Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the 2010 Clinton Jackson Coley Award for the best book on local history from the Alabama Historical AssociationEarly in 1966, African Americans in rural Lowndes County, Alabama, aided by activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), established an all-black, independent political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The group, whose ballot symbol was a snarling black panther, was formed in part to protest the barriers to black enfranchisement that had for decades kept every single African American of voting age off the county's registration books. Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, most African Americans in this overwhelmingly black county remained too scared even to try to register. Their fear stemmed from the county's long, bloody history of whites retaliating against blacks who strove to exert the freedom granted to them after the Civil War.
Amid this environment of intimidation and disempowerment, African Americans in Lowndes County viewed the LCFO as the best vehicle for concrete change. Their radical experiment in democratic politics inspired black people throughout the country, from SNCC organizer Stokely Carmichael who used the Lowndes County program as the blueprint for Black Power, to California-based activists Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, who adopted the LCFO panther as the namesake for their new, grassroots organization: the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. This party and its adopted symbol went on to become the national organization of black militancy in the 1960s and 1970s, yet long-obscured is the crucial role that Lowndes County“historically a bastion of white supremacy”played in spurring black activists nationwide to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways.
Drawing on an impressive array of sources ranging from government documents to personal interviews with Lowndes County residents and SNCC activists, Hasan Kwame Jeffries tells, for the first time, the remarkable full story of the Lowndes County freedom struggle and its contribution to the larger civil rights movement. Bridging the gaping hole in the literature between civil rights organizing and Black Power politics, Bloody Lowndes offers a new paradigm for understanding the civil rights movement.
Review
"Jeffries is at the top of a very short list of [young lions' paving the way for a new interpretation of the history of the Civil Rights-Black Power movement. His work on the legendary Lowndes County Freedom Organization is outstanding in terms of the breadth and carefulness of research, depth and clarity of conceptualization, organization and presentation of material, and the originality and the wealth of the results."
- Komozi Woodard, author of A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power Politics
Review
“Jeffries has written the book historians of the black freedom movement have been waiting for. His beautifully written account rescues Lowndes County from its role as merely a backdrop to ‘Black Power, to being one of the key battlegrounds for democracy in the United States. Here are local people whose local struggles have contributed mightily to the kind of politics we desperately need in the Obama agethe politics of 'freedom democracy,' a politics born in Reconstruction, rooted in social justice and human rights, and honed in the Alabama cotton belt.”
- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Review
“Jeffriess
Bloody Lowndes is an important contribution to the literature of the African American freedom struggle. Jeffries reveals the deep historical roots of black struggles against racial and economic oppression in the Black Belt. He makes clear that the civil rights reforms of the 1960s were insufficient responses to the ‘freedom politics that spawned the Lowndes County Freedom Organizationthe first Black Panther Party.”
- Clayborne Carson, author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
Review
“Excellent scholarship, important history, and an invaluable contribution to understanding current and future “conversations” on race and politics in a dynamically changing political environment.”
- Charles V. Hamilton, co-author of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation
Review
“Jeffries examines the topic more thoroughly and in greater depth that any previous study, pressing the narrative back to Reconstruction but focusing most of his narrative and analysis on mid-1960s and 1970s. The research is wide-ranging and in great depth, in archival and oral history sources. . . . Make no mistake about it: this book is a needed and important addition to the historiography of the Civil Rights movement. . . . Essential.”
- Choice
“Jeffries has written the book historians of the black freedom movement have been waiting for. His beautifully written account rescues Lowndes County from its role as merely a backdrop to ‘Black Power, to being one of the key battlegrounds for democracy in the United States. Here are local people whose local struggles have contributed mightily to the kind of politics we desperately need in the Obama agethe politics of 'freedom democracy,' a politics born in Reconstruction, rooted in social justice and human rights, and honed in the Alabama cotton belt.”
- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
“Jeffriess Bloody Lowndes is an important contribution to the literature of the African American freedom struggle. Jeffries reveals the deep historical roots of black struggles against racial and economic oppression in the Black Belt. He makes clear that the civil rights reforms of the 1960s were insufficient responses to the ‘freedom politics that spawned the Lowndes County Freedom Organizationthe first Black Panther Party.”
- Clayborne Carson, author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
“Excellent scholarship, important history, and an invaluable contribution to understanding current and future “conversations” on race and politics in a dynamically changing political environment.”
- Charles V. Hamilton, co-author of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation
Review
“Bloody Lowndes is an important book. The author's careful analysis of the 1966 election is both readable and quite useful to understanding the importance of the moment.”
"Without succumbing to the temptation to paint the struggle for black equality in broad strokes, Jeffries isolates the locus of the issues that framed the movement and uses these to explain how, through a variety of social networks, the movement spread regionally and ultimately nationally... is an exceptional piece of scholarship. Jeffries has produced an important work that will unquestionably reshape the debate over the origins and legacy of the civil rights and black power movements for years to come." “Jeffries has written the book historians of the black freedom movement have been waiting for. His beautifully written account rescues Lowndes County from its role as merely a backdrop to ‘Black Power,’ to being one of the key battlegrounds for democracy in the United States. Here are local people whose local struggles have contributed mightily to the kind of politics we desperately need in the Obama age—the politics of 'freedom democracy,' a politics born in Reconstruction, rooted in social justice and human rights, and honed in the Alabama cotton belt.”
“Excellent scholarship, important history, and an invaluable contribution to understanding current and future “conversations” on race and politics in a dynamically changing political environment.”
“Jeffries’s Bloody Lowndes is an important contribution to the literature of the African American freedom struggle. Jeffries reveals the deep historical roots of black struggles against racial and economic oppression in the Black Belt. He makes clear that the civil rights reforms of the 1960s were insufficient responses to the ‘freedom politics’ that spawned the Lowndes County Freedom Organization—the first Black Panther Party.”
Review
“This excellent primer traces the development of feminist theories in a legal system to which women and feminists are relatively new. The authors traverse various feminist legal theories, describing their inherent differences, as well as their crucial common ground; their influence on the legal world; their successes, both perceived and real; and finally, their dynamic nature, which prime activists and academics for social and political change. . . . The book also raises issues of goals unfulfilled and challenges to come by providing an insightfully provoking discussion of diverse issues. It explores more traditionally ‘feminist legal topics such as domestic violence and rape, current debates, such as single-sex schools and women in the U.S. military, and larger issues regarding the applicability of feminist legal theories in the face of a shrinking, globalized world.”
-Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice,/p>,
Review
“This book is perfectly designed as a text for undergraduates. The writing is lively and accessible; the topic coverage is broad, interesting, and up-to-date; and the subject of feminist legal theory is represented in many forms. Levit and Verchick invite readers to engage in the debate over laws impact on gendered controversies, and to select solutions from among competing visions of equality.”
-Choice, Highly Recommended,
Review
“Feminist Legal Theory brings together a comprehensive and lucid treatment of feminist theoretical approaches to the most pressing legal problems of our time. This book will serve as an essential desk reference for those who are new to feminist legal theory as well as for those of us who are veterans.”
-Katherine Franke,Columbia Law School
Review
“An important new assessment, wisely crafted, controversial, provocative, unusual, not just another addition to a settled field.”
-Susan Estrich,author of Sex and Power
Review
"[Murder State is] one of the most important works ever published on the history of American Indians in California in the mid-nineteenth century."and#8212;Steven Newcomb, Indian Country
Review
and#8220;A significant historical account detailing white pioneers perpetrating genocide against California Indians. . . . [Employs] compelling evidence.and#8221;and#8212;Clifford E. Trafzer,
Journal of American Studiesand#160;
Review
and#8220;Lindsayand#8217;s methodology and conclusions . . . highlight important questions for scholars to ask of frontier societies, their legal systems, and their citizens.and#8221;and#8212;Brenden Rensink,
Western Historical Quarterlyand#160;
Review
and#8220;Perhaps the most provocative aspect of his book is Lindsayand#8217;s connection of American democracy to the killing of Indians.and#8221;and#8212;Robert G. Lee,
American Historical ReviewReview
and#8220;Democracy and genocide are two activities that most would declare antagonistic. Yet Brendan Lindsay presents primary evidence that reveals the hatred and murderous acts committed by early Californians and government officials, as a grassroots movement, to settle the and#8216;Golden Stateand#8217; by exterminating and dispossessing Native peoples of their ancestral homelands.and#8221;and#8212;Jack Norton, Hupa historian and emeritus professor of Native American studies, Humboldt State University
Review
and#8220;Historian Brendan Lindsay has documented the attempted extermination of Californiaand#8217;s first people and provided a detailed, comprehensive historical treatment of Californiaand#8217;s genocide. He offers a groundbreaking study that will change the historiography of California and genocide studiesand#8212;a penetrating but readable book that will quickly become a classic.and#8221;and#8212;Larry Myers (Pomo), executive secretary of the California Native American Heritage Commission
Synopsis
Winner of the 2010 Clinton Jackson Coley Award for the best book on local history from the Alabama Historical Association
A remarkable story of the people of rural Lowndes County, a small Southern town, who in 1966 organized a radical experiment in democratic politics
Early in 1966, African Americans in rural Lowndes County, Alabama, aided by activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), established an all-black, independent political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The group, whose ballot symbol was a snarling black panther, was formed in part to protest the barriers to black enfranchisement that had for decades kept every single African American of voting age off the county's registration books. Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, most African Americans in this overwhelmingly black county remained too scared even to try to register. Their fear stemmed from the county's long, bloody history of whites retaliating against blacks who strove to exert the freedom granted to them after the Civil War.
Amid this environment of intimidation and disempowerment, African Americans in Lowndes County viewed the LCFO as the best vehicle for concrete change. Their radical experiment in democratic politics inspired black people throughout the country, from SNCC organizer Stokely Carmichael who used the Lowndes County program as the blueprint for Black Power, to California-based activists Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, who adopted the LCFO panther as the namesake for their new, grassroots organization: the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. This party and its adopted symbol went on to become the national organization of black militancy in the 1960s and 1970s, yet long-obscured is the crucial role that Lowndes County"historically a bastion of white supremacy"played in spurring black activists nationwide to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways.
Drawing on an impressive array of sources ranging from government documents to personal interviews with Lowndes County residents and SNCC activists, Hasan Kwame Jeffries tells, for the first time, the remarkable full story of the Lowndes County freedom struggle and its contribution to the larger civil rights movement. Bridging the gaping hole in the literature between civil rights organizing and Black Power politics, Bloody Lowndes offers a new paradigm for understanding the civil rights movement.
Synopsis
Early in 1966, African Americans in rural Lowndes County, Alabama, aided by activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), established an all-black, independent political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The group, whose ballot symbol was a snarling black panther, was formed in part to protest the barriers to black enfranchisement that had for decades kept every single African American of voting age off the county's registration books. Drawing on an impressive array of sources ranging from government documents to personal interviews with Lowndes County residents and SNCC activists, Hasan Kwame Jeffries tells, for the first time, the remarkable full story of the Lowndes County freedom struggle and its contribution to the larger civil rights movement. Bridging the gaping hole in the literature between civil rights organizing and Black Power politics, Bloody Lowndes offers a new paradigm for understanding the civil rights movement.
Synopsis
At long last, the complex field of feminist legal theory is presented in accessible, teachable form by two of its experts, Nancy Levit and Robert R. M. Verchick. In this outstanding primer, the authors introduce the diverse strands of feminist legal theory and the array of substantive legal issues relevant to women's and gender studies. The book centers on feminist legal theories—including equal treatment theory, cultural feminism, dominance theory, critical race feminism, lesbian feminism, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism. The authors also address feminist legal methods, such as consciousness raising and storytelling.
The primer demonstrates the ways feminist legal theory operates in real-life contexts, including domestic violence, reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, education, sports, pornography, and global issues of gender. Levit and Verchick highlight a sweeping range of cutting edge topics at the intersection of law and gender, such as single sex schools, women in the military, abortion, same sex marriage, date rape, and the international trafficking in women and girls.
At its core, Feminist Legal Theory shows the importance of the role of law and feminist legal theory in shaping contemporary gender issues.
Synopsis
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Euro-American citizenry of California carried out mass genocide against the Native population of their state, using the processes and mechanisms of democracy to secure land and resources for themselves and their private interests. The murder, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Native people were legitimized by notions of democracyand#8212;in this case mob ruleand#8212;through a discreetly organized and brutally effective series of petitions, referenda, town hall meetings, and votes at every level of California government.
and#160;Murder State is a comprehensive examination of these events and their early legacy. Preconceptions about Native Americans as shaped by the popular press and by immigrantsand#8217; experiences on the Overland Trail to California were used to further justify the elimination of Native people in the newcomersand#8217; quest for land. The allegedly and#8220;violent natureand#8221; of Native people was often merely their reaction to the atrocities committed against them as they were driven from their ancestral lands and alienated from their traditional resources.
and#160;In this narrative history employing numerous primary sources and the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on genocide, Brendan C. Lindsay examines the darker side of California history, one rarely studied in detail, and the motives of both Native Americans and Euro-Americans at the time. Murder State calls attention to the misuse of democracy to justify and commit genocide.
About the Author
Nancy Levit is the Curators' and Edward D. Ellison Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Robert R. M. Verchick holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law.