Running for freedom
Subtitle: civil rights and black politics in America since 1941
By: Steven F. Lawson
Edition: Fourth edition.
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 445
ISBN-13: 9781118836545
Subjects: Politics and government; Civil rights movements; Bürgerrechtsbewegung; Civil rights; Schwarze; African Americans; History
Description: Bringing noted historian Steven F. Lawson's classic presentation of the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the US into the new millennium, the fourth edition of Running for Freedom details the history of African-American civil rights and black politics from 1941 to 2014. This edition features a new chapter on the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president in American history, an event that marked the culmination of the long struggle of African Americans to gain the right to vote and political power in the nation that had once enslaved, segregated, and disfranchised them. Lawson explores the idea that Obama's two presidential election victories did not in fact herald a race-neutral or post-racial society. He shows us that race remains a polarizing force in American politics and society, and that gaps in racial equality between whites and blacks persist and in many instances have widened. Other updates to the text include the impact of the controversial Zimmerman acquittal in the Trayvon Martin murder trial, fiftieth-anniversary commemorations of the historic 1963 March on Washington, the Supreme Court's recent weakening of the Voting Rights Act, and more. Told with eloquence and scholarly precision, the fourth edition of Running for Freedom is an indispensable resource on America's continued quest for racial equality and harmony. --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: World War II and the origins of the freedom struggle; title: Ballots, boycotts, and the building of a national agenda; title: Surging protest, shifting politics; title: Reenfranchisement and racial consciousness; title: The new black politicians: from protest to empowerment; title: Progress and poverty: politics in a conservative era; title: In search of legitimacy; title: Hope and despair: the 1990s; title: Still running for freedom; title: Toward a more perfect union: the Obama presidency.