Sheila D. Collins – författare

This remarkable biography features a white American pacifist minister whose tireless work for justice and human rights helped reshape Black civil rights in the U.S. and Africa.George M. Houser (1916–2015) was one of the most important civil rights and antiwar activists of the twentieth century. A conscientious objector during World War II, in 1942 Houser cofounded and led the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), whose embrace of nonviolent protest strategies and tactics characterized the modern American Civil Rights Movement. Beginning in the 1950s, Houser played a critical role in pan-Africanist anticolonial movements, and his more than thirty-year dedication to the cause of human rights and self-determination helped prepare the ground for the toppling of the South African apartheid regime.Throughout his life, Houser shunned publicity, preferring to let his actions speak his faith. Sheila Collins's well-researched biography recounts the events that informed Houser's life of activism—from his childhood experiences as the son of missionaries in the Philippines to his early grounding in the Social Gospel and the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi. In light of the corruption the U.S. and the world face today, Houser's story of faith and decisive action for human rights and social justice is one for our time.

This remarkable biography features a white American pacifist minister whose tireless work for justice and human rights helped reshape Black civil rights in the U.S. and Africa.George M. Houser (1916–2015) was one of the most important civil rights and antiwar activists of the twentieth century. A conscientious objector during World War II, in 1942 Houser cofounded and led the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), whose embrace of nonviolent protest strategies and tactics characterized the modern American Civil Rights Movement. Beginning in the 1950s, Houser played a critical role in pan-Africanist anticolonial movements, and his more than thirty-year dedication to the cause of human rights and self-determination helped prepare the ground for the toppling of the South African apartheid regime.Throughout his life, Houser shunned publicity, preferring to let his actions speak his faith. Sheila Collins's well-researched biography recounts the events that informed Houser's life of activism—from his childhood experiences as the son of missionaries in the Philippines to his early grounding in the Social Gospel and the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi. In light of the corruption the U.S. and the world face today, Houser's story of faith and decisive action for human rights and social justice is one for our time.

Written by members of New Initiatives for Full Employment (NIFE), Jobs for All is a program to ensure suitable jobs at good wages for everyone who wants to work. Full employment is both an ethical impera- tive and the key to economic justice and prosperity. It is critical in securing those civil and political rights that are the bedrock of American democracy. People who are denied their right to a job cannot participate effectively as citizens in political or economic life. Jobs for All rejects the cruel contradiction between the rhetoric of the "work ethic" and the denial of jobs to millions. Full employment is feasible and achievable in the modern global economy. The key barriers are political and ideological, not technical or economic. This book, by demonstrating the feasibility of full employment, seeks to empower those who are now being denied economic justice and points the way toward making America truly a land of opportunity for everyone.

Firstpublished in 1986, Sheila Collins’s eyewitness account of Jesse Jackson’sRainbow Coalition remains a crucial document on the future of multiracialpolitics and ultimately of democracy in the United States. Collins, a fieldorganizer and national officer during the Jackson campaign, examined themovement in detail, drawing on her own experiences and observations, as wellas interviews with people around the country who have worked in the RainbowCoalition. She pays particular attention to the class and ideologicalstruggles within it—struggles not only between party Democrats and grassrootsactivists, but between alternative visions of black nationalism andmultiracial politics. In a new preface, Collins reflects on the lessons andinspiration of her experience forty years later and on the continuedchallenge to keep Jackson’s vision alive. “A comprehensive study of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign. Thisconcise and well-written work is a fine example of politically engagedscholarship. A blueprint for future democratic struggles.”—Manning Marable(1950–2011), author, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention “Offers important insights into the need for effective coalition buildingto transform the substance of American politics—politics that will deal withthe issues rather than personalities; politics that will broaden theparticipatory process rather than restrict it.” —Congressman Ronald Dellums(1935–2018) “An insider’s view of the project, practice, and problems of the RainbowCoalition, in sharp contrast to the fashionable ivory-tower treatments of theJackson campaign far removed from the heat of battle.”—Cornel West