Birmingham and the Long Black Freedom Struggle [Hardcover]

Birmingham, Alabama looms large in the history of the twentieth-century black freedom struggle, but to date historians have mostly neglected the years after 1963. Here, author Robert Widell explores the evolution of Birmingham black activism into the 1970s, providing a valuable local perspective on the "long" black freedom struggle.Introduction: 'To Stay and Fight': Birmingham's Civil Rights Story and Twentieth Century Black Protest PART I: IMPLEMENTATION 1. Origins of the Committee for Equal Job Opportunity 2. Delay, Retaliation, and the Legal Process 3. Staying Active and Branching Out PART II: FAMILIAR ISSUES, NEW DIRECTIONS 4. The Poor People's Campaign and Welfare Rights 5. Community Health, Municipal Services, and Police Brutality PART III: A NEW 'CIVIL RIGHTS UNIONISM' 6. The Public Employees Organizing Committee PART IV: BLACK POWER IN THE DEEP SOUTH 7. Origins of the Alabama Black Liberation Front 8. Black Power at the Local Level 9. Repression and Backlash Conclusion: The 'Long' Movement and the South

'Widell captures the spirit of Birmingham in the 1970s in this book. He rightly connects the organizing of the 1970s to the marches of the 1960s and the protests of the 1930s. Generations of working people in Birmingham, led by African American men and women, sustained this historic movement for economic and social dignity that continues to this day.' - Alex Hurder, Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

'Using a rich array of new sources and focusing on heretofore-unknown activists, Widell has filled a yawning gap in our understanding of the civil rights movement in Birmingham. In the process, he has made a brilliant contribution to the still emerging body of scholarship that explores African Americans' painstaking efforts to make real the promise of the national legislative reforms that emerged from the 1963 Birmingham campaign.' - George Derek Musgrove, Assistant Professor of History, UniverslÃ{