A Chief Lieutenant Of The Tuskegee Machine

This scholarly biography is the first book-length volume to examine the life and work of Charles Banks, Booker T. Washington's chief "lieutenant" in Mississippi, who became the most consequential African American leader in the state and one of the South's most influential black businessmen in the early decades of the twentieth century. David H. Jackson, Jr., presents a new perspective on Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Machine that counters its more familiar image as conniving, heavy-handed, intolerant, and ruthless. In a rare look at the machine's inner workings, the book discusses the benefits of membership and the often-unacknowledged fact that involvement with the machine was mutually beneficial for Washington and his supporters. Jackson argues convincingly that Washington did not keep his key men, "lieutenants" like Charles Banks, on a leash; indeed, his effectiveness depended largely on these figures, who promoted his agenda in various states. Part of Banks's significance was his success in delivering Washington's program in a way that was palatable to blacks in the South -- especially in Mississippi, a state historically known for its economic deprivation and racial unrest. The book also presents the first comprehensive golden-age history of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, an all-black township that Banks's business acumen helped shape economically. Contrary to the accommodationist view, Jackson profiles Banks through a constructionist framework to reveal a strong yet conflicted black leader and follower of Washington. His development was shaped by rural poverty, white supremacy, the dominant influence of the philosophy and personal power of Washington, and the concept of theall-black town as a strategy for avoiding some of the worst economic and psychological effects of discrimination.

The first biography of Emmett J. Scott, chief of staff, adviser, and ghostwriter to Booker T. Washington, and power player behind the Tuskegee Institute.

"A biography of Emmett J. Scott--chief of staff, adviser, and ghostwriter to Booker T. Washington and power player in the Tuskegee Institute"--

Intended for high school and college students, teachers, adult educational groups, and general readers, this book is of value to them primarily as a learning and reference tool. It also provides a critical perspective on the actions and legacies of ordinary and elite blacks and their non-black allies.

"A fresh reassessment of one of the most powerful black men in American history. This book will help reshape the prism through which the life, work, strategy, and contributions of Booker T. Washington are examined."--David H. Jackson Jr., author of A Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine "Although scholars and lay persons alike most often think of Washington as an educator, this impressive text reveals that his business ideas and practices have had a much greater and longer impact on Americans, especially African Americans."--Kenneth Hamilton, Southern Methodist University Michael Boston offers a radical departure from other interpretations of Booker T. Washington by focusing on the latter's business ideas and practices. More specifically, Boston examines Washington as an entrepreneur, spelling out his business philosophy at great length and discussing the influence it had on black America. He analyzes the national and regional economies in which Washington worked and focuses on his advocacy of black business development as the key to economic uplift for African Americans. The result is a revisionist book that responds to the skewed literature on Washington even as it offers a new framework for understanding him. Based upon a deep reading of the Tuskegee archives, it acknowledges Washington not only as a champion of black business development but one who conceived and implemented successful strategies to promote it as well. The Business Strategy of Booker T. Washington makes abundantly clear that Washington was not an accommodationist; it will be required reading for any future discussion of this titan of history. Michael B. Boston is assistant professor at Brockport State College.

Winner of the 2016 Lillian Smith Book Award When Aaron Henry returned home to Mississippi from World War II service in 1946, he was part of wave of black servicemen who challenged the racial status quo. He became a pharmacist through the GI Bill, and as a prominent citizen, he organized a hometown chapter of the NAACP and relatively quickly became leader of the state chapter. From that launching pad he joined and helped lead an ensemble of activists who fundamentally challenged the system of segregation and the almost total exclusion of African Americans from the political structure. These efforts were most clearly evident in his leadership of the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation, which, after an unsuccessful effort to unseat the lily-white Democratic delegation at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, won recognition from the national party in 1968. The man who the New York Times described as being “at the forefront of every significant boycott, sit-in, protest march, rally, voter registration drive and court case” eventually became a rare example of a social-movement leader who successfully moved into political office. Aaron Henry of Mississippi covers the life of this remarkable leader, from his humble beginnings in a sharecropping family to his election to the Mississippi house of representatives in 1979, all the while maintaining the social-change ideology that prompted him to improve his native state, and thereby the nation.

Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc., C. Calvin Smith Book Award  This volume highlights the little-known story of Robert R. Church Jr., the most prominent black Republican of the 1920s and 1930s. Tracing Church’s lifelong crusade to make race an important part of the national political conversation, Darius Young reveals how Church was critical to the formative years of the civil rights struggle.  A member of the black elite in Memphis, Tennessee, Church was a banker, political mobilizer, and civil rights advocate who worked to create opportunities for the black community despite the notorious Democrat E. H. “Boss” Crump’s hold over Memphis politics. Spurred by the belief that the vote was the most pragmatic path to full citizenship in the United States, Church founded the Lincoln League of America, which advocated for the interests of black voters in over thirty states. He was instrumental in establishing the NAACP throughout the South as it investigated various incidents of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At the height of his influence, Church served as an advisor for Presidents Harding and Coolidge, generating greater participation of and recognition for African Americans in the Republican Party.  Church’s life and career offer a window into the incremental, behind-the-scenes victories of black voters and leaders during the Jim Crow era that set the foundation for the more nationally visible civil rights movement to follow.   Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This book emphasizes blacks' agency and achievements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, notably outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement. To consider the means or strategies that African Americans utilized in pursuing their aspirations and struggles for freedom and equality, readers can consult subjects delineating ideological, institutional, and organizational aspects of black priorities, with tactics of resistance or dissent, over time and place. The entries include but are not limited to Afro-American Culture; Anti-Apartheid Movement; Anti-lynching Campaign; Antislavery Movement; Black Power Movement; Constitution, US (1789); Conventions, National Negro; Desegregation; Durham Manifesto (1942); Feminism; Four Freedoms; Haitian Revolution; Jobs Campaigns; the March on Washington (1963); March on Washington Movement (MOWM); New Negro Movement; Niagara Movement; Pan-African Movement; Religion; Slavery; Violence, Racial; and the Voter Education Project. While providing an important reference and learning tool, this volume offers a critical perspective on the actions and legacies of ordinary and elite blacks and their non-black allies.

"The best new discussion of the primary system." —Jill Lepore, author of These Truths In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge William Howard Taft for the Republican nomination. TR seized on the campaign theme “Let the People Rule”—a cry echoed in today’s elections—and through the course of his run helped create thirteen new primaries. Though he won most of the primaries, party bosses proved too powerful, and Roosevelt walked out of the convention to create his own Bull Moose Party—only to make the shocking political calculation to ban black delegates from his new coalition. In Let the People Rule, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the dramatic campaign that changed American politics forever.