Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Cilli, Adam Lee, author

Title Canaan, dim and far : black reformers and the pursuit of citizenship in Pittsburgh, 1915-1945 / Adam Lee Cilli
Published Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press, [2021]

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Contents "This was the ugliest, deadest town I ever seen in my life" : migrants and reformers in the Steel City, 1915-1929 -- "A healthy and prosperous race" : the Urban League of Pittsburgh and the struggle for jobs, housing, and health, 1915-1929 -- "The weapons of legal defense" : the Pittsburgh NAACP and the criminal justice system, 1924-1934 -- "The ranks of this new army" : the Pittsburgh courier and the fight for political power and national recognition in the early Depression, 1929-1933 -- "The taken-for-granted rights of American citizenship" : reformers, civil equality, and educational justice, 1934-1937 -- "This great crusade" : reformers and the industrial labor movement, 1933-1939 -- "The freedoms we cherish" : the New Deal, World War II, and the Double V campaign, 1933-1945 -- Conclusion: The legacy of the black reform era
Summary "Canaan Dim and Far argues for the importance of Pittsburgh as a case study in analyzing African American civil rights and political advocacy in an urban setting, asthecity was situated well between the encroachment of Jim Crow initiatives of the 1910s and the end of World War II. In that respect, it is a study of the "long" Civil Rights Movement before the flashpoint of 1954 and outside of the traditional South. In it, author Adam Cilli shines a light on neglected elements of middle-class black activism in the decades preceding the classic Civil Rights Movement. The book features a revolving cast of social workers, journalists, scholars, and activists in Pittsburgh committed to an expansive vision of citizenship that included access to decent healthcare, adequate housing, and economic opportunity along with political and social dignity. While these reformers developed community programs to salve the physical wounds of inequality and "adjust" migrants to the urban North, they appropriated mainstream discourses to change the system from within. In doing so, they challenged white America to face its contradictions and live up to its democratic ideals"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 22, 2021)
Subject African Americans -- Civil rights -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- History -- 20th century
African Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Civil rights movements -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- History -- 20th century
African Americans -- Civil rights
African Americans -- Social conditions
Civil rights movements
Race relations
Social conditions
SUBJECT Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century
Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Subject Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020035738
ISBN 9780820358895
0820358894