Reckoning with Race. Gene Dattel
© 2017 by Gene Dattel
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First American edition published in 2017 by Encounter Books, an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc., a nonprofit, tax exempt corporation.
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FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Dattel, Eugene R., author.
Title: Reckoning with race: America’s failure / by Gene Dattel.
Description: New York: Encounter Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002302 (print) | LCCN 2017022547 (ebook) | ISBN 9781594039102 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States—Race relations—History. | African Americans—History.
Classification: LCC E185.61 (ebook) | LCC E185.61 .D27 2018 (print) | DDC 305.800973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002302
Images sourced by Jill Kelly Fanucci/Griangraf Research
Interior page design and composition: BooksByBruce.com
Dedication
To the Future of America
In the end, to know the past is to know ourselves—not entirely, not enough, but a little better. History can help us to achieve some grace and elegance of action, some cogency and completion of thought, some harmony and tolerance in human relationships. Most of all, history can give us a sense of excitement, a personal zest for watching and perhaps participating in the events around us that will, one day, be history too.
—Robin W. Winks, “The Value of History,” in A History of Civilization: Prehistory to the Present (1995)
Contents
Racial Attitudes in the North, 1800–1865
Lincoln and the Aftermath of War
The Containment of Blacks in the South
Northerners in the Cotton Fields
Black Self-Sufficiency: The Montgomery Family
The Education of Freedmen
Theodore Roosevelt and the Northern Privileged Class
The Great Migration: The Reception of Blacks in Northern Cities
Chicago!
Immigrant in Detroit
Blacks in New York City
The Effects of Philanthropy
From the Farm to the City
Black-on-Black Crime
The Impact of World War II
The 1960s: Civil Rights and Civil War
A Global Definition of “People of Color”
Black Identity
Integration at Ole Miss
The Struggle for Civil Rights
“The Ivy League Negro”
“Desegregation Does Not Mean Integration”
A Sober Look at an “Alliance”
The Racial Integration Muddle
Black Leaders, from Moderate to Militant
Racial Violence in the North
The War on Poverty
The Private Sector Responds
Another Look at the Sixties
The Marshall Plan: The Coattail Effect on Black America
Jobs
Still Seeking a Better Education
Self-Examination
The Integration Muddle
Recasting Memorials
Watching the Movies
The Portability of Education
Police and Community
Black Leadership