Synopses & Reviews
The Second Great Migration, the movement of African Americans between the South and the North that began in the early 1940s and tapered off in the late 1960s, transformed America. This migration of approximately five million people helped improve the financial prospects of black Americans, who, in the next generation, moved increasingly into the middle class.
Over seven years, Lisa Krissoff Boehm gathered oral histories with women migrants and their children, two groups largely overlooked in the story of this event. She also utilized existing oral histories with migrants and southerners in leading archives. In extended excerpts from the oral histories, and in thoughtful scholarly analysis of the voices, this book offers a unique window into African American women's history.
These rich oral histories reveal much that is surprising. Although the Jim Crow South presented persistent dangers, the women retained warm memories of southern childhoods. Notwithstanding the burgeoning war industry, most women found themselves left out of industrial work. The North offered its own institutionalized racism; the region was not the promised land. Additionally, these African American women juggled work and family long before such battles became a staple of mainstream discussion. In the face of challenges, the women who share their tales here crafted lives of great meaning from the limited options available, making a way out of no way.
Review
"A rich addition to the literature on Russian-American relations."and#8212;W. B. Whisenhunt, Choice
Review
"Opposing Jim Crow sheds light on the very real impact of institutionalized Soviet antiracism, which makes this book a welcome addition to the history of the Soviet Union."and#8212;Tony Pecinovsky, People's World
Review
"Well written and well argued."and#8212;Randi Storch, Journal of Southern History
Review
"A clear and vibrant read."and#8212;Amanda Higgins, The Register
Synopsis
Shared memories from the hard-working southern women who relocated to northern cities and birthed the black middle class The Second Great Migration, the movement of African Americans between the South and the North that began in the early 1940s and tapered off in the late 1960s, transformed America. This migration of approximately five million people helped improve the financial prospects of black Americans, who, in the next generation, moved increasingly into the middle class. Over seven years, Lisa Krissoff Boehm gathered oral histories with women migrants and their children, two groups largely overlooked in the story of this event. She also utilized existing oral histories with migrants and southerners in leading archives. In extended excerpts from the oral histories, and in thoughtful scholarly analysis of the voices, this book offers a unique window into African American women's history. These rich oral histories reveal much that is surprising. Although the Jim Crow South presented persistent dangers, the women retained warm memories of southern childhoods. Notwithstanding the burgeoning war industry, most women found themselves left out of industrial work. The North offered its own institutionalized racism; the region was not the promised land. Additionally, these African American women juggled work and family long before such battles became a staple of mainstream discussion. In the face of challenges, the women who share their tales here crafted lives of great meaning from the limited options available, making a way out of no way. Lisa Krissoff Boehm is associate professor of urban studies and director of the Commonwealth Honors Program at Worcester State College. She is the author of Popular Culture and the Enduring Myth of Chicago.
Synopsis
Shared memories from the hard-working southern women who relocated to northern cities and birthed the black middle class
Synopsis
Before the Nazis came to power in Germany, Soviet officials labeled the United States the most racist country in the world. Photographs, childrenand#8217;s stories, films, newspaper articles, political education campaigns, and court proceedings exposed the hypocrisy of Americaand#8217;s racial democracy. In contrast, the Soviets represented the USSR itself as a superior society where racism was absent and identified African Americans as valued allies in resisting an imminent imperialist war against the first workersand#8217; state.
Meredith L. Romanand#8217;s Opposing Jim Crow examines the period between 1928 and 1937, when the promotion of antiracism by party and trade union officials in Moscow became a priority policy. Soviet leaders stood to gain considerable propagandistic value at home and abroad by drawing attention to U.S. racism, their actions simultaneously directed attention to the routine violation of human rights that African Americans suffered as citizens of the United States. Soviet policy also challenged the prevailing white supremacist notion that blacks were biologically inferior and thus unworthy of equality with whites. African Americans of various political and socioeconomic backgrounds became indispensable contributors to Soviet antiracism and helped officials in Moscow challenge the United Statesand#8217; claim to be the worldand#8217;s beacon of democracy and freedom.
About the Author
Meredith L. Roman is an assistant professor of history at SUNYand#8211;Brockport. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, International Labor and Working-Class History, Race and Class, and Critique: A Journal of Socialist Theory.