What were the socioeconomic conditions and factors that resulted in riots erupting in northern U.S. cities in 1964? This book examines the year in American history that brought a new era in race relations to the nation. As the end of the second decade of the 21st century approaches, America seems on the verge of widespread civil unrest due to what is perceived to be consistent injustices against people of color, both in terms of lack of opportunity to improve their socioeconomic status and their treatment at the hands of law enforcement. Similar race-based resentment and anger swept the nation half a century ago. Can the United States avoid a repeat of the past? The Dawn Broke Hot and Somber: U.S. Race Riots of 1964 fills a crucial gap in racial collective violence literature, examining the changing nature of riots in the United States and identifying the conditions and factors that led to the anger and frustration that resulted in riots in July and August of 1964. Through its careful evaluation of specific riots in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, this book shows how cultural and economic changes intersected with political circumstances to shape human actions. Readers will understand the effects that the riots had on the major political and economic issues of 1964, such as the implementation of the Civil Rights Act and the War on Poverty as well as the events of and the outcome of the presidential election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. The book also analyzes the actions taken by local, state, and federal officials to try to understand and quell the violence and considers the racial unrest that followed these riots in the later years of the 1960s and beyond.

What were the socioeconomic conditions and factors that resulted in riots erupting in northern U.S. cities in 1964? This book examines the year in American history that brought a new era in race relations to the nation. As the end of the second decade of the 21st century approaches, America seems on the verge of widespread civil unrest due to what is perceived to be consistent injustices against people of color, both in terms of lack of opportunity to improve their socioeconomic status and their treatment at the hands of law enforcement. Similar race-based resentment and anger swept the nation half a century ago. Can the United States avoid a repeat of the past? The Dawn Broke Hot and Somber: U.S. Race Riots of 1964 fills a crucial gap in racial collective violence literature, examining the changing nature of riots in the United States and identifying the conditions and factors that led to the anger and frustration that resulted in riots in July and August of 1964. Through its careful evaluation of specific riots in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, this book shows how cultural and economic changes intersected with political circumstances to shape human actions. Readers will understand the effects that the riots had on the major political and economic issues of 1964, such as the implementation of the Civil Rights Act and the War on Poverty as well as the events of and the outcome of the presidential election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. The book also analyzes the actions taken by local, state, and federal officials to try to understand and quell the violence and considers the racial unrest that followed these riots in the later years of the 1960s and beyond.

Though it ended more than thirty years ago, the Cold War still casts a long shadow over American society. Red Reckoning examines how the great ideological conflict of the twentieth century transformed the nation and forced Americans to reconsider almost every aspect of their society, culture, and identity. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the volume’s contributors examine a broad array of topics, including the Cold War’s impact on national security, race relations, gun culture and masculinity, law, college football, advertising, music, film, free speech, religion, and even board games. Above all, Red Reckoning brings a vitally important era back to life for those who lived through it and for students and scholars wishing to understand it.

Black Women’s Liberation Movement Music argues that the Black Women’s Liberation Movement of the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s was a unique combination of Black political feminism, Black literary feminism, and Black musical feminism, among other forms of Black feminism. This book critically explores the ways the soundtracks of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement often overlapped with those of other 1960s and 1970s social, political, and cultural movements, such as the Black Power Movement, Women’s Liberation Movement, and Sexual Revolution. The soul, funk, and disco music of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement era is simultaneously interpreted as universalist, feminist (in a general sense), and Black female-focused. This music’s incredible ability to be interpreted in so many different ways speaks to the importance and power of Black women’s music and the fact that it has multiple meanings for a multitude of people. Within the worlds of both Black Popular Movement Studies and Black Popular Music Studies there has been a long-standing tendency to almost exclusively associate Black women’s music of the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s with the Black male-dominated Black Power Movement or the White female-dominated Women’s Liberation Movement. However, this book reveals that much of the soul, funk, and disco performed by Black women was most often the very popular music of a very unpopular and unsung movement: The Black Women’s Liberation Movement. Black Women’s Liberation Movement Music is an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and researchers of Popular Music Studies, American Studies, African American Studies, Critical Race Studies, Gender Studies, and Sexuality Studies.

While the legacy of Black urban rebellions during the turbulent 1960s continues to permeate throughout US histories and discourses, scholars seldom explore within scholarship examining Black Cultural Production, artist-writers of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) that addressed civil unrest, specifically riots, in their artistic writings. Start a Riot! Civil Unrest in Black Arts Movement Drama, Fiction, and Poetry analyzes riot iconography and its usefulness as a political strategy of protestation. Through a mixed-methods approach of literary close-reading, historical, and sociological analysis, Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani considers how BAM artist-writers like Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Ben Caldwell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, and Henry Dumas challenge misconceptions regarding Black protest through experimental explorations in their writings. Representations of riots became more pronounced in the 1960s as pivotal leaders shaping Black consciousness, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., were assassinated. BAM artist-writers sought to override the public's interpretation in their literary exposés that a riot’s disjointed and disorderly methods led to more chaos than reparative justice. Start a Riot! uncovers how BAM artist-writers expose anti-Black racism and, by extension, the United States' inability to compromise with Black America on matters related to citizenship rights, housing (in)security, economic inequality, and education—tenets emphasized during the Black Power Movement. Abdul-Ghani argues that BAM artist-writers did not merely write literature that reflected a spirit of protest; in many cases, they understood their texts, themselves, as acts of protest.

For many African Americans, getting a public sector job has historically been one of the few paths to the financial stability of the middle class, and in New York City, few such jobs were as sought-after as positions in the fire department (FDNY). For over a century, generations of Black New Yorkers have fought to gain access to and equal opportunity within the FDNY. Tracing this struggle for jobs and justice from 1898 to the present, David Goldberg details the ways each generation of firefighters confronted overt and institutionalized racism. An important chapter in the histories of both Black social movements and independent workplace organizing, this book demonstrates how Black firefighters in New York helped to create affirmative action from the "bottom up," while simultaneously revealing how white resistance to these efforts shaped white working-class conservatism and myths of American meritocracy. Full of colorful characters and rousing stories drawn from oral histories, discrimination suits, and the archives of the Vulcan Society (the fraternal society of Black firefighters in New York), this book sheds new light on the impact of Black firefighters in the fight for civil rights.

Little could Darby Peterson have anticipated the intensity of the challenge his friend Garnett Nelson's invitation would command. Due to a medical condition that requires Nelson's urgent attention, Nelson urges his long-time friend, Darby, to serve as the host and counselor of his Villa during his absence. The Villa, known as Montesereno, is committed to providing rest and renewal for its many clients and guests, suffering from a variety of contemporary disorders. Many who come are obsessed with bipolar anomalies, alcohol and anger issues, along with depression and sexual addictions. Darby recognizes the invitation requires counseling skills that he frankly lacks, as his field is philosophy; nonetheless, he accepts, inasmuch as Garnett has always wanted him to join his staff because of his "friendly and open-minded" nature and background as a "Renaissance man" and "conversationalist." Thus Darby takes a leave of absence from his position as chair of his Atlanta University's department of philosophy for however long Garnett should need him. What Darby cannot know is that his new role will become permanent. Adding to the mystique of his decision, if not contributing to its ultimate success, is the discovery of the Villa's clients of Darby's background as an ex-priest, tormented by his own past, divorce, and quest for love and healing. That the Villa is located in the scenic mountains of North Carolina, along its panoramic Parkway, adds to the wholeness and solace that Nature makes possible. There is ample love and challenge, as well as magic and mending in this story for every reader.