Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement [Paperback]

According to conventional wisdom, the split between integrationism and black power in the civil rights movement occurred in the mid-1960s, ushering in a much more radical and contentious era. In this tale, before 1965 the movement favored integrationism. However, as Tomiko Brown-Nagin shows in her novel history of the movement in Atlanta from the 1940s to 1980, conflict and friction plagued the civil rights movement long before Stokely Carmichael achieved fame in 1966 for advocating black power.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 Dissenttransforms our understanding of the Civil Rights era.Part One: A.T. Walden and Pragmatic Civil Rights Lawyering in the Postwar Era1. Aren't Going to let a Nigger Practice in our Courts : The Milieu of Civil Rights Pragmatism2. The Roots of Pragmatism: Voting Rights Activism inside and outside the Courts, 1944-19573. Housing Markets, Black and White: Negotiating the Postwar Housinl3