“A Hell of a Whipping”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bussel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Reform Initiative ◽  
Primary Target ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Failed Attempt ◽  
Charter Reform

This chapter examines how Harold Gibbons and Ernest Calloway's ambitious plans were derailed by aggressive investigations of alleged union corruption in which the Teamsters became a primary target and Local 688 faced sharp public scrutiny. It begins with a discussion of the successful campaign launched by Gibbons and the Teamsters, in collaboration with Calloway and the NAACP, against the charter reform initiative in St. Louis that would have diluted the union movement's political power and circumscribed the St. Louis civil rights movement's growing influence. It then considers Jimmy Hoffa's disputed election as Teamsters president and how the union's increasing use of trusteeships rankled local Teamsters across the country and came under scrutiny from Congressional investigators. It also explores Gibbons and Calloway's failed attempt to rally support for the Powell Amendment, proposed by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell to bar unions from practicing racial discrimination.

Feminism, Civil Rights, and Liberalism in the 1960s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Political Power ◽  
National Level ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter charts the impressive leap that African American women made into national arenas of political power starting in the early 1960s. Racial discrimination and social injustices in jobs, housing, education, and politics—problems that women had been fighting for the past four decades—were now raised before leaders of the liberal political establishment at the national level. When time passed and many of the changes women hoped for were not forthcoming, women did what they had done in the past: they utilized outside pressure groups and organized constituents to demand change and to hold leaders accountable. Additionally, these women, who had always understood their struggles for justice and equality through a prism of race, had to determine their individual and collective relationships to the burgeoning feminist movement they were helping usher in.

Mobilized by Injustice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Depth Interviews

Springing from decades of abuse by law enforcement and an excessive criminal justice system, members of over-policed communities lead the current movement for civil rights in the United States. Activated by injustice, individuals protested police brutality in Ferguson, campaigned to end stop-and-frisk in New York City, and advocated for restorative justice in Washington, D.C. Yet, scholars focused on the negative impact of punitive policy on material resources, and trust in government did not predict these pockets of resistance, arguing instead that marginalizing and demeaning policy teaches individuals to acquiesce and withdraw. Mobilized by Injustice excavates conditions under which, despite otherwise negative outcomes, negative criminal justice experiences catalyze political action. This book argues that when understood as resulting from a system that targets people based on race, class, or other group identifiers, contact can politically mobilize. Negative experiences with democratic institutions predicated on equality under the law, when connected to a larger, group-based struggle, can provoke action from anger. Evidence from several surveys and in-depth interviews reveals that mobilization as result of negative criminal justice experiences is broad, crosses racial boundaries, and extends to the loved ones of custodial citizens. When over half of Blacks and Latinos and a plurality of Whites know someone with personal contact, the mobilizing effect of a sense of injustice promises to have important consequences for American politics.

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