Our Separate Ways - Revision history

Juliatempleton at 02:28, 5 October 2017

2017-10-05T02:28:53Z

Juliatempleton at 14:53, 4 October 2017

2017-10-04T14:53:58Z

Juliatempleton at 14:52, 4 October 2017

2017-10-04T14:52:21Z

Juliatempleton at 03:10, 4 October 2017

2017-10-04T03:10:45Z

Juliatempleton at 00:56, 3 October 2017

2017-10-03T00:56:15Z

Juliatempleton at 00:53, 3 October 2017

2017-10-03T00:53:16Z

Juliatempleton at 00:52, 3 October 2017

2017-10-03T00:52:26Z

Juliatempleton: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina | author = Christina Greene | publisher = University o..."

2017-10-03T00:47:22Z

Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina | author = Christina Greene | publisher = University o..."

New page

{{Infobox book
| name = Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina
| author = Christina Greene
| publisher = University of North Carolina Press
| pub_date = 2005
| pages = 366
| isbn = 978-0-8078-5600-0
| image = [[File:Our Separate Ways.jpg|200px|alt=cover]]
}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:28, 5 October 2017
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	By telling this story, Christina Greene fills the gaps in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The role women played in the movement had been silenced for too long. Christina Greene gives women a voice in their own story. This new look at the participation of women in the black freedom movement in Durham gives historians new ways to understand protest, racial and class politics and the overall leadership during the 1960’s. Their overwhelming resiliency played a big part in why the Civil Rights Movement was successful and why it was such a groundbreaking moment in American History. These women battled on many fronts, fighting racism, sexism, classism, while also raising families and building up grassroots efforts and organizations that would fight Jim Crow and inequality in their communities. Black men were the faces of the movement, the ones behind the podium, but women, particularly poor women, were present at the pickets, at the sit-ins, and in the jail cells.		By telling this story, Christina Greene fills the gaps in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The role women played in the movement had been silenced for too long. Christina Greene gives women a voice in their own story. This new look at the participation of women in the black freedom movement in Durham gives historians new ways to understand protest, racial and class politics and the overall leadership during the 1960’s. Their overwhelming resiliency played a big part in why the Civil Rights Movement was successful and why it was such a groundbreaking moment in American History. These women battled on many fronts, fighting racism, sexism, classism, while also raising families and building up grassroots efforts and organizations that would fight Jim Crow and inequality in their communities. Black men were the faces of the movement, the ones behind the podium, but women, particularly poor women, were present at the pickets, at the sit-ins, and in the jail cells.
		+	[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]
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		+	[[Category:Wikify]]
		+	[[Category:Book Summaries]]
		+	[[Category:Christina Greene]]

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 }}
-In Our Separate Ways, Christina Greene places the focus of the Civil Rights Movement in Durham, North Carolina on the women who played an instrumental part in organizing, galvanizing and leading the movement. Greene makes several key arguments throughout her book. She argues that women, particularly low-income women of color, got involved in their neighborhoods and local communities in the 1940’s and 50’s, which gave them the momentum and inertia to continue the fight in the 1960’s. She also argues that both black and white women were present during the black freedom movement and occasionally were able to bridge the divide and work together on issues that were important to them, like school desegregation. And while racism obviously was the largest component in the Civil Rights Movement, Greene also argues that sexism and class conflict were not absent during the black freedom movement and that poor black women suffered the most under racism, sexism, and classism.
+In ''Our Separate Ways'', Christina Greene places the focus of the Civil Rights Movement in Durham, North Carolina on the women who played an instrumental part in organizing, galvanizing and leading the movement. Greene makes several key arguments throughout her book. She argues that women, particularly low-income women of color, got involved in their neighborhoods and local communities in the 1940’s and 50’s, which gave them the momentum and inertia to continue the fight in the 1960’s. She also argues that both black and white women were present during the black freedom movement and occasionally were able to bridge the divide and work together on issues that were important to them, like school desegregation. And while racism obviously was the largest component in the Civil Rights Movement, Greene also argues that sexism and class conflict were not absent during the black freedom movement and that poor black women suffered the most under racism, sexism, and classism.
 Greene structures her book chronologically, as she tracks the black freedom movement in Durham from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. After WWII, African Americans realized that the country had “little intention of allowing them to claim the democratic freedoms” that they had fought a war over (218). As a result of this, black people were galvanized to fight against injustice and white supremacy of the Jim Crow south. Groups like the NAACP and SCLC were formed, but women were largely disregarded. However, in spite of not being listened to by the big organizations, women across Durham began to put in place grassroots efforts to fight Jim Crow in their communities.
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 Christina Greene writes a book that is both well-written and engaging. It tells new stories about a side of the Civil Rights Movement that has not had as much focus on it. While her book is in a long list of literature and research on this era in American history, Christina Greene takes a fresh look at not only the important role women, both black and white, poor and wealthy, played in this crucial time for black freedom, but she also highlights the internal problems that were present during the Civil Rights Era. The argument that sexism was present in the Civil Rights Movement is a recent one. Christina Greene shines much needed clarity on the issue of sexism that was present even among marginalized black men. Greene also brings up the presence of classism in the fight for freedom and outlines the terrible position that black, poor women were given. By putting the spotlight on these women, Greene shows how much work behind the scenes was taking place and the crucial grassroots efforts these women were doing that would ultimately sustain the Civil Rights Movement as it moved into the 1960’s. Without the help of the black women, Christina Greene argues that the Civil Rights would not have been as successful as it was.
-Our Separate Ways focuses on one individual city in the south, Durham North Carolina, which has been called the “capital of the black middle class.” Although this book only focuses on women in this particular city and on the black freedom movement in Durham, Christina Greene would argue that this is a story that could be seen across the South during the Civil Rights Movement and “is not unlike that of countless towns and cities, especially in the Upper South” (5). Because of her scope of focus, the book is well contained and neatly laid out. It very clearly chronicles the rise of women in the black freedom movement from the 1940’s up to the 1960’s.  Ultimately, the decision to focus on one city is a good one, as it allows Greene to trace women’s role in the black freedom movement across decades and allows the reader to see the rise of protest and organization in these communities in Durham. By taking a closer look at one city, Greene rolls back the curtain on the black freedom movement in Durham and gives a clear argument for the importance of women in their communities and in their role as protestors.
+''Our Separate Ways'' focuses on one individual city in the south, Durham North Carolina, which has been called the “capital of the black middle class.” Although this book only focuses on women in this particular city and on the black freedom movement in Durham, Christina Greene would argue that this is a story that could be seen across the South during the Civil Rights Movement and “is not unlike that of countless towns and cities, especially in the Upper South” (5). Because of her scope of focus, the book is well contained and neatly laid out. It very clearly chronicles the rise of women in the black freedom movement from the 1940’s up to the 1960’s.  Ultimately, the decision to focus on one city is a good one, as it allows Greene to trace women’s role in the black freedom movement across decades and allows the reader to see the rise of protest and organization in these communities in Durham. By taking a closer look at one city, Greene rolls back the curtain on the black freedom movement in Durham and gives a clear argument for the importance of women in their communities and in their role as protestors.
 By telling this story, Christina Greene fills the gaps in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The role women played in the movement had been silenced for too long. Christina Greene gives women a voice in their own story. This new look at the participation of women in the black freedom movement in Durham gives historians new ways to understand protest, racial and class politics and the overall leadership during the 1960’s. Their overwhelming resiliency played a big part in why the Civil Rights Movement was successful and why it was such a groundbreaking moment in American History. These women battled on many fronts, fighting racism, sexism, classism, while also raising families and building up grassroots efforts and organizations that would fight Jim Crow and inequality in their communities. Black men were the faces of the movement, the ones behind the podium, but women, particularly poor women, were present at the pickets, at the sit-ins, and in the jail cells.

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:52, 4 October 2017
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	\| image = [[File:Our Separate Ways.jpg\|200px\|alt=cover]]		\| image = [[File:Our Separate Ways.jpg\|200px\|alt=cover]]
	}}		}}
		+
		+	In Our Separate Ways, Christina Greene places the focus of the Civil Rights Movement in Durham, North Carolina on the women who played an instrumental part in organizing, galvanizing and leading the movement. Greene makes several key arguments throughout her book. She argues that women, particularly low-income women of color, got involved in their neighborhoods and local communities in the 1940’s and 50’s, which gave them the momentum and inertia to continue the fight in the 1960’s. She also argues that both black and white women were present during the black freedom movement and occasionally were able to bridge the divide and work together on issues that were important to them, like school desegregation. And while racism obviously was the largest component in the Civil Rights Movement, Greene also argues that sexism and class conflict were not absent during the black freedom movement and that poor black women suffered the most under racism, sexism, and classism.
		+
		+	Greene structures her book chronologically, as she tracks the black freedom movement in Durham from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. After WWII, African Americans realized that the country had “little intention of allowing them to claim the democratic freedoms” that they had fought a war over (218). As a result of this, black people were galvanized to fight against injustice and white supremacy of the Jim Crow south. Groups like the NAACP and SCLC were formed, but women were largely disregarded. However, in spite of not being listened to by the big organizations, women across Durham began to put in place grassroots efforts to fight Jim Crow in their communities.
		+
		+	During the 1950’s there was an insurgence of youth activism, young people were joining the NAACP en masse and were more militant and daring than the older establishment black community. They staged sit-ins and protests of segregated shops downtown. Many young women were given the tools to fight injustice at the DeShazor Beauty School. Not only did beauty parlors give a space for black women to meet and talk, it also advocated for black freedom. Greene outlines a few of these types of institutions and meeting places as ways that blacks, particularly those who were young, could meet and organize, away from the prying eyes of the white community and in an environment that was safe and comfortable for them. It was these “every day” spaces that helped build a network of community activism and grassroots organization during the 1950’s that would help bolster the African American community in Durham for the fight in the 1960’s.
		+
		+	Greene spends a portion of her book outlining the ways that poor, African American women used their marginalized position to organize and fight within their communities. Neighborhood federations like United Organizations for Community Improvement were formed as a citywide all-black organization whose primary membership consisted of low-income women. These women, while not only fighting racism and Jim Crow, were also focused on fighting poverty and housing inequality that affected black women more substantially than any other group. Greene argues that these women were instrumental in the black freedom movement, because they were able to organize their communities and because they were the most marginalized they had less to lose than the more middle-class, established black community. They played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement, while also battling sexism and class issues even among their fellow black freedom fighters.
		+
		+	Not only were women key participants in the Civil Rights Movement but that they ultimately helped to guide the issues that would come to the forefront of the movement. Black women, and specifically poor women were fighting for economic justice and equality, housing equity, and school desegregation, all of which would become key issues in the 1960’s for the Civil Rights Movement. Not only were women important in building up a grassroots effort and organizing their neighborhoods, they were also active participants in the movement and were responsible for bringing many of the key issues like economic justice to the Civil Rights Movement. They helped shape the issues from the bottom up, as poor black women were the backbone of the movement. What poor women fought for became what the Civil Rights Movement fought for in the 1960's.
		+
		+	Another part of Greene’s argument focused on the interracial cooperation between women that was present and was sometimes effective, if not still riddled with racism and classism. Greene argues that many poor white women were willing to work together with the poor black women because they shared the same needs and desires for their families. Poor women of both races joined together to fight housing inequity and fight for better resources for themselves and their neighborhoods. They were not coming together to form some utopia of racial equality, prejudice and racism was still very much present, but were rather coming together for convenience and necessity, but Greene argues that even though their design was not to form an interracial movement, interracial cooperation existed and that was no small thing during the 1950’s and 60’s.
		+
		+	Not only were low-income women coming together to form grassroots infrastructure in their neighborhood, but middle-class and established women were also forming interracial connections and coalitions. The Women-in-Action (WIA), formed by Elna Spaulding who was a prominent member of the African-American community, was made up of both black and white women whose main objective was to fight violence, particularly racial violence, in their community. Most members were middle-class and middle-aged, but the club did boast a biracial membership. Because WIA was primarily made up of middle-class women, they did not always understand the plight of the poor woman, again reinforcing Greene’s point that classism was present throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The WIA was primarily neutral on big issues, like the city-wide boycott of white businesses, but they did speak out in favor of school desegregation and were on the front lines helping to enact legislation and many of the white women were sending their children to primarily black schools to spearhead the desegregation.
		+
		+	Christina Greene writes a book that is both well-written and engaging. It tells new stories about a side of the Civil Rights Movement that has not had as much focus on it. While her book is in a long list of literature and research on this era in American history, Christina Greene takes a fresh look at not only the important role women, both black and white, poor and wealthy, played in this crucial time for black freedom, but she also highlights the internal problems that were present during the Civil Rights Era. The argument that sexism was present in the Civil Rights Movement is a recent one. Christina Greene shines much needed clarity on the issue of sexism that was present even among marginalized black men. Greene also brings up the presence of classism in the fight for freedom and outlines the terrible position that black, poor women were given. By putting the spotlight on these women, Greene shows how much work behind the scenes was taking place and the crucial grassroots efforts these women were doing that would ultimately sustain the Civil Rights Movement as it moved into the 1960’s. Without the help of the black women, Christina Greene argues that the Civil Rights would not have been as successful as it was.
		+
		+	Our Separate Ways focuses on one individual city in the south, Durham North Carolina, which has been called the “capital of the black middle class.” Although this book only focuses on women in this particular city and on the black freedom movement in Durham, Christina Greene would argue that this is a story that could be seen across the South during the Civil Rights Movement and “is not unlike that of countless towns and cities, especially in the Upper South” (5). Because of her scope of focus, the book is well contained and neatly laid out. It very clearly chronicles the rise of women in the black freedom movement from the 1940’s up to the 1960’s. Ultimately, the decision to focus on one city is a good one, as it allows Greene to trace women’s role in the black freedom movement across decades and allows the reader to see the rise of protest and organization in these communities in Durham. By taking a closer look at one city, Greene rolls back the curtain on the black freedom movement in Durham and gives a clear argument for the importance of women in their communities and in their role as protestors.
		+
		+	By telling this story, Christina Greene fills the gaps in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The role women played in the movement had been silenced for too long. Christina Greene gives women a voice in their own story. This new look at the participation of women in the black freedom movement in Durham gives historians new ways to understand protest, racial and class politics and the overall leadership during the 1960’s. Their overwhelming resiliency played a big part in why the Civil Rights Movement was successful and why it was such a groundbreaking moment in American History. These women battled on many fronts, fighting racism, sexism, classism, while also raising families and building up grassroots efforts and organizations that would fight Jim Crow and inequality in their communities. Black men were the faces of the movement, the ones behind the podium, but women, particularly poor women, were present at the pickets, at the sit-ins, and in the jail cells.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | pages          = 366
 | isbn           = 978-0807856000
-| image          = [[File:Our Separate Ways.jpg|200px|alt=cover]]
+| image        = [[File:Our Separate Ways.jpg|200px|alt=cover]]
 }}