Description
Book SynopsisThe desegregation crisis in Little Rock Central High School is a landmark of American history. Providing fresh perspectives on the individuals, especially the activists and policymakers, involved in this event, this title examines American racial politics in relation to changes in youth culture, sexuality, gender relations, and economics.
Trade Review"The author applies class and gender perspectives to enhance understanding of the roles women played in the crisis, especially the Mothers' League of Central High School and the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools. Anderson's book belongs in every college, university, and public library."--Choice "Karen Anderson's Little Rock is recommended for its acute examination of race and gender issues in the South in the 1950s."--Oscar R. Williams, Journal of African American History "Little Rock is based on research in a wide variety of sources, from manuscript archives and newspapers to organizational and school records and oral histories, as well as the vast secondary literature on this topic. The result is a well-written account of an important battle in the struggle for racial equality in the United States. Scholars of civil rights, politics, and law in the United States will find this work worthwhile and enjoyable."--Brian J. Daugherity, Journal of Southern History "Little Rock contributes much to our understanding of southern American desegregation... By acknowledging the connections between multifarious oppressions, Little Rock usefully contextualizes what could otherwise be taken for granted as only a story about race without downplaying the obvious racially based elements of conflict surrounding educational integration."--Steven L. Foy, European Legacy "[T]his volume brilliantly details the moral shortfalls of people who sought 'the appearance of federal compliance rather than actual racial justice, leaving behind a legacy of white flight, poor urban schools, and institutional racism.'"--Ruth Tait, Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Not Here, Not Now, Not Us 1 Chapter 1: Mapping Change: Little Rock Forges a Desegregation Plan 19 Chapter 2: "Occupied Arkansas": Class, Gender, and the Politics of Resistance 55 Chapter 3: Uncivil Disobedience: Th e Politics of Race and Resistance at Central High School, 1957-1958 94 Chapter 4: Th e Politics of School Closure: Massive Resistance Put to the Test, 1958-1959 137 Chapter 5: Th e Politics of Fear and Gridlock 166 Chapter 6: Politics as Usual: Reviving the Politics of Tokenism 190 Conclusions: Little Rock and the Legacies of Brown v. Board of Education 228 Abbreviations 245 Notes 247 Index 315
