1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910465867803321

Autore

Zamalin Alex <1986->

Titolo

Struggle on their minds : the political thought of African American resistance / / Alex Zamalin

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2017

©2017

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (237 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

323.1196073

Soggetti

African Americans - Politics and government

African Americans - Political activity - History

African American intellectuals

African Americans - Intellectual life

lavery - United States - Influence

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Political Thought of African American Resistance -- 1. David Walker, Frederick Douglass, and the Abolitionist Democratic Vision -- 2. Ida B. Wells, The Antilynching Movement, and the Politics of Seeing -- 3. Huey Newton, The Black Panthers, and the Decolonization of America -- 4. Angela Davis, Prison Abolition, and the End of the American Carceral State -- Conclusion: The Future of Resistance -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

American political thought has been shaped by those who fought back against social inequality, economic exclusion, the denial of political representation, and slavery, the country's original sin. Yet too often the voices of African American resistance have been neglected, silenced, or forgotten. In this timely book, Alex Zamalin considers key moments of resistance to demonstrate its current and future necessity, focusing on five activists across two centuries who fought to foreground slavery and racial injustice in American political discourse. Struggle on Their Minds shows how the core values of the American political tradition have been



continually challenged-and strengthened-by antiracist resistance, creating a rich legacy of African American political thought that is an invaluable component of contemporary struggles for racial justice.Zamalin looks at the language and concepts put forward by the abolitionists David Walker and Frederick Douglass, the antilynching activist Ida B. Wells, the Black Panther Party organizer Huey Newton, and the prison abolitionist Angela Davis. Each helped revise and transform ideas about power, justice, community, action, and the role of emotion in political action. Their thought encouraged abolitionists to call for the eradication of slavery, black journalists to chastise American institutions for their indifference to lynching, and black radicals to police the police and to condemn racial injustice in the American prison system. Taken together, these movements pushed political theory forward, offering new language and concepts to sustain democracy in tense times. Struggle on Their Minds is a critical text for our contemporary moment, showing how the political thought that comes out of resistance can energize the practice of democratic citizenship and ultimately help address the prevailing problem of racial injustice.