A Different Day : African American Struggles for Justice in Rural Louisiana, 1900-1970

Examining African Americans' struggles for freedom and justice in rural Louisiana during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras, Greta de Jong illuminates the connections between the informal strategies of resistance that black people pursued in the early twentieth century and the mass protests that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. Using evidence drawn from oral histories and a wide range of other sources, she demonstrates that rural African Americans were politically aware and active long before civil rights organizers arrived in the region in the 1960s to encourage voter registration and demonstrations against segregation. De Jong explores the numerous, often-subtle methods African Americans used to resist oppression within the confines of the Jim Crow system. Such everyday forms of resistance included developing strategies for educating black children, creating strong community institutions, and fighting back against white violence. In the wake of the economic changes that swept the South during and after World War II, these activities became more open and organized, culminating in voter registration drives and other protests conducted in cooperation with civil rights workers. Deeply researched and accessibly written, A Different Day spotlights the ordinary heroes of the freedom struggle and offers a new perspective on black activism throughout the twentieth century. And Did Not Pay Them A Cent : Reconstruction And The Roots Of The Twentieth-century Freedom Struggle -- Our Plight Here Is Bad : The Limits Of Protest In A New South Plantation Economy -- They Will Not Fight In The Open : Strategies Of Resistance In The Jim Crow Era -- We Feel You All Aut To Help Us : Struggles For Citizenship, 1914-1929 -- With The Aid Of God And The F.s.a. : The Louisiana Farmers' Union And The Freedom Struggle In The New Deal Era -- I Am An American Born Negro : Black Empowerment And White Responses During World War Ii -- The Social Order Have Changed : The Emergence Of The Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1960 -- To Provide Leadership And An Example : The Congress Of Racial Equality And Local People In The 1960s. Greta De Jong. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 277-298) And Index. Machine generated contents note: 1 And Did Not Pay Them a Cent: Reconstruction and the Roots of the Twentieth-Century Freedom Struggle 10 2 Our Plight Here Is Bad: The Limits of Protest in a New South Plantation Economy 19 3 They Will Not Fight in the Open: Strategies of Resistance in the Jim Crow Era 41 4 We Feel You All Aut to Help Us: Struggles for Citizenship, 1914-1929 64 5 With the Aid of God and the FSA: The Louisiana Farmers' Union and the Freedom Struggle in the New Deal Era 85 6 I Am an American Born Negro: Black Empowerment and White Responses during World War II 116 7 The Social Order Have Changed: The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1960 144 8 To Provide Leadership and an Example: The Congress of Racial Equality and Local People in the 1960s 175. Here, the author examines African Americans' struggles for freedom and justice during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras. Using a wide range of sources, she illuminates the connections between the informal strategies of resistance in the early 20th century and the mass protests of the 50s and 60s. Louisiana's geographic diversity and its unique history of colonization by the Spanish and French before the arrival of Anglo-Americans in some ways set it apart from the other Deep South states. Using a wide range of sources, the author illuminates the connections between the informal strategies of resistance in the early 20th century and the mass protests of the 50s and 60s