 |
GetTextbooks.co.uk
Compare Prices & Save up to 90% |
|
|
|
| Login | Sign up | My Wish List |
 | | Keeping the Faith: Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-1970 (Contributions in American History) by Abel A. Bartley ISBN-10: 9780313310355 ISBN-10: 0-313-31035-1 ISBN-13: 9780313310355 ISBN-13: 978-0-313-31035-5 Hardcover 2000-04-30 Greenwood Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description An examination of the political and economic power of a large African American community in a segregated southern city; this study attacks the myth that blacks were passive victims of the southern Jim Crow system and reveals instead that in Jacksonville, Florida, blacks used political and economic pressure to improve their situation and force politicians to make moderate adjustments in the Jim Crow system. Bartley tells the compelling story of how African Americans first gained, then lost, then regained political representation in Jacksonville. Between the end of the Civil War and the consolidation of city and county government in 1967, the political struggle was buffeted by the ongoing effort to build an economically viable African American economy in the virulently racist South. It was the institutional complexity of the African American community that ultimately made the protest efforts viable. Black leaders relied on the institutions created during Reconstruction to buttress their social agitation. Black churches, schools, fraternal organizations, and businesses underpinned the civil rights activities of community leaders by supplying the people and the evidence of abuse that inflamed the passions of ordinary people. The sixty-year struggle to break down the door blocking political power serves as an intriguing backdrop to community development efforts. Jacksonville's African American community never accepted their second-class status. From the beginning of their subjugation, they fought to remedy the situation by continuing to vote and run for offices while they developed their economic and social institutions. | ||
Reviews | ||
highly uneven Sometimes dry, sometimes interesting, sometimes shallow, sometimes illuminating. The first chapter was especially interesting: Bartley points out that Jacksonville was majority African-American as late as 1910, unlike other Florida cities. I also liked Bartley's discussion of city-county consolidation. In many cities, African-Americans opposed municipal annexations because such annexations might prevent a city from becoming majority black and thus reduce black political power. But in Jacksonville, most African-Americans supported consolidation (which, in the late 1960s, annexed hundreds of miles of Duval County suburbia to the city of Jacksonville). Why? Because in Jacksonville most municipal elections were at-large citywide elections - which meant that until blacks became a majority they couldn't win a single city council seat. Consolidation supporters gained African-American support by adding district-based elections to the consolidation package. Thus, consolidation actually increased African-American political power by creating several majority-black council districts. I also liked Bartley's explanation of how city politicians manipulated the black vote during the 1940s and 1950s. After the federal courts barred white-only primaries in the 1940s, Blacks were allowed to vote in Jacksonville. One might think that in those days, blacks were "pariah voters" who were completely ignored by white politicians- but the truth is more complex. In Jacksonville, politicians were able to create biracial coalitions, as long as they did not aggressively challenge segregation. Thus, Jacksonville politicians had a difficult balancing act; if they favored too much change, they lost the white vote, but if they did nothing at all for African-Americans, they needed to win a much larger share of the white vote to win against other white politicians. In the 1950s, African-Americans' rewards from this arrangement were usually limited to the occasional park, paved road, or police officer. Sometimes the book was a bit shallow, substituting a chronology of events for explanation of why they mattered. The book has a chapter on school desegregation which describes the litigation of the 1960s in great detail, but barely addresses whether desegregation was a success in any measurable way (except for a line or two in the middle of a page suggesting that test scores did not improve after desegregation). Also, the book could have used a little more proofreading. For example, the last chapter, entitled "Race Still Matters" discusses whether African-Americans have made significant progress, and contains numerous charts. But instead of charting African-American progress from 1940 to 1990 or 2000 (or even 1970), all but a couple of charts compare 1940 Jacksonville with 1950 Jacksonville- a far less illuminating comparison. | ||
Don't buy this book!!! I, like many students at the University of Akron, bought this book for my United States History since 1877 class. This was an idiotic move on my part since, as you can see, the price is astronomical and I never had to read it. Whatever you do, do not buy this book. It is completely unnecessary. By the way, I currently have a high A in the class (I just have to take the final) and I never opened a text book or read any of the other books he had us buy. Just pay attention in class, take good notes, and use an encyclopedia to define the I.D.'s when He gives you the review sheet. It's an easy A and you'll save [money]. | ||
The Uncluttered Truth Keeping the Faith is an excellent read. In the beginning I thought it might be more of a tale of simple history and dates, but the author tells a compelling story that demands your attention and takes you back 50-60 years to Jacksonville, Florida. The history of our nation has never been a simple one but for me this book was clear and uncluttered. If you are an historian or just a lover of books this is a great choice. | ||