{"product_id":"the-brown-decision-jim-crow-and-southern-identity-9780820324982","title":"The Brown Decision, Jim Crow, and Southern Identity","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 1954 \u003cem\u003eBrown v. Board of Education\u003c\/em\u003e ruling was a watershed event in the fight against racial segregation in the United States. The recent fiftieth anniversary of Brown prompted a surge of tributes: books, television and radio specials, conferences, and speeches. At the same time, says James C. Cobb, it revealed a growing trend of dismissiveness and negativity toward \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e and other accomplishments of the civil rights movement. Writing as both a lauded historian and a white southerner from the last generation to grow up under southern apartheid, Cobb responds to what he sees as distortions of \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e's legacy and their implied disservice to those whom it inspired and empowered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCobb begins by looking at how our historical understanding of segregation has evolved since the \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e decision. In particular, he targets the tenacious misconception that racial discrimination was at odds with economic modernization--and so would have faded out, on its own, under market pressures. He then looks at the argument that \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e energized white resistance more than it fomented civil rights progress. This position overstates the pace and extent of racial change in the South prior to \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e, Cobb says, while it understates \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e's role in catalyzing and legitimizing subsequent black protest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, Cobb suggests that the \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e decree and the civil rights movement accomplished not only more than certain critics have acknowledged but also more than the hard statistics of black progress can reveal. The destruction of Jim Crow, with its \"denial of belonging,\" allowed African Americans to embrace their identity as southerners in ways that freed them to explore links between their southernness and their blackness. This is an important and timely reminder of \"what the \u003cem\u003eBrown\u003c\/em\u003e court and the activists who took the spirit of its ruling into the streets were up against, both historically and contemporaneously.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James C. Cobb\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/24\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 108\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.57lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.52h x 6.04w x 0.59d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820324982\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJames C. Cobb is the B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Georgia. His numerous publications include \"Georgia Odyssey\"; \"Redefining Southern Culture: Mind and Identity in the Modern South\"; and \"The Brown Decision, Jim Crow, and Southern Identity\" (all Georgia), as well as \"The South and America since World War II\"; \"Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity;\"\"The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial Development, 1936-1990;\" and \"The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":40414656725107,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":50.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_3ec5759d-800e-4aed-838d-25dc4431a322.jpg?v=1662213548","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/the-brown-decision-jim-crow-and-southern-identity-9780820324982","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}