eBook

Power to the Poor

Mantler, Gordon K

2013,2014

Overview

The Poor People's Campaign of 1968 has long been overshadowed by the assassination of its architect, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the political turmoil of that year. In a major reinterpretation of civil rights and Chicano movement history, Gordon K. Mantler demonstrates how King's unfinished crusade became the era's most high-profile attempt at multiracial collaboration and sheds light on the interdependent relationship between racial identity and political coalition among African Americans and Mexican Americans. Mantler argues that while the fight against poverty held great potential for black-brown cooperation, such efforts also exposed the complex dynamics between the nation's two largest minority groups.Drawing on oral histories, archives, periodicals, and FBI surveillance files, Mantler paints a rich portrait of the campaign and the larger antipoverty work from which it emerged, including the labor activism of Cesar Chavez, opposition of Black and Chicano Power to state violence in Chicago and Denver, and advocacy for Mexican American land-grant rights in New Mexico. Ultimately, Mantler challenges readers to rethink the multiracial history of the long civil rights movement and the difficulty of sustaining political coalitions.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press,University of North Carolina Press
• Subject: 1961–1971 / 20th centur / 20th century / African American Studies / African Americans / African Americans -- Economic conditions -- 20th century / Biography / Coalitions / Coalitions -- United States -- History -- 20th century / Economic conditions / Ethnic Studies / Ethnicity / Ethnicity -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century / Hispanic American Studies / Hispanic Americans / Hispanic Americans -- Economic conditions -- 20th century / History / Political activists / Political activists -- United States -- Biography / Political aspects / Poor People's Campaign / Poverty / Poverty -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century / Race relations / Social justice / Social justice -- United States -- History -- 20th century / Social movements / Social movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / United States / United States -- Economic conditions -- 1961-1971 / United States -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century
• ISBN: 9780807838518, 0807838519, 1469621886, 9781469621883