Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Kimberley L. Phillips's superb book tells the long overdue story of the disproportionate impact of American wars on African Americans and their resistance to this unequal burden. Her expansive catalogue of black artistic engagement with wartime struggles for justice--from the Double V campaign to Baghdad Hip Hop--creates a new groove in the study of American protest culture. The book sounds off beautifully, voicing cries of freedom through the guns of war."--Bill V. Mullen, Purdue University, author of
Afro-Orientalism and Popular Fronts: Chicago and African American Cultural Politics, 1935-1946
Review
"Using a truly impressive body of research, Phillips offers a poignant account of African American soldiers compelled to fight racism in the army and U.S. society even as they took up arms against foreign enemies. Ultimately, this important study challenges us to rethink the very meaning of integration in the postwar United States."--Kevin Gaines, University of Michigan
Synopsis
African Americans' long campaign for "the right to fight" forced Harry Truman to issue his 1948 executive order calling for equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces. Kimberley Phillips examines how blacks' participation in the nation's wars after Truman's order and their protracted struggles for equal citizenship galvanized a vibrant antiwar activism that reshaped their struggles for freedom.
About the Author
Kimberley L. Phillips is dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of history at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.