During World War II, no American city suffered a worse housing shortage than Detroit, and no one suffered that shortage more than the city's African American citizens. In 1941, the federal government began constructing the Sojourner Truth Housing Project in northeast Detroit to house 200 black war production workers and their families. Almost immediately, whites in the neighborhood vehemently protested. On February 28, 1942, a confrontation between black tenants and white protesters erupted in a riot that sent at least 40 to the hospital and more than 220 to jail. This confrontation was the precursor to the bloodiest race riot of the war just sixteen months later. Gerald Van Dusen, author of Detroit's Birwood Wall, unfolds the background and events of this overlooked moment in Motor City history.

During World War II, no American city suffered a worse housing shortage than Detroit, and no one suffered that shortage more than the city's African American citizens. In 1941, the federal government began constructing the Sojourner Truth Housing Project

"The first full-length national history of American race relations examined through the lens of housing discrimination."--Jacket.

Between 1958 and 1970, a distinctive movement for racial justice emerged from unique circumstances in Milwaukee. A series of local leaders inspired growing numbers of people to participate in campaigns against employment and housing discrimination, segregated public schools, the membership of public officials in discriminatory organizations, welfare cuts, and police brutality. The Milwaukee movement culminated in the dramaticÑand sometimes violentÑ1967 open housing campaign. A white Catholic priest, James Groppi, led the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos in a militant struggle that lasted for 200 consecutive nights and provoked the ire of thousands of white residents. After working-class mobs attacked demonstrators, some called Milwaukee Òthe Selma of the North.Ó Others believed the housing campaign represented the last stand for a nonviolent, interracial, church-based movement. Patrick Jones tells a powerful and dramatic story that is important for its insights into civil rights history: the debate over nonviolence and armed self-defense, the meaning of Black Power, the relationship between local and national movements, and the dynamic between southern and northern activism. Jones offers a valuable contribution to movement history in the urban North that also adds a vital piece to the national story.

Communists and Community seeks to reframe the traditional chronology of the Communist Party in the United States as a means to better understand the change that occurred in community activism in the mid-twentieth century. Ryan Pettengill argues that Popular Front activism continued to flourish throughout the war years and into the postwar period. In Detroit, where there was a critical mass of heavy industry, Communist Party activists mobilized support for civil rights and affordable housing, brought attention to police brutality, sought protection for the foreign-born, and led a movement for world peace. Communists and Community demonstrates that the Communist Party created a social space where activists became effective advocates for the socioeconomic betterment of a multiracial work force. Pettengill uses Detroit as a case study to examine how communist activists and their sympathizers maintained a community to enhance the quality of life for the city’s working class. He investigates the long-term effects of organized labor’s decision to force communists out of the unions and abandon community-based activism. Communists and Community recounts how leftists helped workers, people of color, and other under-represented groups became part of the mainstream citizenry in America.

"Hot Springs, New Mexico, Ain't That Any More" was one of the headlines on April 4, 1950, in the Gallup Independent. As a publicity stunt, Ralph Edwards had invited a town to change its name to "Truth or Consequences," the name of his popular radio quiz show, and Hot Springs agreed to do so. Since the late 1800s, the area has attracted health seekers to bathe in and drink from the area's hot mineral springs. The region is home to Elephant Butte Dam and lake, completed in 1916, which remains one of the largest irrigation dams in the United States. Carrie Tingley Crippled Children's Hospital, built in 1937 by New Mexico governor Clyde Tingley, utilized the natural hot mineral waters to treat children with polio. From the placement of the Hot Springs Bathhouse and Commercial District on the State and National Register of Historic Places to the centennial celebration of Elephant Butte Dam, Truth or Consequences continues to grow and develop while still honoring its heritage.

How is race defined and perceived in America today, and how do these definitions and perceptions compare to attitudes 100 years ago... or 200 years ago? This four-volume set is the definitive source for every topic related to race in the United States. In the 21st century, it is easy for some students and readers to believe that racism is a thing of the past; in reality, old wounds have yet to heal, and new forms of racism are taking shape. Racism has played a role in American society since the founding of the nation, in spite of the words "all men are created equal" within the Declaration of Independence. This set is the largest and most complete of its kind, covering every facet of race relations in the United States while providing information in a user-friendly format that allows easy cross-referencing of related topics for efficient research and learning. The work serves as an accessible tool for high school researchers, provides important material for undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of humanities and social sciences courses, and is an outstanding ready reference for race scholars. The entries provide readers with comprehensive content supplemented by historical backgrounds, relevant examples from primary documents, and first-hand accounts. Information is presented to interest and appeal to readers but also to support critical inquiry and understanding. A fourth volume of related primary documents supplies additional reading and resources for research.

In the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress are more than 1500 photographs of the state of Michigan during the depression and wartime years of the 1930s and 1940s, taken by some of the most talented photographers of that generation. The FSA photographs have become the nation's visual memory of these trying times. Michigan Remembered contains 150 of these images, chosen to represent various geographic areas of Michigan, the economic diversity of the state and its people, and a broad range of subjects ranging from urban and industrial scenes of Detroit and the surrounding areas to images of the Upper Peninsula and rural and community life in the Lower Peninsula. The two introductory essays enhance the story told by the photographs. The first, by William H. Mulligan Jr., recounts the history of Michigan during the momentous events of the depression and wartime years. The second, by Constance B. Schulz, tells the lesser known story of the origins of the FSA in the agricultural program of the New DeaL and exlains the importance of Roy E. Stryker as the agency's director and the process by which more than 200,000 photographs were accumulated in the FSA/OWI files. Brief biographical sketches of the photographers include descriptions of their travels and work in Michigan. Michigan Remembered joins more than a dozen other state studies of the FSA/OWI photographs and provides a unique visual perspective on a key midwestern state during the mid-twentieth century. It will be of interest both to scholars of historical documentary photography and Michigan history, and to those fascinated by historical photographs of years which they, their parents, or their grandparents can still recall.

In this examination of the FEPC's work, focusing on the pivotal Midwest, Andrew Edmund Kersten shows how this tiny government agency influenced the course of civil rights reform and moved the United States closer to a national fair employment policy.".

A classic of labor history, with a new foreword by one of the leading figures in urban studies