[movimenti.bicocca] What a Mighty Power We Can Be by Theda S…

What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and
the Struggle for Racial Equality (Princeton Studies in American
Politics) (Hardcover)
by Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos, Marshall Ganz

Hardcover: 310 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press (August 15, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0691122997

From the Inside Flap


"I count myself as reasonably knowledgeable of black history, but I
was almost entirely ignorant of the African American fraternal
tradition and its surprising links to the broader freedom struggle.
So what a joy it was to read this book. In resurrecting the history
of this submerged tradition, the authors have performed a valuable
service for all of us interested in the organizational experience of
African Americans."--Douglas McAdam, Stanford University

"Long before the twentieth-century Civil Rights movement, the
fraternal and sororal organizations of the black community created
and recreated sacred spaces of community solidarity and civic courage
in the best spirit of American democracy. The authors convert this
little-known story into an important chapter of the history of the
United States."--Lani Guinier, Harvard Law School

"This valuable study enriches our understanding of the rich fraternal
tradition among blacks--alongside those of other Americans--and helps
us envision the civic foundations for new efforts to deepen American
democracy."--Cornel West, Princeton University, author of Democracy
Matters and coauthor of The African-American Century

"This book will instantly become a standard work and the basis for
new research by other scholars in a variety of disciplines."--David
Fahey, Miami University of Ohio

"An extraordinary work of historical reconstruction. Skocpol, Liazos,
and Ganz have mounted a powerful argument, based on a remarkable
collection of data, about the importance for American democracy of
the rise, decline, and structure of African American civic membership
associations."--Robert C. Lieberman, Columbia University, author of
Shaping Race Policy


Book Description
From the nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, millions of
American men and women participated in fraternal associations--self-
selecting brotherhoods and sisterhoods that provided aid to members,
enacted group rituals, and engaged in community service. Even more
than whites did, African Americans embraced this type of association;
indeed, fraternal lodges rivaled churches as centers of black
community life in cities, towns, and rural areas alike. Using an
unprecedented variety of secondary and primary sources--including old
documents, pictures, and ribbon-badges found in eBay auctions--this
book tells the story of the most visible African American fraternal
associations.

The authors demonstrate how African American fraternal groups played
key roles in the struggle for civil rights and racial integration.
Between the 1890s and the 1930s, white legislatures passed laws to
outlaw the use of important fraternal names and symbols by blacks.
But blacks successfully fought back. Employing lawyers who in some
cases went on to work for the NAACP, black fraternalists took their
cases all the way to the Supreme Court, which eventually ruled in
their favor. At the height of the modern Civil Rights movement in the
1950s and 1960s, they marched on Washington and supported the
lawsuits through lobbying and demonstrations that finally led to
legal equality. This unique book reveals a little-known chapter in
the story of civic democracy and racial equality in America.



Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations vii
List of Tables ix
Preface xi
CHAPTER ONE: African American Fraternalism: A Missing Chapter in the
Story of U.S. Civic Democracy 1
CHAPTER TWO: The Panorama of African American Fraternal Federations
with the assistance of Jennifer Lynn Oser 21
CHAPTER THREE: African American Fraternals as Schools for Democracy 61
CHAPTER FOUR: Proprietors, Helpmates, and Pilgrims in Black and White
Fraternal Rituals by Bayliss Camp and Orit Kent 95
CHAPTER FIVE: Defending the Legal Right to Organize 135
CHAPTER SIX: Black Fraternalists and the Mid-Twentieth-Century
Movement for Civil Rights 174
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Achievements of African American Fraternalism 214
Notes 229
References 265
Index 283