Generations of Americans believe that black political activism materialized in the decades of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Since this overwhelming view prevails, the history of local African Americans who made a means of not giving into racism in spite of the violent and recalcitrant oppression that had existed since the days of slavery is often overlooked. But blacks fought for, and at times secured, small victories on an individual or community level, although setbacks and challenges to those gains also occurred. The mis-impression that activism merely manifested itself in the days following either Emmitt Till’s murder or the Brown decision leaves generations of people missing, or erased, from the annals of history, and simply ignores the reality of making a movement on the ground. By expanding the parameters beyond the typical definition of the Civil Rights Movement, black activism from each successive generation after the Civil War emerges and provides a better understanding of race in America. Approaching the Southwest Georgia Movement through the lens of a longer evolving fight for racial equality, it becomes apparent that most of those involved were fighting against the ghost of Reconstruction. It was during this tumultuous episode that blacks had lost all gains garnered after the fall of the Confederacy (the Freedom Generation). Moreover, southerners found ways of restricting or erasing these liberties as the country transitioned into the Jim Crow era (the Terrorist Generation). The modern leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) and Ralph David Abernathy, for example, rose to prominence by fighting against these segregation statutes, but their ultimate goal was to reclaim many of the gains of Reconstruction (the Protest Generation). / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / May 1, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Maxine D. Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine Montgomery, University Representative; Andrew Frank, Committee Member; Katherine Mooney, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_552306 |
| Contributors | Butler, Joshua W. (Josh William) (authoraut), Jones, Maxine Deloris (professor directing dissertation), Montgomery, Maxine Lavon, 1959- (university representative), Frank, Andrew, 1970- (committee member), Mooney, Katherine Carmines (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of History (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (363 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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