African Americans in the Furniture City

African Americans in the Furniture City PDF Author: Randal Maurice Jelks
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252073479
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
African Americans in the Furniture City is unique not only in terms of its subject, but also for its framing of the African American struggle for survival, civil rights, and community inside a discussion of the larger white community. Examining the African-American community of Grand Rapids, Michigan between 1850 and 1954, Randal Maurice Jelks uncovers the ways in which its members faced urbanization, responded to structural racism, developed in terms of occupations, and shaped their communal identities. Focusing on the intersection of African Americans' nineteenth-century cultural values and the changing social and political conditions in the first half of the twentieth century, Jelks pays particularly close attention to the religious community's influence during their struggle toward a respectable social identity and fair treatment under the law. He explores how these competing values defined the community's politics as it struggled to expand its freedoms and change its status as a subjugated racial minority.

African Americans in the Furniture City

African Americans in the Furniture City PDF Author: Randal Maurice Jelks
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252073479
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
African Americans in the Furniture City is unique not only in terms of its subject, but also for its framing of the African American struggle for survival, civil rights, and community inside a discussion of the larger white community. Examining the African-American community of Grand Rapids, Michigan between 1850 and 1954, Randal Maurice Jelks uncovers the ways in which its members faced urbanization, responded to structural racism, developed in terms of occupations, and shaped their communal identities. Focusing on the intersection of African Americans' nineteenth-century cultural values and the changing social and political conditions in the first half of the twentieth century, Jelks pays particularly close attention to the religious community's influence during their struggle toward a respectable social identity and fair treatment under the law. He explores how these competing values defined the community's politics as it struggled to expand its freedoms and change its status as a subjugated racial minority.

A City Within a City

A City Within a City PDF Author: Todd E Robinson
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1439909237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
A City within a City examines the civil rights movement in the North by concentrating on the struggles for equality in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Historian Todd Robinson studies the issues surrounding school integration and bureaucratic reforms as well as the role of black youth activism to detail the diversity of black resistance. He focuses on respectability within the African American community as a way of understanding how the movement was formed and held together. And he elucidates the oppositional role of northern conservatives regarding racial progress. A City within a City cogently argues that the post-war political reform championed by local Republicans transformed the city's racial geography, creating a racialized "city within a city," featuring a system of "managerial racism" designed to keep blacks in declining inner-city areas. As Robinson indicates, this bold, provocative framework for understanding race relations in Grand Rapids has broader implications for illuminating the twentieth-century African American urban experience in secondary cities.

Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids PDF Author: Norma Lewis
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738552002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
William Haldane opened a cabinet shop in 1836, 14 years before Grand Rapids incorporated. Other furniture companies followed: Berkey and Gay, Widdicomb, Sligh, Hekman, and Phoenix were among those taking advantage of the Grand River for transportation and power, the area's abundant hardwood supply, and a growing immigrant labor pool. The furniture soon attracted national attention. In 1876, the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition proved conclusively that a river town in Michigan had indeed earned the title "Furniture City." Presidents Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower all worked at Grand Rapids-made desks. Fifteen manufacturers joined forces to build 1,000 Handley Page bombers during World War I. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, at a table made in Grand Rapids. Despite fires, floods, strikes, depressions, and wars, Grand Rapids led the industry until the 1950s and 1960s, when the factories began moving to North Carolina. Today the area, along with nearby Holland and Zeeland, dominates the office furniture industry.

Black Bangor

Black Bangor PDF Author: Maureen Elgersman Lee
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584654995
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
A vivid reconstruction of a once-vibrant African American community in northern New England.

A House Built by Slaves

A House Built by Slaves PDF Author: Jonathan W. White
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538161818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Readers of American history and books on Abraham Lincoln will appreciate what Los Angeles Review of Books deems an "accessible book" that "puts a human face — many human faces — on the story of Lincoln’s attitudes toward and engagement with African Americans" and Publishers Weekly calls "a rich and comprehensive account." Widely praised and winner of the 2023 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, this book illuminates why Lincoln’s unprecedented welcoming of African American men and women to the White House transformed the trajectory of race relations in the United States. From his 1862 meetings with Black Christian ministers, Lincoln began inviting African Americans of every background into his home, from ex-slaves from the Deep South to champions of abolitionism such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. More than a good-will gesture, the president conferred with his guests about the essential issues of citizenship and voting rights. Drawing from an array of primary sources, White reveals how African Americans used the White House as a national stage to amplify their calls for equality. Even more than 160 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s inclusion of African Americans remains a necessary example in a country still struggling from racial divisions today.

Making the MexiRican City

Making the MexiRican City PDF Author: Delia Fernández-Jones
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252053990
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Large numbers of Latino migrants began to arrive in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the 1950s. They joined a small but established Spanish-speaking community of people from Texas, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Delia Fernández-Jones merges storytelling with historical analysis to recapture the placemaking practices that these Mexicans, Tejanos, and Puerto Ricans used to create a new home for themselves. Faced with entrenched white racism and hostility, Latinos of different backgrounds formed powerful relationships to better secure material needs like houses and jobs and to recreate community cultural practices. Their pan-Latino solidarity crossed ethnic and racial boundaries and shaped activist efforts that emphasized working within the system to advocate for social change. In time, this interethnic Latino alliance exploited cracks in both overt and structural racism and attracted white and Black partners to fight for equality in social welfare programs, policing, and education. Groundbreaking and revelatory, Making the MexiRican City details how disparate Latino communities came together to respond to social, racial, and economic challenges.

Letters to Martin

Letters to Martin PDF Author: Randal Maurice Jelks
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 164160557X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
"You'll find hope in these pages. " —Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life Letters to Martin contains twelve meditations on contemporary political struggles for our oxygen-deprived society. Evoking Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," these meditations, written in the form of letters to King, speak specifically to the many public issues we presently confront in the United States—economic inequality, freedom of assembly, police brutality, ongoing social class conflicts, and geopolitics. Award-winning author Randal Maurice Jelks invites readers to reflect on US history by centering on questions of democracy that we must grapple with as a society. Hearkening to the era when James Baldwin, Dorothy Day, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Richard Wright used their writing to address the internal and external conflicts that the United States faced, this book is a contemporary revival of the literary tradition of meditative social analysis. These meditations on democracy provide spiritual oxygen to help readers endure the struggles of rebranding, rebuilding, and reforming our democratic institutions so that we can all breathe.

Encyclopedia of Local History

Encyclopedia of Local History PDF Author: Amy H. Wilson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442278781
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 815

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Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Local History addresses nearly every aspect of local history, including everyday issues, theoretical approaches, and trends in the field. This encyclopedia provides both the casual browser and the dedicated historian with adept commentary by bringing the voices of over one hundred experts together in one place. Entries include: ·Terms specifically related to the everyday practice of interpreting local history in the United States, such as “African American History,” “City Directories,” and “Latter-Day Saints.” ·Historical and documentary terms applied to local history such as “Abstract,” “Culinary History,” and “Diaries.” ·Detailed entries for major associations and institutions that specifically focus on their usage in local history projects, such as “Library of Congress” and “Society of American Archivists” ·Entries for every state and Canadian province covering major informational sources critical to understanding local history in that region. ·Entries for every major immigrant group and ethnicity. Brand-new to this edition are critical topics covering both the practice of and major current areas of research in local history such as “Digitization,” “LGBT History,” museum theater,” and “STEM education.” Also new to this edition are graphics, including 48 photographs. Overseen by a blue-ribbon Editorial Advisory Board (Anne W. Ackerson, James D. Folts, Tim Grove, Carol Kammen, and Max A. van Balgooy) this essential reference will be frequently consulted in academic libraries with American and Canadian history programs, public libraries supporting local history, museums, historic sites and houses, and local archives in the U.S. and Canada. This third edition is the first to include photographs.

Encyclopedia of Local History

Encyclopedia of Local History PDF Author: Carol Kammen
Publisher: AltaMira Press
ISBN: 0759120501
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 668

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Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Local History addresses nearly every aspect of local history, including everyday issues, theoretical approaches, and trends in the field. The second edition highlights local history practice in each U.S. state and Canadian province.

On the Banks of a River

On the Banks of a River PDF Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Publisher: Kindle Digital Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The author looks at the challenges the city of Grand Rapids faces in terms of achieving racial equality. He also looks at prospects for achieving the goal, complemented by studies conducted by different groups, agencies and individuals including city officials. Grand Rapids is the second-largest city in the state Michigan after Detroit. The challenges black people face in terms of employment, housing, business opportunities, access to resources, education and race relations in general are some of the subjects addressed by the author. A report in Forbes magazine in January 2015 stated that Grand Rapids was one of the worst cities for blacks in terms of economic opportunities. It was ranked second from last among the nation's 52 largest metropolitan areas in terms of opportunities for black people, surpassed only by Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The author also looks at how far the city has progressed, or regressed, in more than 50 years since the 1967 riot and why the poverty rate among blacks is higher than it was more than 50 years ago. He also looks at where the city is headed in terms of demographics and political orientation. Grand Rapids is in a congressional district that has always been a Republican stronghold. Subjects covered include the city's demographic composition and transformation through the years; establishment of the first black settlement in the city's history, Auburn Hills, by blacks in response to segregation; the 1967 riot; race relations including racial integration and its challenges; gentrification and its impact on inner-city residents, mostly black; the city's gradual transformation from being a conservative stronghold to being somewhat liberal and still having conservative enclaves especially on the periphery but even within the city itself; the city's social and political climate; and what lies ahead and other subjects.