All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn

by Jason Sokol

Overview

All Eyes Are Upon Us explores the history of racial struggles in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York from World War II to the present.

The Northeast has long basked in its reputation as the home of abolitionism and a refuge for blacks fleeing the Jim Crow South. But its cities have also stood as strongholds of segregation and racism. At times, this region witnessed bold experiments in interracial democracy: the schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, attempted to abolish racial and religious prejudice; white fans in Brooklyn embraced Jackie Robinson; voters repeatedly supported black candidates, including Senator Edward Brooke in Massachusetts and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn.

Yet during these same moments, an opposing narrative unfolded—one highlighted by worsening black poverty, hardening patterns of segregation, and exploding incidents of racial violence. All Eyes Are Upon Us probes the conflict between these two warring traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625342867
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	04/19/2017
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	385
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jason Sokol is associate professor of history at University of New Hampshire and author of There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights. http://www.jasonsokol.com

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Northern Mystique ix

Part I North of Jim Crow

1 And to Think That It Happened in Springfield 3

Pioneering Pluralism, Practicing Segregation (1939-1945)

2 Something in the Air 31

Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn (1947-1957)

3 "If We Were Segregationists" 71

The Struggle to Integrate Northeastern Schools (1957-1965)

Part II Forerunners

4 The Color-Blind Commonwealth? 103

The Election of Edward Brooke (1966)

5 Shirley Chisholm's Place 137

Winning New York's 12th Congressional District (1968)

Part III Mirrors

6 "The North Is Guilty" 171

Abraham Ribicoff's Crusade (1970)

7 "This Bedeviling Busing Business" 193

The Long 1970s, the Trials of Edward Brooke, and the Fall of the North (1968-1979)

Part IV The Death and Life of the North

8 A Tale of Two Hartfords 233

Politics and Poverty in a Land of Plenty (1980-1987)

9 The Ghost of Willie Turks 259

Racial Violence and Black Politics in New York City (1982-1993)

10 The North Rises Again 291

Deval Patrick, Barack Obama, and the Twenty-First Century (2006-2012)

Acknowledgments 315

Notes 319

Bibliography 361

Index 373

What People are Saying About This

New York Times Book Review - David Levering Lewis

All Eyes Are Upon Usis a prescient book.... Ambitious, engrossing, analytically lucid.... It is certainly possible that when this decade ends it will have confirmed the relevance of W. E. B. Du Bois's grim prophecy about America's everlasting racism. Jason Sokol's exceptional All Eyes Are Upon Us prepares us for just such a possibility.

Editorial Reviews

"This groundbreaking history shows a civil rights movement beyond Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis. An important new voice in twentieth-century history, Sokol expands the civil rights story to include segregated schools and racial politics in the Northeast."—Daily Beast

"Carefully balancing an appreciation of the symbolism of interracial politics with recognition of the forces that remain untouched by it, All Eyes Are Upon Us reminds us—if we need reminding—that the events unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, and too many other communities are embedded in a complex and problematic history of both racial advances and obstacles to progress."—Washington Post

"All Eyes Are Upon Us is a prescient book. . . . Ambitious, engrossing, analytically lucid. . . . It is certainly possible that when this decade ends it will have confirmed the relevance of W. E. B. Du Bois's grim prophecy about America's everlasting racism. Jason Sokol's exceptional All Eyes Are Upon Us prepares us for just such a possibility."—David Levering Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"You will certainly come away with a better understanding of the continuum of racial discomfort that defines American society as it lurches between multi-racial progress and disturbing disappointment."—Kansas City Star

"All Eyes Are Upon Us succeeds in excavating unfamiliar insights."—Boston Globe

"All Eyes Are Upon Us offers equally fascinating portraits of several successful black politicians . . . a refreshing departure from recent histories of iconic American figures and epic events aimed for the best-seller lists. He also allows the perceptions of many participants in this history, major and minor, to shape and deepen his own."—History News Network

"An honest, conscientious book."—BookForum

"With sharp research and insights, Sokol follows this blithe and self-congratulatory legacy through the election of President Barack Obama."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

An honest, conscientious book.

BookForum

All Eyes Are Upon Us offers equally fascinating portraits of several successful black politicians... a refreshing departure from recent histories of iconic American figures and epic events aimed for the best-seller lists. He also allows the perceptions of many participants in this history, major and minor, to shape and deepen his own.

History News Network

All Eyes Are Upon Us succeeds in excavating unfamiliar insights.

Boston Globe

You will certainly come away with a better understanding of the continuum of racial discomfort that defines American society as it lurches between multi-racial progress and disturbing disappointment.

Kansas City Star

Carefully balancing an appreciation of the symbolism of interracial politics with recognition of the forces that remain untouched by it, All Eyes Are Upon Us reminds us — if we need reminding — that the events unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, and too many other communities are embedded in a complex and problematic history of both racial advances and obstacles to progress.

Washington Post

This groundbreaking history shows a civil rights movement beyond Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis. An important new voice in twentieth-century history, Sokol expands the civil rights story to include segregated schools and racial politics in the Northeast.

Daily Beast