Harvey Fireside – författare

The first official condemnation of political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR to be made by an international psychiatric organization came on August 30, 1977. On that date, the General Assembly, governing body of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), adopted a resolution of Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists against “the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR.” Subsequently passed by a vote of 122 to 66 was a resolution submitted by the American Psychiatric Association, to set up a committee monitoring “The misuse of psychiatric skills, knowledge and facilities for the suppression of dissent wherever it occurs.”

When the father of Linda Brown, an African American, sued to let his child go to a “white school” closer to home, history was made. When the court decided that “separate was inherently unequal,” the world changed for many students across America. Readers will learn what led up to the case, how the case made it to the Supreme Court, and how this case changed everything when it came to race equality in the United States. Also included are questions to consider, primary source documents, and a chronology of the case.

Following the Civil War, feelings were mixed about the freedoms that Lincoln had granted to African American citizens through his Emancipation Proclamation. A group in Louisiana decided to challenge a state law that required companies to have railway cars separated by race. They orchestrated a situation in which a “white-looking” black man would sit in the “white only” part of the train and announce he was “colored.” In a landmark decision that supported the racist feelings in some areas of the country following the Civil War, the effort to secure equal rights at this time failed. The book provides insight into the details of the case and also includes questions to consider, primary source documents, and a chronology.