Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949

Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949

Author: Glenn Feldman

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1999-09-24

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 0817309845

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This first book-length examination of the Klan in Alabama represents exhaustive research that challenges traditional interpretations. The Ku Klux Klan has wielded considerable power both as a terrorist group and as a political force. Usually viewed as appearing in distinct incarnations, the Klans of the 20th century are now shown by Glenn Feldman to have a greater degree of continuity than has been previously suspected. Victims of Klan terrorism continued to be aliens, foreigners, or outsiders in Alabama: the freed slave during Reconstruction, the 1920s Catholic or Jew, the 1930s labor organizer or Communist, and the returning black veteran of World War II were all considered a threat to the dominant white culture. Feldman offers new insights into this "qualified continuity" among Klans of different eras, showing that the group remained active during the 1930s and 1940s when it was presumed dormant, with elements of the "Reconstruction syndrome" carrying over to the smaller Klan of the civil rights era. In addition, Feldman takes a critical look at opposition to Klan activities by southern elites. He particularly shows how opponents during the Great Depression and war years saw the Klan as an impediment to attracting outside capital and federal relief or as a magnet for federal action that would jeopardize traditional forms of racial and social control. Other critics voiced concerns about negative national publicity, and others deplored the violence and terrorism. This in-depth examination of the Klan in a single state, which features rare photographs, provides a means of understanding the order's development throughout the South. Feldman's book represents definitive research into the history of the Klan and makes a major contribution to our understanding of both that organization and the history of Alabama.


Book Synopsis Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949 by : Glenn Feldman

Download or read book Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949 written by Glenn Feldman and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 1999-09-24 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book-length examination of the Klan in Alabama represents exhaustive research that challenges traditional interpretations. The Ku Klux Klan has wielded considerable power both as a terrorist group and as a political force. Usually viewed as appearing in distinct incarnations, the Klans of the 20th century are now shown by Glenn Feldman to have a greater degree of continuity than has been previously suspected. Victims of Klan terrorism continued to be aliens, foreigners, or outsiders in Alabama: the freed slave during Reconstruction, the 1920s Catholic or Jew, the 1930s labor organizer or Communist, and the returning black veteran of World War II were all considered a threat to the dominant white culture. Feldman offers new insights into this "qualified continuity" among Klans of different eras, showing that the group remained active during the 1930s and 1940s when it was presumed dormant, with elements of the "Reconstruction syndrome" carrying over to the smaller Klan of the civil rights era. In addition, Feldman takes a critical look at opposition to Klan activities by southern elites. He particularly shows how opponents during the Great Depression and war years saw the Klan as an impediment to attracting outside capital and federal relief or as a magnet for federal action that would jeopardize traditional forms of racial and social control. Other critics voiced concerns about negative national publicity, and others deplored the violence and terrorism. This in-depth examination of the Klan in a single state, which features rare photographs, provides a means of understanding the order's development throughout the South. Feldman's book represents definitive research into the history of the Klan and makes a major contribution to our understanding of both that organization and the history of Alabama.

Before Brown

Before Brown

Author: Glenn Feldman

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2004-09-13

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 0817351345

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Details the ferment in civil rights that took place across the South before the momentous Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 This collection refutes the notion that the movement began with the Supreme Court decision, and suggests, rather, that the movement originated in the 1930s and earlier, spurred by the Great Depression and, later, World War II—events that would radically shape the course of politics in the South and the nation into the next century. This work explores the growth of the movement through its various manifestations—the activities of politicians, civil rights leaders, religious figures, labor unionists, and grass-roots activists—throughout the 1940s and 1950s. It discusses the critical leadership roles played by women and offers a new perspective on the relationship between the NAACP and the Communist Party. Before Brown shows clearly that, as the drive toward racial equality advanced and national political attitudes shifted, the validity of white supremacy came increasingly into question. Institutionalized racism in the South had always offered white citizens material advantages by preserving their economic superiority and making them feel part of a privileged class. When these rewards were threatened by the civil rights movement, a white backlash occurred.


Book Synopsis Before Brown by : Glenn Feldman

Download or read book Before Brown written by Glenn Feldman and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2004-09-13 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the ferment in civil rights that took place across the South before the momentous Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 This collection refutes the notion that the movement began with the Supreme Court decision, and suggests, rather, that the movement originated in the 1930s and earlier, spurred by the Great Depression and, later, World War II—events that would radically shape the course of politics in the South and the nation into the next century. This work explores the growth of the movement through its various manifestations—the activities of politicians, civil rights leaders, religious figures, labor unionists, and grass-roots activists—throughout the 1940s and 1950s. It discusses the critical leadership roles played by women and offers a new perspective on the relationship between the NAACP and the Communist Party. Before Brown shows clearly that, as the drive toward racial equality advanced and national political attitudes shifted, the validity of white supremacy came increasingly into question. Institutionalized racism in the South had always offered white citizens material advantages by preserving their economic superiority and making them feel part of a privileged class. When these rewards were threatened by the civil rights movement, a white backlash occurred.

The Great Melding

The Great Melding

Author: Glenn Feldman

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2015-08-31

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0817318666

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The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Road to America's New Conservatism is the second book in Glenn Feldman's groundbreaking series on how the American South switched its allegiance from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the twentieth century.


Book Synopsis The Great Melding by : Glenn Feldman

Download or read book The Great Melding written by Glenn Feldman and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Road to America's New Conservatism is the second book in Glenn Feldman's groundbreaking series on how the American South switched its allegiance from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the twentieth century.

The Irony of the Solid South

The Irony of the Solid South

Author: Glenn Feldman

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2013-05-31

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 0817317937

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The Irony of the Solid South examines how the south became the “Solid South” for the Democratic Party and how that solidarity began to crack with the advent of American involvement in World War II. Relying on a sophisticated analysis of secondary research—as well as a wealth of deep research in primary sources such as letters, diaries, interviews, court cases, newspapers, and other archival materials—Glenn Feldman argues in The Irony of the Solid South that the history of the solid Democratic south is actually marked by several ironies that involve a concern with the fundamental nature of southern society and culture and the central place that race and allied types of cultural conservatism have played in ensuring regional distinctiveness and continuity across time and various partisan labels. Along the way, this account has much to say about the quality and nature of the New Deal in Dixie, southern liberalism, and its fatal shortcomings. Feldman focuses primarily on Alabama and race but also considers at length circumstances in the other southern states as well as insights into the uses of emotional issues other than race that have been used time and again to distract whites from their economic and material interests. Feldman explains how conservative political forces (Bourbon Democrats, Dixiecrats, Wallace, independents, and eventually the modern GOP) ingeniously fused white supremacy with economic conservatism based on the common glue of animus to the federal government. A second great melding is exposed, one that joined economic fundamentalism to the religious kind along the shared axis of antidemocratic impulses. Feldman’s study has much to say about southern and American conservatism, the enduring power of cultural and emotional issues, and the modern south’s path to becoming solidly Republican.


Book Synopsis The Irony of the Solid South by : Glenn Feldman

Download or read book The Irony of the Solid South written by Glenn Feldman and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2013-05-31 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Irony of the Solid South examines how the south became the “Solid South” for the Democratic Party and how that solidarity began to crack with the advent of American involvement in World War II. Relying on a sophisticated analysis of secondary research—as well as a wealth of deep research in primary sources such as letters, diaries, interviews, court cases, newspapers, and other archival materials—Glenn Feldman argues in The Irony of the Solid South that the history of the solid Democratic south is actually marked by several ironies that involve a concern with the fundamental nature of southern society and culture and the central place that race and allied types of cultural conservatism have played in ensuring regional distinctiveness and continuity across time and various partisan labels. Along the way, this account has much to say about the quality and nature of the New Deal in Dixie, southern liberalism, and its fatal shortcomings. Feldman focuses primarily on Alabama and race but also considers at length circumstances in the other southern states as well as insights into the uses of emotional issues other than race that have been used time and again to distract whites from their economic and material interests. Feldman explains how conservative political forces (Bourbon Democrats, Dixiecrats, Wallace, independents, and eventually the modern GOP) ingeniously fused white supremacy with economic conservatism based on the common glue of animus to the federal government. A second great melding is exposed, one that joined economic fundamentalism to the religious kind along the shared axis of antidemocratic impulses. Feldman’s study has much to say about southern and American conservatism, the enduring power of cultural and emotional issues, and the modern south’s path to becoming solidly Republican.

The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, 1915-1954

The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, 1915-1954

Author: Glenn Alan Feldman

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 713

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, 1915-1954 by : Glenn Alan Feldman

Download or read book The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, 1915-1954 written by Glenn Alan Feldman and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 713 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

To Live and Dine in Dixie

To Live and Dine in Dixie

Author: Angela Jill Cooley

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0820347604

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This book explores the changing food culture of the urban American South during the Jim Crow era by examining how race, ethnicity, class, and gender contributed to the development and maintenance of racial segregation in public eating places. Focusing primarily on the 1900s to the 1960s, Angela Jill Cooley identifies the cultural differences between activists who saw public eating places like urban lunch counters as sites of political participation and believed access to such spaces a right of citizenship, and white supremacists who interpreted desegregation as a challenge to property rights and advocated local control over racial issues. Significant legal changes occurred across this period as the federal government sided at first with the white supremacists but later supported the unprecedented progress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which—among other things—required desegregation of the nation's restaurants. Because the culture of white supremacy that contributed to racial segregation in public accommodations began in the white southern home, Cooley also explores domestic eating practices in nascent southern cities and reveals how the most private of activities—cooking and dining— became a cause for public concern from the meeting rooms of local women's clubs to the halls of the U.S. Congress.


Book Synopsis To Live and Dine in Dixie by : Angela Jill Cooley

Download or read book To Live and Dine in Dixie written by Angela Jill Cooley and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the changing food culture of the urban American South during the Jim Crow era by examining how race, ethnicity, class, and gender contributed to the development and maintenance of racial segregation in public eating places. Focusing primarily on the 1900s to the 1960s, Angela Jill Cooley identifies the cultural differences between activists who saw public eating places like urban lunch counters as sites of political participation and believed access to such spaces a right of citizenship, and white supremacists who interpreted desegregation as a challenge to property rights and advocated local control over racial issues. Significant legal changes occurred across this period as the federal government sided at first with the white supremacists but later supported the unprecedented progress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which—among other things—required desegregation of the nation's restaurants. Because the culture of white supremacy that contributed to racial segregation in public accommodations began in the white southern home, Cooley also explores domestic eating practices in nascent southern cities and reveals how the most private of activities—cooking and dining— became a cause for public concern from the meeting rooms of local women's clubs to the halls of the U.S. Congress.

Nation within a Nation

Nation within a Nation

Author: Glenn Feldman

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 0813065291

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From the Constitutional Convention to the Civil War to the civil rights movement, the South has exerted an outsized influence on American government and history while being distinctly anti-government. It continues to do so today with Tea Party politics. Southern states have profited immensely from federal projects, tax expenditures, and public spending, yet the region's relationship with the central government and the courts can, at the best of times, be described as contentious. Nation within a Nation features cutting-edge work by lead scholars in the fields of history, political science, and human geography, who examine the causes—real and perceived—for the South's perpetual state of rebellion, which remains one of its most defining characteristics.


Book Synopsis Nation within a Nation by : Glenn Feldman

Download or read book Nation within a Nation written by Glenn Feldman and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Constitutional Convention to the Civil War to the civil rights movement, the South has exerted an outsized influence on American government and history while being distinctly anti-government. It continues to do so today with Tea Party politics. Southern states have profited immensely from federal projects, tax expenditures, and public spending, yet the region's relationship with the central government and the courts can, at the best of times, be described as contentious. Nation within a Nation features cutting-edge work by lead scholars in the fields of history, political science, and human geography, who examine the causes—real and perceived—for the South's perpetual state of rebellion, which remains one of its most defining characteristics.

Race and American Political Development

Race and American Political Development

Author: Joseph E. Lowndes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-11-12

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1136086420

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Race has been present at every critical moment in American political development, shaping political institutions, political discourse, public policy, and its denizens’ political identities. But because of the nature of race—its evolving and dynamic status as a structure of inequality, a political organizing principle, an ideology, and a system of power—we must study the politics of race historically, institutionally, and discursively. Covering more than three hundred years of American political history from the founding to the contemporary moment, the contributors in this volume make this extended argument. Together, they provide an understanding of American politics that challenges our conventional disciplinary tools of studying politics and our conservative political moment’s dominant narrative of racial progress. This volume, the first to collect essays on the role of race in American political history and development, resituates race in American politics as an issue for sustained and broadened critical attention.


Book Synopsis Race and American Political Development by : Joseph E. Lowndes

Download or read book Race and American Political Development written by Joseph E. Lowndes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Race has been present at every critical moment in American political development, shaping political institutions, political discourse, public policy, and its denizens’ political identities. But because of the nature of race—its evolving and dynamic status as a structure of inequality, a political organizing principle, an ideology, and a system of power—we must study the politics of race historically, institutionally, and discursively. Covering more than three hundred years of American political history from the founding to the contemporary moment, the contributors in this volume make this extended argument. Together, they provide an understanding of American politics that challenges our conventional disciplinary tools of studying politics and our conservative political moment’s dominant narrative of racial progress. This volume, the first to collect essays on the role of race in American political history and development, resituates race in American politics as an issue for sustained and broadened critical attention.

Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History [3 volumes]

Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History [3 volumes]

Author: Steven L. Danver

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-12-17

Total Pages: 1422

ISBN-13: 1598842226

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This three-volume work traces the history of revolts and rebellions from the colonial era to the 20th century. America has a long history of rebellions extending back before 1776. Revolts have taken place because of economic hard times, the denial of civil rights, racism, sexism, and classism. Studying the reasons for and results of these uprisings provides a window into the life of the American body politic—and what moves the American people to action. Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia details the history of popular actions from the colonial era to the 20th century. Each event in the three-volume encyclopedia is covered by an overview entry that details who was involved, why the revolt took place, what happened, and what the aftereffects were. Shorter subentries provide further detail on the important people, places, events, and ideas that were a part of the action. By presenting both the broad themes and the specifics, the encyclopedia enables readers to gain a general knowledge of the event or drill down to acquire a greater understanding.


Book Synopsis Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History [3 volumes] by : Steven L. Danver

Download or read book Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History [3 volumes] written by Steven L. Danver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-17 with total page 1422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This three-volume work traces the history of revolts and rebellions from the colonial era to the 20th century. America has a long history of rebellions extending back before 1776. Revolts have taken place because of economic hard times, the denial of civil rights, racism, sexism, and classism. Studying the reasons for and results of these uprisings provides a window into the life of the American body politic—and what moves the American people to action. Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia details the history of popular actions from the colonial era to the 20th century. Each event in the three-volume encyclopedia is covered by an overview entry that details who was involved, why the revolt took place, what happened, and what the aftereffects were. Shorter subentries provide further detail on the important people, places, events, and ideas that were a part of the action. By presenting both the broad themes and the specifics, the encyclopedia enables readers to gain a general knowledge of the event or drill down to acquire a greater understanding.

A War of Sections

A War of Sections

Author: Steve Suitts

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2023-10-01

Total Pages: 748

ISBN-13: 1588384934

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In a sweeping reinterpretation of the history of disfranchisement, Steve Suitts illuminates how a century of political conflicts in Alabama came to shape both some of America’s best achievements in voting rights and its continuing struggles over voter suppression. A War of Sections tells the unknown political history symbolized today by the annual pilgrimage of presidents and celebrities across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It is the story of how that crucial, tragic day in Selma in 1965 was only the flashpoint of a much longer history of failures and successes involving conflicts not only between blacks and whites in Alabama but between white political factions warring in the state over voting rights. Suitts recasts the context and much of the content of disfranchisement in Alabama as an unremitting, decades-long sectional battle in white-only politics between the state’s rural Black Belt and north Alabama counties. He uncovers important Black and white heroes and villains who collectively shaped the arc of voting rights in Alabama and ultimately across the nation. A War of Sections offers a new understanding of the political dynamics of resistance and change through which a southern state’s long-standing democratic failures ironically provided motivation for and instruction to a reluctant nation regarding unmatched ways to advance universal voting. Along the way, the book introduces from this unheard past some prophetic voices that speak to the paramount issues of America’s commitment to the universal right to vote—then and now.


Book Synopsis A War of Sections by : Steve Suitts

Download or read book A War of Sections written by Steve Suitts and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2023-10-01 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a sweeping reinterpretation of the history of disfranchisement, Steve Suitts illuminates how a century of political conflicts in Alabama came to shape both some of America’s best achievements in voting rights and its continuing struggles over voter suppression. A War of Sections tells the unknown political history symbolized today by the annual pilgrimage of presidents and celebrities across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It is the story of how that crucial, tragic day in Selma in 1965 was only the flashpoint of a much longer history of failures and successes involving conflicts not only between blacks and whites in Alabama but between white political factions warring in the state over voting rights. Suitts recasts the context and much of the content of disfranchisement in Alabama as an unremitting, decades-long sectional battle in white-only politics between the state’s rural Black Belt and north Alabama counties. He uncovers important Black and white heroes and villains who collectively shaped the arc of voting rights in Alabama and ultimately across the nation. A War of Sections offers a new understanding of the political dynamics of resistance and change through which a southern state’s long-standing democratic failures ironically provided motivation for and instruction to a reluctant nation regarding unmatched ways to advance universal voting. Along the way, the book introduces from this unheard past some prophetic voices that speak to the paramount issues of America’s commitment to the universal right to vote—then and now.