MARTHA BIONDI is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and History at Northwestern University.
Biondi's book makes the counterintuitive point that the modern
civil rights movement began in the north, not in the south. It did
not begin with the Montgomery bus boycott; it did not begin with
the Supreme Court desegregation decision of 1954. In the aftermath
of World War II, the civil rights movement came alive in northern
cities. She focuses on New York City. Biondi highlights the moment
when racial egalitarianism became a core element of modern
liberalism. It wasn't before. In the 1930s Roosevelt worked closely
with racist, segregationist Southern Democrats who controlled
important committees. He needed them to get measures through
Congress. In other words, you could be a good New Deal liberal and
be a total racist. Many liberals were racial egalitarians but many
liberals were racists. Views on race were not part of the
definition of liberalism. Today you can't be a racist and a
liberal.--Eric Foner"The Browser" (07/17/2011)
By examining the fight for equality in New
York...Biondi...contribute[s] further to our understanding of race
in America, in general, and the nature and course of the civil
rights movement, more specifically.--Peter B. Levy"Journal of
American Ethnic History" (05/01/2005)
Historians have thoroughly documented the experiences of those
African Americans who lived in the South and worked to repeal Jim
Crow laws. However, in this work, Biondi explores what she calls
'the struggle for Negro rights' in New York City, an exploration
resulting in a stark reminder of the daily challenges facing blacks
who lived in northern cities...With its detailed discussions of the
American Labor Party, the Communist Party, Black Nationalism, Adam
Clayton Powell Jr., W. E. B. Dubois, Roy Wilkins, and, especially,
Paul Robeson, this work should be required reading for all
historians interested in the post-WW II experience of African
Americans in the urban North.--T. D. Beal"Choice" (01/01/2004)
In this meticulously researched monograph, Biondi reminds the
reader that the struggle for black civil rights was waged in the
North before it was joined in the South. She documents the fight
against racial discrimination in hiring, police brutality, housing
segregation, lack of political representation, and inadequate
schools in New York City between 1946 and 1954...Biondi's writing
is crisp and direct. She introduces the reader to a host of
activists whose efforts deserve to be remembered. Unfortunately,
most of the causes they championed remain with us today.--Paul T.
Murray"MultiCultural Review" (05/01/2004)
Martha Biondi...has written a scathing critique of the polities of
anti-Communism--not just its often-paranoid fantasies and rights
violations. Biondi powerfully argues that the damaging legacy of
anti-Communism lies in the ways it crippled a vision for a more
just and equal New York City, and, by extension, the nation by
destroying the careers of many of its most visionary citizens.
Biondi's "To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in
Postwar New York" joins an emerging body of scholarship that
overturns the Southern focus of Civil Rights history. Biondi takes
us to New York--the home of the largest black community in the
nation and, like its more notorious Southern counterparts,
segregated in housing, schools, and most public and private
accommodations. Biondi powerfully unravels hard and fast
distinctions between Northern and Southern racism. Through an
examination of numerous incidences of police brutality against
African Americans in postwar NYC, the chapter on Northern
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