Ebook: Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement

In this Bancroft Prize-winning history of the Civil Rights movement in Atlanta from the end of World War II to 1980, Tomiko Brown-Nagin shows that long before "black power" emerged and gave black dissent from the mainstream civil rights agenda a name, African Americans in Atlanta questioned the meaning of equality and the steps necessary to obtain a share of the American dream. This groundbreaking book uncovers the activism of visionaries--both well-known figures and unsung citizens--from across the ideological spectrum who sought something different from, or more complicated than, "integration." Local activists often played leading roles in carrying out the agenda of the NAACP, but some also pursued goals that differed markedly from those of the venerable civil rights organization. Brown-Nagin documents debates over politics, housing, public accommodations, and schools. Exploring the complex interplay between the local and national, between lawyers and communities, between elites and grassroots, and between middle-class and working-class African Americans, Courage to Dissent transforms our understanding of the Civil Rights era.;"Aren't going to let a nigger practice in our courts" : the milieu of civil rights pragmatism -- The roots of pragmatism : voting rights activism inside and outside the courts, 1944-1957 -- Housing markets, Black and White : negotiating the postwar housing crisis, 1944-1959 -- "Segregation pure and simple" : school, community, and the NAACP's education litigation, 1942-1958 -- More than "polite segregation" : Brown in public spaces, 1954-1959 -- Seeking redress in the streets : the student movement's challenge to racial pragmatism and legal liberalism, 1960-1961 -- A volatile alliance : the marriage of lawyers and demonstrators, 1961-1964 -- Local people as agents of constitutional change : the movement against "private" discrimination, and the countermobilization, 1963-1964 -- "New politics" : law, organizing, and a "movement of movements" in the Southern ghetto, 1965-1967 -- A curious silence : community activism and the legal campaign to implement Brown, 1958-1968 -- An end to an "annual agony" : the black backlash against Brown and busing, 1969-1974 -- "Bus them to Philadelphia" : a feminist lawyer and poor mothers crusade to redeem Brown, 1972-1980.