A Decisive Decade: An Insider's View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s

by Robert B McKersie, James R Ralph, Jr. Jr. (Foreword by)

Overview

The deeply personal story of a historic time in Chicago, Robert B. McKersie’s A Decisive Decade follows the unfolding action of the Civil Rights Movement as it played out in the Windy City. McKersie’s participation as a white activist for black rights offers a unique, firsthand viewpoint on the debates, boycotts, marches, and negotiations that would forever change the face of race relations in Chicago and the United States at large.

Described within are McKersie’s intimate observations on events as they developed during his participation in such historic occasions as the impassioned marches for open housing in Chicago; the campaign to end school segregation under Chicago Schools Superintendent Benjamin Willis; Operation Breadbasket’s push to develop economic opportunities for black citizens; and dialogs with corporations to provide more jobs for blacks in Chicago. In addition, McKersie provides up close and personal descriptions of the iconic Civil Rights leaders who spearheaded some of the most formative battles of Chicago’s Civil Rights movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Reverend Jesse Jackson, Timuel Black Jr. and W. Alvin Pitcher. The author illumines the tensions experienced by two major institutions in responding to the demands of the civil rights movement: the university and the church. Packed with historical detail and personal anecdotes of these history-making years, A Decisive Decade offers a never-before-seen perspective on one of our nation’s most tumultuous eras. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809332441
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	08/05/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert B. McKersie, the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor (emeritus) at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is the coauthor of A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations and the award-winning The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. 

 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword James R. Ralph Jr. xi

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxv

Prologue: Starting an Academic Career 1

1 The First Unitarian Church of Chicago: My Gateway to the Civil Rights Movement and to Alex Poinsett 7

2 Campaigns on the Employment Front 16

3 Tim Black and the Motorola Campaign 27

4 Campaigns on the Education Front 47

5 The Movement Marks Time while the University Plays Catch-Up 66

6 Spring and Summer 1965: Marches, More Marches, and Al Pitcher 81

7 A Peaceful March in Kenwood and a Not-So-Peaceful March led by Dick Gregory 108

8 Looking Back on the Tumultuous Events of 1965 133

9 The Campaign for Open Housing, Summer 1966 142

10 Jesse Jackson, Operation Breadbasket, and Minority Enterprise 153

11 The Movement and the Decade Wind Down 174

12 Initiatives Continue within the University and the Unitarian Church 185

13 Race Relations and the Personal Equation 200

Appendixes

A Acronyms 221

B Chicago Geography (including maps locating major events) 223

C Civil Rights Timeline-Major Events for Chicago and the Nation 228

Notes 233

Bibliography 243

Index 247

Editorial Reviews

Invaluable to scholars of the era...readers will yearn for more of that author's warm, human voice.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Robert B. McKersie captures the essence of Chicago’s major problem—segregation. It is at the root of every problem faced by community leaders in the last 75 years. As one who lived through the years McKersie describes, I was surprised by how much I learned about the people and events I thought I knew.”—Donald S. Perkins, founder of The Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago

“A Decisive Decade is an informative, passionate, and readable book about the civil rights movement that exploded in Chicago soon after voting-rights proponents marched over a Selma, Alabama, bridge in 1965. Robert B. McKersie captures a movement that had an umbrella of discrimination claims—in housing, jobs, schools, and businesses. This hotbed of needs roused the interest of the author, a university professor who involved students in research on areas of civil rights. The author worked with many civil rights groups and had the respect of all. His involvements enabled him to write a factual book for now and posterity—for researchers, students, and all who love to read a great book.”—Dr. Norma R. Poinsett, former member of the board of trustees, Unitarian Universalist Association

"A fascinating account of a pivotal time in our history written from McKersie’s unique standpoint of, simultaneously, committed participant, observer, and scholar."—George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state and Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University 

“No one who knows Bob McKersie will be surprised by the combination of leadership, courage, personal integrity, commitment to justice, and analytical rigor that jump off the pages of A Decisive Decade. It is the Bob McKersie we so admire, for all these reasons. Those who didn’t know the author before reading this book will not only come to appreciate these attributes but also see the power of combining scholarship with activism and get a rich first-hand account of the civil rights struggles in this historic time and place.”—Thomas A. Kochan, George M. Bunker Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

"Award-winning nonfiction author Robert B. McKersie (Society of Sloan Fellows Professor emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management) presents A Decisive Decade: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement During the 1960s, an in-depth examination of how the civil rights movement transformed the Windy City, and its legacy for America as a whole.  Chapters meticulously reconstruct key historical events, from Tim Black and the Motorola Campaign to the many marches of spring and summer 1965, to the campaign for open housing, to how the movement ultimately wound down with the decade, through efforts continue particularly in the university and the Unitarian church."—James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review

A Decisive Decade: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s provides an eyewitness account of the civil rights movement and the fight for equality in Chicago in the 1960s. It reminds us with stark detail that the fight for racial justice was then, as it is now, as much an issue of the North as one of the South.—Esta R. Bigler, ILR School, Cornell University

 

From the Publisher

A veteran academic recalls his involvement in the meetings, demonstrations and civil unrest at the dawn of his career at the University of Chicago. McKersie (Business, Emeritus/MIT Sloan School of Management) and his wife moved to Hyde Park in 1959, where he very quickly became involved in human rights issues, initially through his church. Even at the time, he knew he was caught up in something significant, so he began the files and the journal that inform this mixture of memoir, social history and academic analysis. The author focuses on a handful of issues--employment, education, housing and minority businesses--but he also highlights some significant personalities, including notables Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson (with some glimpses of Dick Gregory) and also those not as well-known outside the city and the times: Al Pitcher, Tim Black and Alex Poinsett. He offers a tribute to each of them near the end. The author notes continually his various frustrations and anxieties ("I shuddered at the thought of being arrested," he writes)--and, in one violent march, his fears. He recognized--even at the time--the tension between the black and white leaders. He noticed the virtual absence of women among the leadership. He often wondered about the tactics employed, especially the many marches to the home of Mayor Daly and the focus on removing from office Superintendent of Education Benjamin Willis--an effort that proved futile. McKersie maintains a refreshing tone of self-deprecation, too, noting on one occasion his "small, weak voice" at a meeting. The best, most engaging parts are his personal memories--sitting on lawns, marching in the streets, worrying and wishing. He appends some useful maps and a timeline. Invaluable for scholars of the era, though many readers will yearn for more of the author's warm, human voice.

Kirkus Reviews