African American History -- defying Dixie:the radical roots of civil rights - Book Report/Review Example

?African American History -- Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights Glenda Gilmore’s text Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights,1919-1950, presents a comprehensive portrait of the various elements that contributed to the later establishment of the Civil Rights Movement. Gilmore’s text examines a number of wide-ranging themes, the collection of which have for the most part been neglected for the greater scholastic focus on the Civil Rights Movement. Still, it’s clear how these marginalized concerns constitute a comprehensive battle against Jim Crow, and set the fire for later civil rights gains. Within the context of Gilmore’s text, this essay examines the implementation of radical political structures, specifically Communist and Socialist concerns, in the fight against Jim Crow in the early 20th century United States. One of the text’s most powerful elements is the articulation of the overriding social structure in which the Southern Jim Crow laws were en-crouched. In these regards, Gilmore presents a social order wherein Jim Crow laws are not merely the emergence of racial prejudice in a social context, but a systematic social order that functioned to both oppress and psychologically convince African Americans of their inferiority. Indeed, Gilmore states, “Everywhere white Southerners looked, they saw black Southerners behaving according to white supremacy’s dictates, and they took that as an indication of black people’s inferiority.”1 While such pronouncements are powerful in their articulation of the Jim Crow social era, they also function within the context of the text to establish a framework for a social class system that will later be challenged by radical and revolutionary political structures. In addition to the Marxist like characterization of social class in the segregated South, Gilmore imbues the text with references to the Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Mexican Revolution. In terms of theme, there are a number of significances for such historical reference. One of the most significant is that it contextualizes the later Civil Rights Movement within an area of understanding that is more aligned with radical and revolutionary politics than most mainstream historical accounts have offered. For instance, while one generally associates the Civil Rights Movement with idealized notions of the American free spirit as established in the Declaration of Independence, Gilmore’s text presents a thematic counterpoint to this characterization. As Gilmore’s text advances one notes the historical parallels it established between the plight of the African American and the widespread oppression that was experienced in 1910s and 1920s Russia. While the text does not go as far as comparing American slavery to the Russian peasant workers, it does indicate that there is a similar notion of institutionalized oppression that necessitated intervention. In these regards, Gilmore states, “Like Jim Crow, this system also had wings. It promised to liberate colonized peoples and demonstrate to poor white Southerners their class solidarity with poor black Southerners.”2 One of the emerging themes within these contexts is the notion of self-determination; this is an element that is witnessed in both the Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Bolshevik Revolution and applied to the plight of oppressed African Americans. Again, this is a significant connection as it deconstructs the Civil Rights Movement as one of American liberty and resituates it in a context where its greatly influenced and mediated by radical political movements that ran counter to the mainstream United States agenda. While Gilmore establishes a major counterpoint to Jim Crowe in the thematic consideration of revolutionary politics, the text also makes significant direct correlation between communist and socialist practices and the plight of the African American. One of the early incarnations of such connections was made a decade after the Bolshevik Revolution, when communists in both the United States and USSR established a Negro Policy that established equality for blacks. While it’s clear that Communists were highly progressive in their approach to civil rights, Gilmore also indicates that they economically attempted to link protests to Jim Crowe with the eventual Communist Revolution. This is significant as it indicates that the text’s thematic characterization of radical politics as foregrounding many of the later Civil Rights gains is not entirely biased in its presentation. In these regards, Gilmore is forthcoming with her depiction of Communism as a failed economic system, with some positive social values. The text examines a number of thematic connections between African Americans living in the Southern United States and versions of American Communism. In an interesting section of the text, Gilmore notes Communist groups even envisioned unifying African Americans in the Jim Crowe South against the institutionalized oppression. One of the powerful considerations Gilmore establishes is a direct comparison between the two regions. Gilmore states, “The receding southern shore legislated racial discrimination. The looming Soviet horizon legislated the social equality of the races.”3 While such a pronouncement offers no new information, it is powerful in the text’s overriding thematic articulation of the efficacy of radical perspectives when considering the social system of oppression in the Jim Crowe south. As the text advances these thematic concerns, it focuses on the contributions of Lovett Fort-Whiteman, an African American and Communist agitator. The text indicates that this individual would be one of the most prominent members in promoting the spread of Communism to African Americans. Throughout the text’s examination of Communism’s interactions with African American oppression, Gilmore notes that in large part the main concern was a desire to unite African Americans in what would ultimately become the overthrow of capitalism. While these intentions did not play out historically, the text does a sound job of illustrating how these early Communist intentions constituted early incarnations of what would evolve into the widespread and mainstream Civil Rights Movement. In these regards, one of the most powerful elements of evidence provided are the perceptions of NAACP founder W.E. B. Du Bois upon becoming acquainted with Russian approaches to race. Quoting Du Bois, the text states, “I stand in astonishment and wonder at the revelation of Russia that has come to me.”4 In these regards, the text has established a powerful connection between progressive Soviet social policies that treated blacks as equitable citizens, and the shifting nature of perception in one of the early leaders of an organizational that would come to play a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, while Communism would not have the worldwide impact many envisioned, it did significantly influence and impact progressive social change in the United States. In conclusion, within the confines of Glenda Gilmore’s Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950, this essay has examined the influence of radical political structures, specifically Communism and Socialism, as early contributors to the Civil Rights Movement and fight against Jim Crowe. In these regards, the essay has traced the Communist influence from the text’s positioning of Jim Crowe within a Marxist-like structural analysis. It has noted that thematic indication of the self-determination spirit as emanating from radical political movements, rather founding American notions of freedom and liberty. Finally, it has demonstrated the thematic direct linkage between Communism and early rejections of mainstream American institutionalized racism. References Gilmore, Glenda. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Read More