Title: I am a man!
Description: The civil rights movement was first and foremost a struggle for racial equality, but questions of gender lay deeply embedded within this struggle. Steve Estes explores key groups, leaders, and events in the movement to understand how activists used race and manhood to articulate their visions of what American society should be. Estes demonstrates that, at crucial turning points in the movement, both segregationists and civil rights activists harnessed masculinist rhetoric, tapping into implicit assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality. Estes begins with an analysis of the role of black men in World War II and then examines the segregationists, who demonized black male sexuality and galvanized white men behind the ideal of southern honor. Later, he explores the militant new models of manhood espoused by civil rights activists and groups such as Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Black Panther Party. Reliance on masculinist organizing strategies had both positive and negative consequences, Estes concludes. Tracing these strategies from the integration of the U.S. military in the 1940s through the Million Man March in the 1990s, he shows that masculinism rallied men to action but left unchallenged many of the patriarchal assumptions that underlay American society. --Publisher.
Subjects: African American civil rights workers, African American men, African Americans, Attitudes, Civil rights, Civil rights movements, History, Masculinity, Political aspects of Masculinity, Political aspects of Rhetoric, Political aspects of Sex role, Race relations, Racism, Rhetoric, Sex role, Sexism, African americans, civil rights, Civil rights movements, united states, African americans, history, United states, race relations, Civil Rights Movement, Mannelijkheid, African americans--civil rights--history, African americans--civil rights--history--20th century, Civil rights movements--history, Civil rights movements--united states--history--20th century, African american civil rights workers--attitudes--history, African american civil rights workers--attitudes--history--20th century, African american men--attitudes--history, African american men--attitudes--history--20th century, Rhetoric--political aspects--history, Rhetoric--political aspects--united states--history--20th century, Masculinity--political aspects--history, Masculinity--political aspects--united states--history--20th century, Sex role--political aspects--history, Sex role--political aspects--united states--history--20th century, Sexism--history, Sexism--united states--history--20th century, Racism--history, Racism--united states--history--20th century, E185.61 .e76 2005, 323.1196/073, Political aspects
Places: United States
Time periods: 20th century