and a bibliography. “Delivers a beautiful and tender message about equality from the very first page.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review “Cooper’s richly textured illustrations evoke sepia photographs’ dreamlike combination of distance and immediacy, complementing the aura of reminiscence that permeates Langley and Nathan’s narrative.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review “A solid addition to U.S. history collections for its subject matter and its first-person historical narrative.” —School Library Journal


Black Political History

Black Political History

Author: Ken Raymond

Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2021-01-13

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1098045440

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As I researched the African American journey for civil rights throughout history, I discovered many great sources of information. Some of the best places include the Copley Square Library in Boston and the library in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street.The libraries within the North Carolina Legislative Building and Wake Forest University have also been great sources of information. But I have to say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the best source of information is the Frederick Douglass Papers in the Library of Congress.When I discovered the Frederick Douglass Papers on the Library of Congress website, I believe I felt like the early 19th-century miners, who, after investing all their strength, energy, and youth digging into the earth and into mountains, finally struck gold!It has been years since I first discovered the Frederick Douglass Papers. But to this day, I am still amazed when I visit the website and read the hundreds of digitally preserved, handwritten letters and documents authored by the hand of Frederick Douglass himself. These letters reveal the unedited, unfiltered thoughts and beliefs of one of greatest civil rights heroes in history. Addressed to friends, colleagues, and supporters, in them Douglass opens his heart, not only about the issues of his day but about other historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, members of Congress, and many others.It was among this treasure trove of history where I found a letter written by Douglass in which he offers advice to a friend expressing concern about the future of black Americans. In his comments, Douglass describes what he believed to be the best place for African Americans as "the arch of safety." The arch of safety, the place of shelter and protection from storms, is described in this book. In that same letter, Douglass issued a prophetic warning to all black Americans that graphically describes the condition of blacks in urban areas throughout America today. Douglass describes this condition as the "the mouth of the lion." Douglass's definition of the "mouth of the lion" is also found in this book. The day I discovered the Frederick Douglass Papers was a very happy day for me. But as I read his letters, I also became a little angry because many of his thoughts and beliefs are not taught in educational institutions.If they were, the public would know that Frederick Douglass was not only a civil rights hero--he was something of a prophet.


Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt

Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt

Author: Bertis D. English

Publisher: University Alabama Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 0817320695

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How the 1863 elections in Perry County changed the course of Alabama's role in the Civil War In his fascinating, in-depth study, Bertis D. English analyzes why Perry county, situated in the heart of a violence-prone subregion, enjoyed more peaceful race relations and less bloodshed than several neighboring counties. Choosing an atypical locality as central to his study, English raises questions about factors affecting ethnic disturbances in the Black Belt and elsewhere in Alabama. He also uses Perry County, which he deems an anomalous county, to caution against the tendency of some scholars to make sweeping generalizations about entire regions and subregions. English contends Perry County was a relatively tranquil place with a set of extremely influential African American businessmen, clergy, politicians, and other leaders during Reconstruction. Together with egalitarian or opportunistic white citizens, they headed a successful campaign for black agency and biracial cooperation that few counties in Alabama matched. English also illustrates how a significant number of educational institutions, a high density of African American residents, and an unusually organized and informed African American population were essential factors in forming Perry's character. He likewise traces the development of religion in Perry, the nineteenth-century Baptist capital of Alabama, and the emergence of civil rights in Perry, an underemphasized center of activism during the twentieth century. This well-researched and comprehensive volume illuminates Perry County's history from the various perspectives of its black, interracial, and white inhabitants, amplifying their own voices in a novel way. The narrative includes rich personal details about ordinary and affluent people, both free and unfree, creating a distinctive resource that will be useful to scholars as well as a reference that will serve the needs of students and general readers.


I May Not Get There with You

I May Not Get There with You

Author: Michael Eric Dyson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0684867761

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A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.


Child of the Civil Rights Movement

Child of the Civil Rights Movement

Author: Paula Young Shelton

Publisher: Dragonfly Books

Published: 2013-07-23

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 0385376065

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In this Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year, Paula Young Shelton, daughter of Civil Rights activist Andrew Young, brings a child’s unique perspective to an important chapter in America’s history. Paula grew up in the deep south, in a world where whites had and blacks did not. With an activist father and a community of leaders surrounding her, including Uncle Martin (Martin Luther King), Paula watched and listened to the struggles, eventually joining with her family—and thousands of others—in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery. Poignant, moving, and hopeful, this is an intimate look at the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.


The Struggle for the People’s King

The Struggle for the People’s King

Author: Hajar Yazdiha

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-05-30

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0691246084

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How the misuses of Martin Luther King’s legacy divide us and undermine democracy In the post–civil rights era, wide-ranging groups have made civil rights claims that echo those made by Black civil rights activists of the 1960s, from people with disabilities to women’s rights activists and LGBTQ coalitions. Increasingly since the 1980s, white, right-wing social movements, from family values coalitions to the alt-right, now claim the collective memory of civil rights to portray themselves as the newly oppressed minorities. The Struggle for the People’s King reveals how, as these powerful groups remake collective memory toward competing political ends, they generate offshoots of remembrance that distort history and threaten the very foundations of multicultural democracy. In the revisionist memories of white conservatives, gun rights activists are the new Rosa Parks, antiabortion activists are freedom riders, and antigay groups are the defenders of Martin Luther King’s Christian vision. Drawing on a wealth of evidence ranging from newspaper articles and organizational documents to television transcripts, press releases, and focus groups, Hajar Yazdiha documents the consequential reimagining of the civil rights movement in American political culture from 1980 to today. She shows how the public memory of King and civil rights has transformed into a vacated, sanitized collective memory that evades social reality and perpetuates racial inequality. Powerful and persuasive, The Struggle for the People’s King demonstrates that these oppositional uses of memory fracture our collective understanding of who we are, how we got here, and where we go next.