Becoming American

Daniel W. Aldridge III received his B.A. from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. from Emory University. He also holds a J.D. from Northwestern University Law School and practiced law for several years in Los Angeles, California. He is currently Associate Professor of History at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, where he teaches courses in African American and United States cultural history. He taught previously at Emory University, from which he received an Emory Minority Fellowship and a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, and at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. His recent works include an article in Diplomatic History on African Americans’ anti-colonial efforts during the World War II years.

"[A] compelling and well-written resource to add to any American history survey course and a thoughtful introduction to a contemporary study of African American history from the Civil War to the mid-1970s." (Teaching History, Fall 2011)

• Preface and Acknowledgments xiCHAPTER ONE: Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the Origins of the African American Quest for Civil Rights 1The Civil War and Emancipation 1The Origins of Reconstruction 7Radical Reconstruction 17The End of Reconstruction 28African American Responses to the End of Reconstruction 35CHAPTER TWO: The New Black Leadership of the Post-Reconstruction Era, 1890—1910 41Ida B. Wells and the Campaign against Lynching 41Disfranchisement and the Rise of Jim Crow 46The Age of Booker T. Washington 50W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of the Radicals 65CHAPTER THREE: From the Margins to the Mainstream, 1910—1930 74The Great Migration 74The Origins of the NAACP 78African Americans and World War I 86A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, and the New Black Politics of the 1920s 96CHAPTER FOUR: Civil Rights in the New Deal Era, 1930—1945 114The Scottsboro Case, African Americans, and the Communist Party 114The New Generation of the NAACP 124African Americans, the New Deal, and the Democratic Party 131The National Negro Congress and the March on Washington Movement 147Civil Rights during World War II 159CHAPTER FIVE: A Shifting of the Tide: Civil Rights in Postwar America, 1945—1955 169Black Resistance and Racial Liberation 169The Journey of Reconciliation and the Origins of Nonviolent Direct Action 177The Cold War, the NAACP, and the 1948 Election 180Race, Culture, and Society in Postwar America 192The Brown Decision 196CHAPTER SIX: The Civil Rights Revolution Begins, 1955—1962 208The Montgomery Bus Boycott 208 School Desegragation and the White Backlash 220The Southern Christian Leadership Conference 226The Sit-In Movement and the Origins of SNCC 228The Freedom Rides and the Kennedy Administration 234The Albany Defeat 243CHAPTER SEVEN: The Civil Rights Revolution Triumphs, 1963—1965 252The Birmingham Campaign 252The March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act 263Mississippi Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party 271Selma and the Voting Rights Act 284CHAPTER EIGHT: Black Power and the End of the Civil Rights Era 293Urban Riots and Inner City Poverty 293Malcolm X and the Resurgence of Black Nationalist Populism 299Black Power and the Decline of SNCC 306The Center Cannot Hold: The Last Years of Martin Luther King 312Things Fall Apart: The End of the Civil Right Era 320CONCLUSION THOUGHTS 332Bibliographical Essay 342Index 354Photographs follow pages 73 and 207