The Cambridge Guide to African American History

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.

Preface; Subjects; Cross references; Entries.

Raymond Gavins (1942–2016) was Professor of History at Duke University. He was the author of The Perils and Prospects of Southern Black Leadership (1993) and dozens of scholarly articles, essays, book chapters, and reviews. He also co-edited Remembering Jim Crow (2001). A co-recipient of both the Oral History Association Distinguished Project Award (1996) and the Lillian Smith Book Award (2002), he most recently received the John W. Blassingame Award for 'distinguished scholarship and mentorship in African American history' (2008).