Student activism and civil rights in Mississippi : protest politics and the struggle for racial justice, 1960-1965 /
In 1960, students supporting civil rights moved into Mississippi and challenged white supremacy by encouraging African Americans to reassert the rights guaranteed them under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The ensuing social upheaval changed the state forev...
Author / Creator: | |
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Other Authors / Creators: | Lynd, Staughton, writer of foreword. |
Format: | eBook Electronic |
Language: | English |
Language notes: | English. |
Imprint: | Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2013] |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Click here for full text |
Summary: | In 1960, students supporting civil rights moved into Mississippi and challenged white supremacy by encouraging African Americans to reassert the rights guaranteed them under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The ensuing social upheaval changed the state forever. The author, a former civil rights activist, tells the story of the quest for racial equality in Mississippi. Using a variety of sources as well as his own memories, he weaves together an astonishing account of student protestors and local activists who risked their lives by fighting against southern resistance and federal inaction. Their efforts, and the horrific violence inflicted on them, helped push many non-southerners and the federal government into action, culminating in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act - measures that destroyed legalized segregation and disfranchisement. -- Publisher's description. In the 1890s, Mississippi society still drew a sharp line between its African American and white communities by creating a repressive racial system that ensured white supremacy by legally segregating black residents and removing their basic citizenship and voting rights. Over the ensuing decades, white residents suppressed African Americans who dared defy that system with an array of violence, terror, and murder. In 1960, students supporting civil rights moved into Mississippi and challenged this repressive racial order by encouraging African Americans to reassert the rights guaranteed under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The ensuing social upheaval changed the state forever. |
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Item Description: | Print version record. |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxvi, 300 pages) : maps |
Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
ISBN: | 9780807149850 0807149853 9780807149867 0807149861 9780807149874 080714987X |
Author Notes: | James P. Marshall is an independent scholar and former non-resident fellow at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Staughton Lynd is a former professor of history at Yale University, a civil and labor rights activist and lawyer, and the author of numerous books on race, labor, and radical politics. |